Recent reviews by Q:Are We Not Men? A:We Are Devo

A masterclass in great game design. A bunch of diverse mechanics that combine to make a thoroughly engaging and challenging gameplay loop. Every settlement takes a few hours to complete. The sheer variety of objectives, world map modifiers and per-settlement effects (forest mysteries as they are called) cause some settlements to be a chill comforting city building experiences, while others to be about as breezy as climbing the Everest in one's underwear. Every run inspires the player to come up with fresh strategies and adapt to the evolving challenges.

The rogue-lite one-save design is a brilliant choice here. The tutorial is short and concise - giving you sufficient knowledge to play your first few games, The world map passively guides the player to try higher difficulties for higher reward and tougher challenges. The profile-level upgrade tree provides new tools to build new strategies , but also contain upgrades which make the game even more challenging, letting you unlock some mechanics once you've mastered the base game.

Add to that some beautiful music and a pleasant cheerful visual design. As a complete package, this game is outstanding and well worth the full price. For anyone showing enough interest to read the reviews, I thoroughly recommend this game. I got it with the Keepers of the Stone DLC, and I have loved very moment spent while playing it.

Kudos to the devs - Eremite Games - you have managed to impress a long time city/strategy player and re-ignite a passion for gaming in me. Good luck on your future projects - I will be following you keenly. Also, Hooded Horse have published some really great games these last few years ( I'm also loving Workers and Resources : Soviet Union ) and have me deeply interested in every one of their games. Good work all

Watched hundreds of hours of tutorials on Youtube , Read every wiki page... still haven't finished that game I started 5 years back. Great game :)

A very enjoyable train-eco sim. Closer to the Sid Meier Railroads game than something like OpenTTD.

+ Good sound and graphics.
+ Well designed track placement and terrain manipulation systems.
+ Simple. Not too micro-manage-y
+ Good number of campaigns in the base game.
+ Runs well on Linux
- Somewhat janky economy/competitors system. Easily abused.
- May be too simplified for a train sim enthusiast. This isn't TTD

Not tried any DLCs yet, but the base game is quite good on its own. Good for casual sessions.
Personally biased score : 7+/10

A masterpiece of clever game design. This game has already spawned a new genre of games that focus on automation of resource gathering and production chains. Doesn't dilute it's core game-play loop with a pretentious story or lore. The devs focused their efforts on improving the core systems to near perfection.

Not the prettiest game, but like other design elements, this too is very meaningful and precise. Good non-intrusive music.

Great replay value. Decent learning curve. Difficulty/complexity is also fine-tuned to perfection. Most problems are emergent from player actions, and experimentation is pretty much a core game aspect.

My nominee for GOTY 2020, just coz it came out of early access this year. I would've gladly nominated this 2 years back, while still in beta.

TLDR : great game. Fantastic value package with DLCs. A must-buy for any fan of the 'tactical turn-based strategy' genre. 420 alien corpses / 10.

The best tactical strategy game out there. Also, the best game in the long running XCOM series. Improves upon its prequel in every way. Excellent map and unit design, fantastic animations, a good story and top-notch voice acting. Very meaningful DLCs too, which is a rarity in today's micro-transactions driven gaming landscape. Supposedly, it has some good mods too - which I haven't yet tried.

The only negatives I can think of are a couple of random Crash To Desktop events, which were not as damaging because the auto-saves worked well. Download size is also a bit large, considering the type of game this is. But, that too, can be understood once you experience the excellent cinematic sequences and combat animations. Once downloaded, it is a mostly flawless experience.

My worst experience with an Early Access title. Launched without fixing bugs / QoL issues. Not even worth a detailed review .

About a decade back, I played its shockwaveflash version N+ during every single "5 minute break" at work. This version has all the features of the previous game and a bunch of new maps and modes. Here's what I like the most :

1. Visual Design : Ultra minimalist style, but conveys information super clear.
2. Sound : same as visuals , minimalist and effective.
3. Starts simple, gets very very hard very very quick. Retrying the hard levels brings Buddha-like enlightenment.
4. Very funny fails ( and the single greatest Main Menu ever made ). Funnier than TV
5. Makes a real ninja out of you. Eventually you become the master of Z, V and 4 directional keys on your keyboard. Unlimited possibilities await

A somewhat simplified economic simulation, with a casual, satisfying and sometimes challenging game-play loop.


What's it like ?
- A bit of the old-school Capitalism series
- A lesser bit of Sid Meier's Railroads (or other similar resource trading games)
- A tiny bit of Factorio ( extract resource, setup supply chain for use of resource into product )
- City builders (pick any)... But that part is misleading.

What's good ?
- Charming art-style.
- Nice soundtrack. Goes well with the casual relaxing gameplay.
- A fair bit of challenge in the early to mid periods of your playthrough.
- Good replay-ability. Randomized maps ensure no 2 playthroughs are the same.
- Satisfying gameplay. Encourages smart decisions till the point you have way too much money to care.

What could be improved ?
- Lack of any kind of a story/campaign mode.
- The mission system. Towns used to give missions to deliver X product in Y months This was a decent incentive to setup new supply chains. Surprisingly removed.
- Lacks depth. Once you are making enough money (say around mid-game), the rest of the game is basically reduced to a mega-expansion phase, where you want to acquire every resource on the whole map.
- Tech tree is decent, but end game products pretty much require you to dip into every industry available. I wish there was a way to encourage specializing in a particular type of industry (e.g. industrial/ agro/etc.)

I have had a good amount of fun out of this , and I find myself replaying it every now and then. Pick it up if the words 'economic' and 'management' and 'simulation' don't make you run for cover.

Update 2023 : Still the best in its genre.

One of the Greatest Action RPGs ever. Kudos to the devs.

Bundles the best elements of classics like Diablo 2 and Titan Quest into one awesome package.

__ Good variation in character classes and skills.
__ Infinite build possibilities. Dual class system , Items, componenets/enhancements , skills , and an alternate skill system called devotion really open up the possibilities to build a truly unique hero.
__ Combat is meaty and challenging.
__ Satisfying loot.
__ Beautiful aesthetics and sound design.
__ Modding support.
__ Early Access done perfectly.


The one thing I wish this game had , is Steam workshop integration so mods are easier to find and use.

If you like aRPGs , just pick this up already.

Worst DRM induced headaches ever. The game is really unique and fun - deserving of a more thorough review... however the DRM's are really really unbearable. I have quit the game more times than I have let it launch - just becoz Ubi wants me to keep downloading non-incremental updates to the game and their own sh.it.ty framework U-dont.get.to-Play

Ubisoft slowly joining EA into the make-money-f**k-the-customer Hell. Boycott it .