Empires of the Undergrowth
One of my favorite indie games. While only in early access, it easily has several hours worth of content already.
Four colony types are available as of posting, with more to be released in the future, each with its own unique features. The ereptor, gene thief ants, a fictional species that allows the player to mix in other ant species and their abilities; the fusca, black ants, which act as an introductory species with basic worker and soldier roles; the rufa, wood ants, which split their soldiers between defensive and offensive roles; the atta, leaf cutter ants, which have a unique resource system involving gathering, food production, and waste disposal, as well as four castes to make resources and combat more dynamic.
– Real player with 683.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Strategy Base Building Games.
This game is great and is most likely to be enjoyed by fans of the real time strategy genre. Currently there are 4 levels each with a challenge mode and many difficulty settings which you will tackle as you control two different species of ant colony. The ants must collect food to grow their colony which can in itself have various different methods applied such as the strategic placement of tiles for upgrading purposes to the ratio of worker ants to warrior ants so that they can defeat the many hungry predators around them which seek to devour their queen! For those who like a challenge you will get quite a bit of enjoyment and playtime from tackling the hardest versions of these levels as for others this will be a shorter 2-3 hour experience which will be enjoyable nonetheless. inbetween these levels you will visit your formicariam (ANT TANK) where your success in these levels provides resources for your main colony which is a species of ant that can take the genes from other ant species and have their queen produce them within the colony. This formicarium colony itself has two challenges to face which are kind of like a hoard mode. If you finish all of this content and are still eager for more there are a handfull of other modes which may entertain for awhile such as the demo levels (earlier levels with a more basic concept), arena mode (a mode where you can pit various creatures found in the game against each other) and Freeplay mode (where you start a colony on one of two maps with many options for you to tweak for a customised experience which is scored upon the defeat of your colony) and finally the hungry spider level which sees you take control of the one of the ants most deadly predators THE WOLF SPIDER! (This is a slight genre flip as you control the one spider which grows and levels as you defeat enemies working your way up to bringing down other huge predators.) I very highly reccomend this game and support the development team who are constantly keeping the community around the game informed on what they are working on next.
– Real player with 281.9 hrs in game
Lords and Villeins
Little bit of background: I own about 50 management/colony sim/city builder games. I love the genre but a lot of the games are very similar so it can get boring. I bought this game impulsively not expecting a lot but once I started playing I fell in love with its unique mechanics and game play system.
Pros:
Unique art style
Hardworking, responsive, and dedicated devs
Positive Community
Frequent updates and bug fixes
Solid base game for EA
Ability to change speed of the game
Great tutorial that isn’t annoying or makes you feel dumb, allows you to naturally learn the game while giving hints
– Real player with 86.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Strategy City Builder Games.
I’ll preface this by saying I’ve never bought an early access game before. I’ve read plenty of horror story reviews about people who have bought a game and the Devs just up and quit on it, or worse, Devs that continue to charge for a game they’ve knowingly abandoned. I’m very guarded about paying for something that isn’t finished, with a promise that it will be, someday. That said, this looked like the perfect game for me, and I can see this Dev team is actively reading reviews, they use critiques constructively, and they’re putting out regular updates, so I decided I’d take a chance on this one.
– Real player with 82.5 hrs in game
The Colonists
5/5
This game is a fantastic take on base-building, resource optimisation and pathing. It’s simple to get into, scales sensibly and the campaign levels scale well in difficulty. I’ve played many of the similar games available and this one gets the complexity level exactly right with a nice style of graphics.
Mechanically, one thing that stands out for me is that this is a network optimisation game where the networks (roads and paths) are cost nothing and appear instantly, making experimenting and fiddling easy.
– Real player with 268.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Strategy City Builder Games.
Short version:
Fun game. Has flaws, but definitely an enjoyable city builder.
Long version:
Okay so it took me a while to get into this game. At first it felt really clunky, the tutorial left me confused about certain things (namely how paths are supposed to alleviate traffic from raods), some of the mechanics are pretty weird and needlessly complicated but at the same time - they’re what gives this game it’s uniqueness and keeps it from being just another boring banished clone, plus the campaign is excellent!
– Real player with 111.5 hrs in game
Knights and Merchants
Great Nostalgia, as I played the original game ~2000 when I was a kid. If you already played this game, you can’t do much wrong buying it again, it contains both campaigns (The Shattered Kingdom [TSK] & The Peasants Rebellion [TPR]) which should take ~50hrs of raw speedrunning if you still know the concept of the game.
