As someone who has never actually played any other Steamworld games, you can expect my surprise when I heard they were making a builder game. What little I know of Steamworld is that they mainly have stuck to more mainstream genre's such as RPG, Metroidvania and tactical, so coming into this I was very much curious as to how this was gonna turn out, and since I love me some building games you can bet I was going to be pretty cautious on a dev not exactly know for this genre to try their hand at it. In short, I was pleasantly surprised! But in long... Well I guess read the rest.
Steamworld: Build is a mix of both a city builder and a base builder game. Apparently set in the events after Steamworld: The dig 2 or something, a father and daughter find a mysterious character simply named "The Core" who tells them that he has knolage of antient tech to help the inhabitance get off the desert west world and to their true home in the stars. But to do that, they have to build a town and dig deep underground.
Steamworld: Build is made up of 2 core gameplay parts. On the surface, literally, is the town. If you have played the ANNO games then TADA, it’s just that. For what is supposed to be a more casual game, I would say that ANNO’s city building style is pretty perfect for that. No need to manage traffic or walkers, it’s not very overly complicated and there is still a decent amount of complexity that is easy enough for new players to understand while still scratching that itch more experienced builders want. Most importantly: everything sure does look swell! It’s really hard not to fall in love with your town at first sight. All the buildings have such wonderfully wacky and whimsical detail and animations to them. My personal favorite is the sand shifter that literally hurls rocks to big for the shifter across the map. Even the decor, as purely decoration as it is, still have a ton of personality and fun to it that really entices you to put them down despite it doing nothing.
Undernieth it all though is the mine. Literally, I promise though this will be the second to last pun. The mine plays like a base-building game similar to that of Dungeon Keeper and War For The Over World, but much simpler. There are 4 rooms you can build to attract either Miners who mine, (woah!) Prospectors, who can harvest resources, Mechanics who can build buildings, turrets and heal, and Guards who shoot anything that moves. The mine isn’t just something you can ignore. Not only is it part of progressing the game, but resources that you need to upgrade your town are also down there. Logistics play a big part as you’ll either need enough prospectors to move everything around or build conveyor belts. Digging out to large of an area can result in cave ins so making sure you have supports, or just not digging up the entire place is important to watch out for. But the thing you need to the watch for the most are the creepy crawlies and other things that lurk below that really like to eat your guys. Properly placed turrets and outposts can really help protect your operations and keep everything smoothly, or better yet, add a perk!
One of the last mechanics of the game is perks. All service, industry, and miner buildings can have a perk applied to them for the cost of rubies that you can find in the mine, from tumble weeds, or buy a large bit of cash from the train. Most are pretty generic and only a few actually apply to very specific buildings, but the boost is very noticeable. From needing less to producing more or even giving your miners some new equipment perks are a very important thing to consider and fun to mix and match.
But if you don’t, that’s ok because despite this game having you dig into the depth of the earth it’s honestly pretty easy.
I covered this a bit, but the city part is simple. Even on hard balancing your budget and resources is pretty simple. I rarely had moments where I couldn’t keep up with any demand and moving things around is free. The mine is honestly a bit disappointing. It’s only 3 levels and the first level has no real challenges, and well none of them do. Even when enemies finally show up, they are pretty easy to deal with, and turrets do a good job of keeping everything at bay. Each level adds new threats and unlocks new stuff, but since it’s only 3 levels once you unlock everything, there isn’t anything left to really challenge you and but your skills to the test. You also don’t really need to do anything with the mine buildings either. No putting down items, no lockers, just build the room big enough to attract more people and you’re done. It kind of sucks too because some perks for guards are required to progress which I think could have been handled better by just making it something you place down instead of a perk.
Then you beat the game and get a reward! There are multiple maps to play on, each with it’s own lay out, and if you beat the map you unlock a special building to use on your next playthrough that gives you some pretty game breaking perks such as roads no longer needing resources to build or upgrade which gives some nice replayability.
Steamworld: Build took me about 10 hours to finish the main story. I loved every minute of it. It’s a simple game, but at no point did I ever, not feel engaged. This game is an honest perfect jem. If you play this game and hate it in any aspect, you honestly, must be heartless. It’s so enjoyable! You cannot hate this game. I think it’s impossible to hate this game. I really can’t recommend this game enough. It’s so simple of a game, but it doesn’t feel stupid. I just don’t know how else to praise this game.
So I’ll end it there. 10 outta 10! Would recommend.
