Mini Countries
Surprising I stumbled upon this page by going down a rabbit hole looking for a puzzle game that could entertain me without requiring me to spend most of my time trying to figure out the puzzle/strategy in order for me to complete it. I bought this game purely based on first looks and watching the developer play a bit of it on his live stream before I decided to just jump in and try in on my own.
Honestly, I was surprised by the way it looked first right off the bat and how the music and design were clean and refreshing from the start. Reminded me of the puzzle game The Witness on the first loading screen of just the background and music drawing you in before thrusting you in a game where you use your wits to figure out what to do. Though, this game did start with instructions which made it easier to understand on certain parts. Even with the Instructions I got, it was neat to learn things that the instructions didn’t go over completely (like the fact that you can connect storage units to each other). However, I thought from the first levels it would be a repetitive process until I hit later levels where cities would pop up more and more mechanics were added. Nearly lost my mind trying to find a new strategy for different levels.
– Real player with 14.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Crafting Building Games.
Great game, chill and challenging at the same time.
Would definetely recommend the game, although some gamecrashing bugs occured during my playthrough. When attempting to beat the finland level at around 3000 population all the indicator bars above the cities turn grey and i am no longer able to identify the missing item, which then makes me lose the game 2 months later. Very frustrating when you managed to build a system that works and then just having it wasted like this.
Hope the devs will pick up on bugs like these, keep up the good work, will replay at a later time!
– Real player with 12.4 hrs in game
InfraSpace
Lots of reviewers are throwing out comparable games. The first thing that came to mind for me was Anno 2070 but with actual traffic and less frustration. I loved that game, so this is a plus. I also got a huge whiff of Surviving Mars, again with actual traffic and less frustration. I was not a fan of that game, so I’m happy to say I enjoy InfraSpace more. If you liked either game, you’ll very much like InfraSpace.
If you enjoy solving traffic problems or even just watching traffic in Cities Skyline, then this will appeal to you. If you enjoyed solving logistic problems in Shapez.io, this is a must have. If you strive for logistical efficiency and optimization, well that’s most of the game.
– Real player with 77.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Crafting Automation Games.
At this time, I DO recommend this game, but, there are still lingering issues that I’ve found. See bottom of post for my “rant”.
[EDIT-Seems as though the #48 news corrected the issues I was experiencing. Everything else looks to be “my” problem with the routing and design of the roads]
Things I like:
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I like having a system that I have to continuously replenish, such as the residential zones.
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I like how in order to grow the residential, you need different components to create more dense areas
– Real player with 42.9 hrs in game
4Prot
this is a masterpiece
– Real player with 1.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Crafting Building Games.
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– Real player with 1.3 hrs in game
Factory Town
TL;DR:
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A mix of elements from Anno, Factorio and Kingdoms and Castles
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It’s got that game loop in place: discover improve discover improve. There’s always that one new thing you want to build or line you want to change
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Very active dev, daily responses in Discord and weekly updates
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Already a large amount of content, even in its current state you’ll get your money’s worth in playtime
Disclaimer:
I’m one of the early beta testers, probably the 3rd or 4th wave. So I did get the game for free (although I’ve since abundantly made up for it with feedback & bug reporting etc). I’ve also been bumped up to mod on the Discord (come say hi!). So you know, this is a sliiightly biased review ;)
– Real player with 541.3 hrs in game
What is it?
A resource management game where you will find increasingly efficient ways to route goods from source to manufacture, and onwards to sell so that you can grow your town.
You’ll start with a few workers with which you’ll gather wood and stone. Then you’ll manufacture planks which in turn can make a wheel! Along comes a cart that can carry more than all those people. Meanwhile, new buildings will start to unlock, and new products can be manufactured which in turn can earn you coins of differing colours, with more advanced technologies needing the rarer coins to research and unlock.
– Real player with 498.3 hrs in game
Airport Simulator 3: Day & Night
Nearly recommended this because I’ve enjoyed playing it eventually after realizing I need to have the employees doing all the work and just managing then versus doing the work myself.
Managing the crew works quite well and I enjoyed it. Why is it better to manage, here’s when the problem lies, the game is a buggy mess, most vehicles work ok but there are some that completely break the game.
To start you drive the bus, baggage, and fuel truck, appart from them ending up upside down sometimes they work fine for the most part. It’s once you unlock the other vehicles that poop hits the fan. The jetway got stuck in the terminal building and it’s still stuck there, never to be used again, I have to pay to skip that task now, the baggage loaders bug out a lot and will end up as scrap on the map meaning I have to buy/rent a new one and try to ignore the Broken ones.
– Real player with 16.8 hrs in game
When things worked, it was actually fun for a bit. But things are constantly not working, the game seems like it is in a pre-alpha stage, things are so buggy almost nothing works correctly about 85% of the time.
– Real player with 2.3 hrs in game
Hot Pot VR
I bought this game based on some of the reviews, but I will start off by saying this is THE BEST VR cooking game on the market, if you’re into simulation with a little bit of arcade. It reminds me of when I was in kindergarten playing with one of those life-sized toy kitchens with my classmates.
It’s not as intricate/frustrating as Cooking SImulator can be, but still PLENTY of recipes, ingredients and cooing techniques to keep you busy in EA. This is early access but it really is varied with lots of different recipes from all over the globe and feels satisfying in VR. I haven’t had it that long and the dev has made some QoL improvements thus far and I’m sure it’ll only get better. I highly recommend this game if you like Cooking Simulator and Overcooked.