There is a problem though: This is NOT the original game from 2000! It’s a remake with a hell of new bugs and changes (esp. if you played TSK and didn’t own the Gold Edition)
Some things I noticed:
– Real player with 148.3 hrs in game
If The Settlers and Dark Souls had a love child, it would be Knights and Merchants.
I never got to play this when it was originally released in 1998, and I regret it, but the mistake has now been rectified!
K&M is an old school RTS/city economy builder hybrid. The concept is simple, the graphics a little dated, but still good enough, the sounds are simple and your minions make cute little comments when ordered to do something. The UI is easy to understand and on the surface, it seems a simple game.
– Real player with 140.4 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
The Settlers® : Heritage of Kings - History Edition
i have owned and played, at some point, all the settlers series over the years (settlers online included despite the very toxic community) and this one and the first are by far the two i have enjoyed playing most. unlike most games of this sort, this one is not overly complex and holds you to play at a nice easy rhythm.
for many this would be a great introduction into the genre.
i cannot say the same about the rest of the series as 7 is just a whole new direction compared to the rest of the series and i personally dislike it as it cannot be played leisurely, 6 was fine but i didn’t find is as enjoyable as this. the original will always remain my favourite as it was back in the days before internet and disk drives and amiga 500’s. missions that could take days even a week to finish just to get the password for the next quest. watching those little carriers between flags was mesmerising and damn frustrating :D
– Real player with 168.3 hrs in game
I thought a very long time, do i should recommend this game or not. Finally i decided to write review - a negative one.
On this review purpose, let’s strip the name of the game from “the settlers” because it’s a lie in this case and just leave “heritage of the kings”.
In short HOTK is decent RTS where our target is to build nice economy which will allow us to build an army, and conquer our opponents , but a lot of things in this game are just done bad, Ubisoft decided to not write an AI ( which is essential for games like this) so now we only can beat scenarios where AI is totally scripted, but if you want to test your skills in real battle, you won’t be able to(because multiplayer is of course dead).
– Real player with 97.1 hrs in game
Castle Story
OK, so a while back I did a review on this game. I still said it was positive, but I basically said “It’s buggy but it’ll get better”. And now I feel is the time to re-review it.
Let me start off by saying this is one of the coolest and prettiest castle builders I’ve seen in a long while. It has a near perfect arrangement of blocks to suit all of your construction needs, yet it simultaniously keeps you materials as basic as possible. You can build with Stone, or Wood. There are a few other materials that can be used to make useful structures, but those are the two things your castle is really gonna be made of. Yet in that simplicity, you can make very cool-looking castles with ease. And what’s even cooler is that in the survival gamemodes, all of the castles you built for purpose and purpose alone still turn out looking amazing.
– Real player with 233.1 hrs in game
Game is worth 10USD. If that is what you’re paying I think it’s worth it. Unfortunately it isn’t 10USD.
The game lacks content and barely works, but it is quite fun for what there is. The devs have left it alone rather than milking it for DLC so they have my respect for that, but they fall short in most other categories.
My gripes:
1. Instead of optimising the AI, pathfinding, job finding etc. they made a limit of 15 units. There are videos of people playing with 130+ units and having no issues.
– Real player with 179.6 hrs in game
Generation Nova
“They told us it was a foolproof method for interstellar travel."
How would you feel about waking up from cryo-sleep centuries too early on a huge space ship?
GENERATION NOVA is a strategy game of resource and colony management. The player has to balance the passengers needs and resources to keep the them alive and happy. Hopefully you will manage to build a community large enough so that one day the last generation on the ship will land on a habitable planet and start their new life on the ground. But don’t be too eager: Expand too fast and you might not have enough workforce to feed the children. Will you make the sacrifices needed to keep the voyage running or will the cold hull of the ship contain only corpses in the end?
The game takes inspiration from games like Banished, Rimworld and Frostpunk. Huge inspirations for the story and setting are from books Across the Universe and the Silo -series and the film Passengers.
Intuitive Building System
Build nearly two dozen different buildings that all serve a specific purpose inside the generation ship. Mine passing asteroids to create resources and tools to keep the generations growing. Keep the security and happiness up to pump up the working speed and hopefully lower the suicide rates.
Technology Upgrades
Assign passengers to conduct scientific research to gain upgrades in the passengers' and buildings' workflow. You don’t want to keep half of your population tilling the soil in the farms do you?
