Ragnorium
This game is a gem in the making. Standard EA gripes apply. Unfinished content, which gets added regularly, lack of colonist micromanagement, bugs (although not gamebreaking and most of them get addressed pretty quickly). The developer is very hands on and takes care of your problems quite fast if you take the time to send your save files or crash logs. For me, it scratches a few itches. It’s a colony builder/manager, with leveling up your colonists which you get every few days with new launches from the mother ship, where you choose which colonist clone to create and send to the planet. You can equip them, take care of their needs to make them happy, which in turn earns you points in the CUDS panel - basically a place to order resources for “likes” and “happy pills” for “dislikes” your colonists accrue. The game advancement comes in cycles called research, which is currently waiting for your colonists to accrue research xp passively and getting “influence” by doing quests which reward those points. There are 2 game modes, one with 3 daily randomized events in intervals of 12h, 17h, 20h - they can add good or bad stuff to the game, depending on whether you want to spend the influence you obtain to choose a better event. Getting influence also speeds up the separate research you do when launching a new flight to get colonists/resources, which can include unlocking the radar, getting more advanced clones, getting access to special ship parts like water tanks to bring water or gear modules to bring clothes and so on. Currently the game ends it’s research driven play after 5 or so research cycles and you’re left in freeplay mode, but it’s a nice amount of play to get there and it’s well worth the price. If you want to influence how the game develops by adding suggestions which the dev always takes into consideration and often implements quickly, get it early.
– Real player with 114.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Colony Sim Early Access Games.
This Rare Gem, has so much too offer.
With many survival elements, building your primitive colony base, hunting creatures of the wild, Fighting other enemy tribes, setting up work stations for each type of main resources, like clothing, weapons, medical and cooking. Setting out your colonist on quest / objectives to gain research point to unlock new items/objects/technologies. The list goes on and on.
Theirs a big learning curve, which might require you to restart the game a few times, and with each restart you learn from your previous mistakes/failures. But its totally worth it, knowing your sequences of steps/actions/quest taken, insured your colonist stayed alive another day.
– Real player with 108.2 hrs in game
Fear Equation
I find it somewhat baffling that this mostly excellent game seems to have been released and then forgotten by most. While most games at least have a reddit sub dedicated to them, there is nothing for this game at all. Very few comments on indie game sites as well. Which is a shame, since it seems that, as a forgotten game, the chances of ever getting a sequel with enhanced mechanics is slim.
My only complaint with the game is that the social/faction mechanic is simply not as fleshed out as it could be. That whole aspect can be almost ignored with no consequence. Do they like you? Are they going to revolt? Meh…no matter most of the time. I would have liked to see some more interaction with the passengers themselves; in terms of maybe getting more detailed information by clicking on an individual passenger (relationship graphs to other passengers and to you. rumours, etc…) and perhaps be able to take more actions to affect their behaviour (ie. craft an edict. make a deal to send someone in with propaganda, etc…)
– Real player with 28.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Colony Sim Horror Games.
Overall, a visually beautiful, slower-paced game that reqiures you to manage the resources on the train, assign passengers to carriages based on their factions to prevent internal conflicts, and build defenses against the fog. Once you reach a destination, you can send passengers out to search for items/food/fuel, either through a random lottery or by rigging the lottery to send your stronger passengers.
It’s not a reactive game, like Deadnaut, instead you plan ahead and then watch it executed. Personally I prefer this style, but I tend to like management games anyway.
– Real player with 17.4 hrs in game
Far Sector
You’re a spaceship captain, and your objective is to explore the depths of the far sector. Build, research, and use the sector’s uncharted horrors to your advantage. How far will you go to accomplish your goal? What are you willing to sacrifice? The decision is all yours, captain.
Your own space base
- Build, improve, and optimize. Ensure that your station can withstand whatever is thrown at it.
Encounter the horrors of the far sector
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Meteorite fields keeping you from getting through the cold cosmos.
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Spatial anomalies that challenge the very laws of physics humans have used to understand the world around them.
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Strange organisms with qualities never seen before. They bring with them incredible danger as well as the opportunity for scientific breakthroughs.
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Space madness and paranoia that wrap themselves around anyone who has been in deep space for too long. While most people aren’t prone to this problem, a few of your crew members are going to get progressively worse as your travels go on. How will you avert a crisis?
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What else does the far sector have in store for you?
Make the best of catastrophes
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Use mold-contaminated cultures to filter oxygen.
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Study notes of madmen to find encrypted coordinates.
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Spill the blood of an all-consuming alien life form to create a regenerating ointment.
Text events
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Everything you do and anything you decide can impact what happens next, leading to unexpected situations.
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Choose carefully and make wise decisions knowing that each choice you make could be crucial.
Crew members
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Have skills, attributes, and weaknesses that impact their work speed, their stamina, the resources they require, and the situations they tend to bring on.