– Real player with 13.4 hrs in game
Amazing idea, near amazing execution (so far). Now, I know it is an Early Access game, but sometimes it can be a bit weird. Sometimes, when cutting a piece of meat for example, it will have a really small piece I can cut, but the biggest piece is not possible to cut. Other than small nitpicks like that, this game is amazingly built and can only go up from here.
– Real player with 6.2 hrs in game
Industry Idle
No waiting on energy / stamina / turns. bloops you down with 5 million cash and you do the rest.
After playing about 5 maps and at the current stage of the game ill rate it like this.
R = rating / S = suggestion / Number links both
(R1) Game play 9/10
(R2) GFX 8/10
(R3) Menu Layout 5/10
(R4) Misleading Overwhelming-ness 6/10
(R5) User Overly Clicking Fatigue 6/10
(S1) Solid Game (people should be required 2 hours of play before reviewing on steam)
(S2) (more color never hurt. building colors. and background green when same type selected) (S3) (needs a right click on map or building with wheel menu option.)
– Real player with 511.2 hrs in game
“Oh yay.” I thought; “another idler to waste my free minutes on whilst I’m busy answering my emails…”
Boy was I wrong….
Welcome to Industry Idle; a minimalistic game in the spirit of games like Factorio and Satisfactory. The game places you in the shoes of a company CEO tasked by setting up a profitable factory complex in a city of your choosing. Build a booming automotive industry in Rotterdam, go deep into IT-development in Detroit, arm Toulouse with nuclear armaments and sell it all on a dynamic market…OR your competition !!
– Real player with 352.6 hrs in game
Malmyr
I stumbled across this recently, and have been enjoying working through the campaign. I give this a thumbs up primarily because of the enthusiastic and helpful developer responses to questions I had, and I feel I got my moneys worth of entertainment value. These guys deserve some more attention for their efforts. It is a game that I “like” but don’t “love”.
Malmyr offers some quite different mechanics to what you would normally expect, though not all of those are necessarily positive things (it is very mouse clicky) and can take some getting used to. Kind of revealing is the lack of a lets play series out there - people tend to bounce off it after a few hours I think. Fundamentally the game is more of a puzzler than a true building game - space is limited and the randomly generated tiles can require some planning before you commit to building. I am hoping to finish the campaign, I am always a sucker for trying to “finish” a game. I haven’t tried the sandbox mode though I may give that a quick shot once I knock off the last two missions, we shall see. I just have too many other games that are begging for my time and this just doesn’t have that magic X factor or depth of strategy tp keep coming back to.
– Real player with 77.2 hrs in game
Malmyr is THE game you’ve been waiting for a long time! What a pleasant surprise!
Malmyr is the perfect mix of real-time strategy and puzzle game. Because in Malmyr building your city is not made as easy as in other building games. Instead, you have to ensure an always sufficient flow of raw materials through increasingly complex road systems. but malmyr always remains clear, fair and, above all, relaxing. Relaxation is the perfect word to describe malmyr. You have no time pressure, you can correct mistakes at any time without losing your progress.
– Real player with 23.8 hrs in game
Railway Empire
WRITE THIS DOWN: You WILL need to know a couple things.. Writing this review at 647 hours of playtime.. so I’m pretty sure I’m enjoying being an expert at it, and it helps a lot..
If you dont understand these comments, try googling the concepts anyway.. you need to know this stuff.
You will build single lane tracks early on and tear them up later to redesign… BECAUSE you will be short on money - always.. (unless you use unlimited sandbox or mods).
Learn how to use regular or one-way signals to create short lanes on the side of a long stretch of track so trains can pass each other along the way across large empty terrain areas.
– Real player with 1489.3 hrs in game
I spent a lot of my life on Railroad Tycoon, from the first one until the end of the series. A-Train, Transport Tycoon, Rails!, you name it. If it had a train in it, I bought it. So of course I bought this too.
I really, really like this game. There are elements here that feel like Railroad Tycoon 3, and there are elements that do not. Just enough for you to find something you like in this game regardless of how you felt about previous railroad incarnations. I’m going to lay out a PRO/CON/WISHLIST below for you to peruse at your leisure. I may edit these if they change down the road.
– Real player with 332.2 hrs in game
Arboreal
Welcome into the life of a tree. It’s time for you to grow a little seed into the most magnificent plant of the forest.
Growth
In Arboreal you need patience and tact to raise your fruit tree. Select between 36 fruit species to cultivate and graft. With your roots reach the soil sources needed to improve the growth. But balance your branches and the flow of resources with caution to avoid breakage.
Nature Spirits
Spirits are the native of Arboreal. Nourish them with delicious meals to get their help. And be careful, the more you grow, the more demanding they become… if you fail them, be prepared to endure the consequences!
Insects
Host inhabitants in your tree and let them take care of the harvesting, the food cooking, to speed up machine construction or tend to the plant’s needs. In no time you’ll transform your tree into a place full of life.
Machines
Build tracks, engines and conveyors to automatize production. Combine various cooking machines to transform and stock your meals. And let’s not forget the mushrooms with special perks!
Three game mode available in Arboreal
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Time Limit: Nourish as many Spirits as possible before time runs out in various scenarios
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The Grand Tree Hostel: Spirits arrive endlessly faster and faster. Keep up the pace!
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Zen Garden: Flourish simply in peace