The SteamWorld video games have efficiently bounced round plenty of completely different genres together with Metroidvania-style mining video games and turn-based tactical stealth. With SteamWorld Construct, developer The Station has introduced these cute robots into the city-building style, with a little bit of dungeon exploration thrown into the combination, in what turns into a ridiculously addictive expertise.
SteamWorld Construct tells a easy but endearing story of a small group of steambots dwelling on a dying planet, looking for historic expertise to assist them enterprise off into the celebs. It is a fundamental story with some quite apparent plot twists, however it’s instructed with such an enormous quantity of attraction that you simply will not essentially thoughts, particularly as the actual showcase right here is the gameplay.
To start out with, you might have an empty little bit of land which you will have to construct up right into a bustling city. Town-building points of the sport are easy sufficient that newcomers will shortly have the ability to get into it whereas additionally being compelling sufficient that style veterans will really feel proper at house. It undoubtedly helps that there is an intuitive UI, which makes it fast and simple to change between menus, in addition to controls which were effectively optimised for consoles.
Issues begin out good and slowly, with you constructing some housing to encourage employees to come back to city. You will then have to construct providers comparable to grocery shops and restore retailers to maintain your bots blissful. After all, to be able to hold constructing, you will additionally want to assemble sources, and to do that you will have to construct varied factories, comparable to lumber mills and charcoal kilns. Holding the inhabitants blissful is essential; for those who do not, they’re going to begin to go away. This then has a knock-on influence on the quantity of tax income you get, in addition to the variety of employees out there to employees your factories.
Over time you will achieve entry to several types of bots, and you will find that the wants of the inhabitants will change. They’ll grow to be extra demanding in what they should hold blissful, however fortunately the UI makes it clear whenever you’re beginning to run into points, so it is easy to see the place you may have to make enhancements to your city.
Provide chains additionally get more and more advanced as you unlock new services. For instance, some employees will need Moonshine, however to be able to make it you will want glass bottles in addition to water. To assemble water, you will have to construct cactus farms, and you may additionally want a sand sifting plant in addition to a glass blowing manufacturing facility. Typically completely different services will use the identical fundamental sources, and so you will continuously need to verify in to see if there’s sufficient to go round. It is a delicate balancing act to be sure that all of your vegetation are getting the fitting inflow of sources and to ensure you’re not over- or under-producing.
Early into your city constructing profession, you will unlock the mine. It is right here the place you will be trying to find the varied items of historic expertise talked about within the opening cutscenes, in addition to gathering extra sources on your ever-expanding settlement. The city and mine have separate gameplay loops, though doing effectively in a single space will after all profit each by supplying you with extra sources you should use to construct.
The mines supply a really completely different expertise to city-building. Down under, you will be taking up a way more energetic function in your steambots’ lives by directing them on the place to go and what to dig. You will continually be tempted to push deeper and see what’s forward, be it a brand new wealthy supply of sources or a vicious nest of monsters. There are additionally some tower defence components the place you will want to make use of guards and construct defences to guard your miners from waves of enemies as they dig up treasure.
The juxtaposition of those two recreation modes works surprisingly effectively. Switching between the mine and the city is just about instantaneous and so it is easy to control each areas. You additionally do not feel such as you get punished for spending a number of time in simply the mine or the city. You’ll be able to arrange every space to be pretty self-sustaining so as to safely give attention to one with out worrying that every little thing can have turned to wreck whereas your again is turned.
Whereas the principle story is a bit quick and could be wrapped up in round 10 hours, there’s some replayability. You’ll be able to play in numerous beginning places with a randomised mine structure, in addition to completely different problem choices, though it could’ve been good to have some completely different marketing campaign modes to increase the gameplay even additional.
If you happen to’re a fan of different administration fashion video games like Two Level Hospital or Cities: Skylines, you are prone to discover SteamWorld Construct to be a bit bit simplistic. It may be straightforward to tug your self again from the brink of failure, however that does not imply that it isn’t enjoyable to play one thing a bit bit extra relaxed and forgiving. Having the ability to freely swap between the 2 modes with out continually being pulled again by emergencies means you are feeling rewarded for exploring and experimenting quite than being punished for not micromanaging every little thing.
Conclusion
SteamWorld Construct is a pleasant and really satisfying foray into the city-building style. The 2 gameplay modes complement one another effectively, providing two very completely different however equally pleasing methods to realize sources. Whereas we do want the story may’ve lasted a bit bit longer, the addictive gameplay and slick presentation makes it very straightforward to advocate.