I feel like this Steam Fest is targeting me. A good chunk of my wishlist went on sale and while I’ve already played most of the demos here that I’m interested in, I found a few to give a try. (Like last time, I’ll be updating this post as I try new demos.)
SteamWorld Build
While this wasn’t exactly in the fest, it’s related so I’m putting it here. SteamWorld Build combines a city-builder with a Dungeon Keeper-style mining and tower defense underground. While the demo doesn’t contain any of the combat shown in the trailer, I enjoyed what was available. It’s a little on the easier side, as far as city-builders go, but there was still plenty to do. The style is great, too, with little steampunk robots wandering around everywhere.
Empires of the Undergrowth
I’ve been interested in this game for a while, thinking it might be a modern re-imagining of SimAnt. Turns out that’s not what it is. It’s more of a simple RTS where you collect food, build an army, and attack other insects.
Kubifaktorium
A cute voxel city builder and factory game. The logistics system is pretty easy to use. Demo only covers the tutorials, but they explain things pretty well.
Roboplant
A cute game where you have robots grow and sell plants. Couldn’t beat the tutorial level, and I’m not sure why… My worker just stopped working and just spent all their time playing games and eating from the snack machine. Probably needs some more time to work some bugs out.
Citizens: Far Lands
More a puzzle game than a city-builder. Buildings can be placed freely, which is nice, but they have a zone around them that they work with, meaning being a few pixels off can mean the difference between maximizing production and missing out on resources. It’s pleasant and minimalist, though.
WW2 Rebuilder
I’ve played this sort of building game before (House Flipper, Gas Station Simulator), but I typically find them incredibly boring. This one looked more interesting, like it had some more depth. Turns out it’s just a well-themed building game. The atmosphere is nice and the theme is actually very interesting, but it’s just as boring as other games in the same genre.
Facteroids
An asteroid-mining factory building game. A neat idea, but the controls and interface are really awkward.
Plan B: Terraform
Extract resources, transport them to factories, build stuff, grow cities, terraform planet. I like the art style – simple and clean – but I’m not sure if I like this style of factory-building game where you just build bigger and bigger with long stretches of highway to bring things from one place to another.
New Cycle
Feels a lot like Frostpunk, from the tone to the UI, which isn’t a bad thing. A solar flare sent human civilization back to its tribal roots, and you’re in charge of building a settlement to restore society. Plays great; I’ll definitely be picking this one up when it releases.
Havendock
A pleasant little city builder with some very light survival elements. You can attract survivors to your little dock and have them help out with the chores. Like Raft, but third person and without that asshole shark.
Desynced
Seems to be an interesting mix of Factorio and your typical RTS, with units you modify with different components (mining lasers, defense lasers, assemblers, etc.) and can order around. Seems interesting, but the first steps were really slow, to the point of just waiting around most of the time. I’m sure it’s more interesting later, but I couldn’t take all the idle time. I think I’d love it if things moved a bit faster.
The Last Starship
I’m still trying to decide if I’m interested in this one. I like Introversion’s stuff, but I couldn’t tell from what I played of the demo if it’s like FTL, where you have to constantly keep moving from system to system, or if you can just do whatever missions you want wherever you go. The shipbuilding is interesting, and the separation of the main deck from the “habitation” deck opens it up for some interesting options – you can make a transport liner, a warship, or a little of both. There’s a survival aspect to it as well, with limited fuel, FTL jumps, oxygen, water, and ammunition, which could be interesting or a chore. I think I just need to play this one a bit more to find out.
Final Thoughts
I think that’s it for this Steam Fest. I had a hard time finding games that clicked with me here. I’ll definitely be picking up SteamWorld Build and New Cycle, and I might get Havendock on a sale at some point. I think when it comes to logistics games, I have Satisfactory and I love the pacing, style, and humor of that game. Some of these games that annoyed me are likely in the vein of Factorio, which has been on my wishlist a while but I’ve now removed (partly because I don’t think I’d like it, and partly because of the price change; and I could write a whole post about how annoyed I am about that price change). I have enough games in my backlog though, so maybe being unable to find new ones is a good thing.