Dynamic Event And Task System
Choose your playstyle: Make harsh decisions and be a tyrant or be liberal and try to help as much as possible. In the end only thing that matters is that the generations will live on. Make the elders work or let them enjoy their last moments in life in peace. Encounter problems with material and resource malfunctions and order passengers to fix the issue even at the cost of their life or let the material go to waste.
Passenger AI
The passengers have been through a lot by just waking up in the ship. Social problems will eventually occur and everything will take a toll on their psyche. Manage their happiness and hope to keep the needed production lines going. You don’t want to end up with no tools to mine the asteroids. And you definitely don’t want the food to run out.
Interesting Zone System
Depending on where you are flying through the space the people of the ship might get more creative and faster in work. But pass a dark void or a nebula and the problems might start piling up. Hopefully the hull will not be breached in the asteroid field. Plan in advance to go on a resource production spree when you know the passengers are willing to do the extra work and give them the breaks they need when times seem the most dire.
Full Music Score
Over an hour of atmospheric and original music tracks made by Markus Brogaard.
“Home… This is our new home for now. Maybe one day my at least children will breath unfiltered air."
Gord
Lead the people of the Tribe of the Dawn as they venture deep into forbidden lands. Complete quests that shape their personalities, impact their wellbeing, and decide the fate of their community. Ensure the survival of your populace in a grim fantasy world inspired by Slavic folklore.
Erect palisades, develop structures, and grow your gord from a humble settlement to a formidable fortress. However, expansion won’t be easy! Your population is constantly at risk from enemy tribes, gruesome monsters, and mysterious powers that lurk in the surrounding woods.
Venture outside the walls of your settlement with Gord’s AI-driven quest system, ensuring a huge variety of challenges to take on. The Scenario’s main objectives will guide your gameplay, while versatile side quests and random encounters will send you off into the wilderness to hunt down legendary creatures, uncover secrets about the Ancients, or vanquish a nasty scourge. Expect the unexpected.
Set the stage by choosing from a wide range of Scenario options, and try to emerge victorious. Take it easy or set an impossible challenge; almost anything can be adjusted! Choose from a variety of primary objectives, select the level size, the intensity of raids, the environment you’ll play in, the types of enemies you’ll face, starting resources, and even the severity of weather. Of course, don’t forget the Horrors.
A healthy populace is the key to survival in Gord. Every aspect of your settlers’ lives - from illness and hunger to the death of their kin - can impact each subject’s Sanity and Burden levels. Keep a close eye on them, as once they reach a critical point your subject will suffer from a breakdown or even flee your rule.
Please the Gods with your prayers and they may give you access to their spellcasting abilities. Incantations vary in nature - some are offensive while others are defensive - but they all help to tip the battlefield in your favor. Conceal areas from your enemies, gain control over threatening beasts, or turn an unholy rage against all who dare to oppose you.
The Chronicle explains the history of the Gord universe that blends real-world Slavic mythology with dark fantasy. Pages torn from The Chronicle will be scattered throughout the game’s landscapes, giving dedicated players an additional challenge of discovery. Collecting as many pages as possible will provide insight into the origins of the Gods, ancient factions, and the mystical Whisperers.
Survival Vacancy
Survival vacancy is a very approachable simulation game that is in early access. Some notable features, lossless experimentation (make mistakes, try new things, see what happens), resource tiles as well as resource nodes, flight available (no limitations on movement besides the jet pack timer), well paced phases to the game. The first phase of the game, you’re in what amounts to a safe sandbox. You can experiment with resource collection, production, supply chain. However, progress is gated by the introduction of enemies. Once you bring survivors in, you will be attacked, meaning you have to think through your supply chain beyond “just the next step”. This is an interesting challenge when first encountered and effectively shapes gameplay once understood.
– Real player with 73.4 hrs in game
Survival Vacancy I recommend, for a game made by a single dev, its extremely impressive to see.
But because it’s only 1 dev, only so much can be done in a given amount of time.
For the genre it feels like a bit of Oxygen Not Included, and a bit of factorio at its core, but aside from that it does have its own unique aspect which also sets it quite a bit apart from those titles.
I’ll start with the Pro’s:
-runs pretty well if you are aware of what causes lag spikes to avoid that, Dev has told me personally, that he’s working hard on fixing these before going to 1.0
– Real player with 58.6 hrs in game