I’d say Anno is an exception, but otherwise, it is a common problem in the genre.
Indeed. Also, Tropico has its issues, but a lack of personality isn’t one of them. Really its mostly a problem of modern metropolis builders - historical and fantastical builders generally fare better.
It’s what I had thought on first reflecting about my experience with the genre, after all those boring newborn towns around the world are boring to me for a reason, but on second thought, I can’t quite point what makes or demakes a game of that genre to me. I know I found the much lauded Ceasar, Zeus and what was it? Pharaoh? very bland, but I adored Children of the Nile — the town was breathing in rhythm with the Nile’s mood, kind of giving corpse to the religious beliefs of old around rivers.
I confess I haven’t played any Anno game, excepting for the DS one (which was, already! a bit like a much more directive Slipways in my memory). My Uplay boycotting resolve stands firm, for my own sanity!
abrandt
5252
I think part of the problem is that modern city builders tend to be played far more zoomed out where you’re placing whole blocks of buildings rather than a more intimate historical builder where you’re generally placing individual buildings.
I though Children of the Nile was an absolutely wonderful simulation of an ancient Egyptian city for all the reasons you mention. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much game there for me, so I drifted off pretty quickly.
Anno is very logistics-heavy, so that comparison makes sense. I understand the Uplay boycott, certainly, but I’ll admit that Anno is exactly why I can’t bring myself to boycott Ubi. I could give up Assassin’s Creed and the occasional other game of theirs that fall into “guilty pleasure” territory, but I simply won’t deny myself Anno - especially now that the series is firmly back on its feet with 1800.
I really do need to pick up Slipways, it’s a game I’d clearly enjoy. Time is tight these days and it’s hard to justify buying a new game with a backlog like mine, but this is distinctly different from most of my catalog and as I understand it plays quickly - which is really what I need now.
That’s very true, and probably why I liked it so much! Although not collapsing was not easy, it was at least as much about watching as it was about interacting; a bit like the very latest A-Train games.
My boycott is strictly Uplay: after having lost so many saves to its capricious and almost hostile randomness — Uplay actually insisted on bringing erased saves back from its cloud when I tried to back my local ones up! I gave up instead of growing grey hairs. Which is why I’m still playing the Ubi console games, but I think as far as Anno is concerned, that DS game was the first and last.
Saw DLC recently came out for Legion War and also noticed Dastactic is a fan, was wondering if anyone here had picked it up and given it a spin and what your thoughts were?
I played Legion War when it was still in Early Access and thought it was OK but nothing special. I should go back to it, but I suspect not enough has changed to make me like it any better.
There is a demo available for Legion War.
ah, yeah, good point, have to do that this weekend. like the trend of demos coming back.
In potentially a similiar vein although not out yet so who knows, saw this one on RPS might be another smaller title to keep an eye on:
Yeah, it looks cool, I wishlisted it to follow it.
Thanks for the demo suggestion, played a couple hours of Legion War, loved it and bought it. This is scratching a certain kind of gaming itch no doubt.
Yeah, I mean you never know if they’ll get it across the finish line in a winnable state, but the trailer had enough going on that interested me enough to want to keep tabs on it.
Great. I played the demo myself a while back and enjoyed it. I do intend to pick it up sometime but you know, backlog + Gamepass takes up so much time.
This is a first-person dwarf survival/builder.
But before you dismiss this as more of the same I suggest you try the demo. The demo does not have combat but there is a lot to do - it is awesome and this is a day 1 buy for me. Feels like the devs have nailed the dwarven fantasy / LOTR vibe.
Gamescom gameplay trailer:
I found out about this game by seeing a Splattercat video pop up on my youtube feed. I haven’t watched it but from the comments I get the impression he did not read the book on forging and therefore had a lot of bad results (to forge different metals you have to control the temperature of the forge).
That does look interesting. Downloading the demo now!
Thanks for the heads-up, Charlatan.
When I visited the Sycoforge Games website I was given the opportunity to be a part of the Return to Nangrim pre-alpha beta. Here’s the link in case anyone is interested: https://www.sycoforge.com/en/
I watched that video and it looks great, despite Splat’s bumblings
Yep it looks good, will give the demo a shot.