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Can get sick or make breakthroughs in their area of expertise. The Eureka! events that happen to scientists can leapfrog you into the future, even giving you new tech you wouldn’t otherwise have access to.
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Sometimes write personal journal entries that tell you more about what’s happening outside the confines of your mission.
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Need a watchful eye since it’s somewhat difficult to find new people in the depths of space.
Anything can happen, even in the safe zone
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Random events
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Meteorites
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Fires
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Short-circuits
The effort you put in now will pay dividends in the future
- Expeditions' data will be sent to coalition headquarters, and you can start your next mission with an even better technological base.
Read More: Best Colony Sim Sandbox Games.
Mini Crafty
This game is very basic but has a lot of potential. There are definitely a few bugs, and for how short the game is it does feel strange to have to sit there and wait for the right materials to spawn before you can progress. It is also infuriating when you die to a swarm of enemies and have to restart the entire game. I think the crafting and inventory system is interesting but there is only a few crafting recipes, and I have yet to figure out the purpose of the minions. The audio and screenshake left me with a headache and there is no menu that I have seen to tweak any game settings. I would love to recommend this game but in its current state I cannot say I would spend more than a couple of dollars on it.
– Real player with 2.1 hrs in game
At first, I have no idea about what the game want me to do. After I unlock 3 maps and die 3 times, I still have no idea. Why don’t you set save points ?
– Real player with 1.9 hrs in game
Kingdom: New Lands
An otherwise simple and fun little survival game ruined by frustrating mechanics.
Kingdom: New Lands is a simple survival sort of game. From what the tutorial, in the form of the previous ghostly monarch, tells you in small words, you have to “Build, Expand, Defend” It’s fun at first, you have a couple citizens, you buy tools to make them builders or hunters, and you build, expand, and defend, and than you might just have doomed yourself already.
First off, everything in this game is done by the power of money, you use coin to do everything, and anything. If you don’t have any coin, you can’t do a single thing but wait. Through the final words, build, expand, and defend, your first run may have you do just that, build your walls, expand them, than defend at night. First wave comes, it’s easy and you survive. All seems well unless you’ve fallen into a major mechanic the game hasen’t told you. You realize your hunters arn’t making any coin, which is because you may of over-expanded and now those little rabbit spawn points are behind your walls, which makes them despawn, therefor killing your economy. Thankfully there’s some treasure chest around the map to give you more coin to do things, so if you thought to explore and find them, you can play a little longer.
– Real player with 68.5 hrs in game
Summary: Even more waiting and more RNG
Multiplayer: No
Completion: 19 hrs (previous experience)
Cards: Yes
Cloud:Yes
Kingdom: New Lands is the sequel to Kingdom: Classic and is bigger in scope in every way. Much of what I said for Kingdom: Classic holds true for Kingdom: New Lands as well, but there are quite a few changes that need to be addressed.
First of all there’s multiple stages this time around. The victory condition in this game typically involves rebuilding the ship (around 50-120 gold) to sail to the next island (up until Skull Island). You may ferry over a handful of troops and builders to the next island, so carry what you can, because you’ll need it.
– Real player with 54.5 hrs in game
Dice Legacy
I picked this up on a whim, purely because I am a sucker for these hybrid dice games. While I do recommend this game, it still is a very flawed game and your appreciation of it will surely come down to your flexibility to cope with said flaws. A lot of games exist that are imperfect and this is one of them.
What is fun?
The core system of building up a unique dice pool, in real-time, with stamina and special powers is pretty fun. It feels at odds with itself at first but it definitely caters to it’s real-time gameplay mechanics unapologetically which I think is a good thing. You can tell from others' reviews that others do not like the RTS elements and wanted something slower, methodical, and more tactical). That isn’t this game which I think is going to just be a matter of taste.
– Real player with 61.8 hrs in game
I’m more of a turn-based and tabletop gamer myself. This game seems to draw heavily on the mechanics of some very good tabletop dice games like Roll for the Galaxy and Dice Forge, but with real-time pacing. If you’re like me, the RTS pacing of Dice Legacy might be a bit much for you. In that case, I have some advice for a more laid-back gaming experience:
1. Start a new game on pacifist difficulty. It effectively disables the biggest source of real-time pressure, the hostile raiders, and lets you think through your moves at your leisure. The game far, far less stressful as a result, largely becoming self-paced. The economy of the game is still involved enough to get many hours of fun even with the raider threat removed. And you can always bump up the difficulty later if you find yourself mastering the rest of the game, and want more of a real-time challenge.
– Real player with 25.6 hrs in game
As Far As The Eye
This game was incredibly brutal until I discovered the Council building and the Knowledge resource, and then it became an incredibly fair and deep city-building/roguelike/4x game.
The biggest problem with the game is there isn’t a good reference for how all the mechanics work. I think it will be better once an online wiki is available.
My tips for a winning initial game:
Opening:
1. Get 40 wood and build a sawmill. Assign one of your workers to be a gatherer and gather wood. Later, when you don’t need wood, switch this worker to be a food gatherer and build a fruit hut for 80 (you can do this earlier if you get a 4th worker). You should have enough rations for this, and the carpenter/fruit gatherer jobs share the first 3 levels.
– Real player with 26.9 hrs in game
I too believe that this is a nice game if you enjoy roguelike games.
When I first saw the list of buildable buildings I was worried the game wouldnt have much depth, as there are exactly 15 buildings which can be built.
So .. I was worried I will just figure out how things work and lose interest in the game after a few days, because I found some safe winning strategy.
Luckily it was different!
The overall difficulty is quite high. After the tutorial campaign you get to play 4 tribes with increasing difficulty (you have to start with the lowest difficulty tribe). However, even that tribe took me quite some effort to win with.
– Real player with 25.2 hrs in game
Wastelander
Wastelander is a roguelike turn-based colony-building game. Explore a barren alien world and build a unique colony by unlocking new buildings, and re-activating ancient alien technologies while defending yourself from destructive atmospheric storms. Can you build a unique thriving colony, and find a way to escape this deadly predicament before it’s too late?
In Wastelander you’ll start from nothing as a castaway on an alien world. As your colony expands you’ll find alien artifacts and buildings, perks, technology upgrades, and consumable items scattered across the map.
START FROM NOTHING
Create a simple colony as you explore your immediate surroundings.
BUILD AN ECONOMY
Harvest resources and expand your base. Connect to alien ruins to unlock new buildings and alien technology.
MASTER THE WASTELAND
Create a sweeping colony that spans the globe. Connect your base to all the alien ruins to escape the planet before the final mega-storm buries the wasteland and you along with it.
KEY FEATURES:
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Simple turn based colony building gameplay that’s easy to learn, but difficult to master!
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Scan your surroundings to uncover resources and other hidden alien items.
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Build and expand your colony using your resources efficiently.
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Construct defenses to protect your buildings from regular destructive storms.
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Upgrade and unlock new buildings as you explore maps shrouded in mystery.
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Use powerful abilities granted by ancient alien buildings
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Unlock the secrets of the alien ruins to improve your technology and unlock a path to escape and victory!
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Compete with other players' high scores on the “Daily Challenge” leaderboard.
KeeperRL
For the developer of KeeperRL thanks for making a great game.
My impressions from playing the game about 1 ~ 2 years ago versus today (I haven’t played for 1-2 years waiting for the game to be finished but recently played it again).
Rating 1~2 years ago: 9/10
Sandbox dungeon keeper freaking awesome and satisfying exploration and village pillaging.
Powerful and fun spells that allow you to mess with the NPC’s and dominate the map.
Left feeling satisfied when you close the game because you felt like a powerful warlock/wizard dungeon keeper.
– Real player with 119.1 hrs in game
KeeperRL at it’s very base is a Roguelike, in which you take on the role of a “Keeper”, who’s job is to build a dungeon and maintain it, all the while encouraging monsters to come to your dungeon. There’s a handful of monsters and they all fill a role.
People have been comparing it to stuff, such as Dwarf Fortress and while I can see how it’d be easy to compare KeeperRL to that game, the reality is, it’s not nearly as deep, complex or polished as Dwarf Fortress; it’s no comparison at all. This statement still stands even after a the updates given to the game.
– Real player with 79.9 hrs in game
Buoyancy
Buoyancy has something special going for it for sure, you know this within the few hours playing it.
However at the 6hr mark (at least for me) I felt like I had already experienced all of the game mechanics and all of the challenge was gone. Population was easy to maintain (even passed 150 pop) and everything else started to repeat itself. The pirates towards the end really weren’t a threat nor were fires and extreme weather threats.
There’s nothing wrong with any of this, especially because it’s a early access title and the low price point still provides decent value. I can’t say this enough, but games like this is exactly why I love early access. Buoyancy is a gem!
– Real player with 33.4 hrs in game
Its still in development but and I have high hopes for it in the future but right now its pretty dumb. For a full explanation continue reading.
Its virtually impossible to set up steady food production because the villagers you have working on water, wheat, bread, beer (yes beer) all the necessary things to keep the colony going just randomly quit there jobs and wonder off. Once your population reaches a couple or three hundred you are pretty much guaranteed to have one of these situation which results in running out of food faster than you can get all the villagers back to work and as a result dozens or hundreds die. Now to get to this point you had to build a large raft. You need a lot of villagers to row the raft around to collect supplies from the ocean. Once you lose a sizable chunk due to one of these wandering abandonments of duties you don’t even have enough people left to row the raft and are basically done.
– Real player with 32.4 hrs in game