A small note on the Queen's Impatience - it's actually a mercy rule in two ways at once - in addition to eventually ending the game, it suppresses the forest's hostility the higher it gets, giving you a chance to push out the last couple objectives or overcome a shortage if you're struggling for a while.

I remember staying up all night playing Sim City as a teenager, I'd be so invested I didn't even notice time passing until dawn came around and my mom was calling for me to get ready for school. Now that I'm in my 30s I don't really have the same stamina to stay up all night that way - heck, even just spending a full day playing video games gets kind of exhausting, and hurts my eyes (growing old sucks), so Against the Storm lets me experience that same feeling as I remember, while being condensed into a far shorter timeframe and it's amazing. It's also a rather relaxing game, that helps me destress, since I have a general anxiety disorder - between the low stakes of just starting over if things go too bad, the somewhat simplified game mechanics, and the amazing and alternately peaceful and melancholy/creepy music, I can just feel the tension melt away when I play it (except when playing on Viceroy difficulty mode). Ironically, I've played far more hours of Against the Storm than any other game in recent years, just because of how easy it is to jump right into it and back out whenever you need to do something else (like sleep or eat).

i found out this awesome feature that makes your gameplay so much smoother: hold alt and it shows every worker occupying a building, scroll to select species, left click to replace and right click to remove. super useful compared to clicking on everything, and it shows resolve bonuses and such too!

Great review! Totally agree that the game's run-based system is great for people low on free time, while also still providing that full city builder experience. I also love the music in this game, it's really calming and atmospheric with odd little touches that give it an otherworldly feel.

“Wanting a complex fiddley and mechanically crunchy simulator, without any of the time to really devote to mastering it” Fuck. This is me. I kept flip flopping on whether or not I wanted to get this game but this review sold me. Good job

Man, I've been thinking for the last couple years how cool it would be to have a factory or city builder game that had roguelike mechanics applied to it to keep the game fun and dynamic. This game sounds like exactly that, so I'm surprised I hadn't heard of it until now. Thanks for the vid!

In case it doesn't get mentioned in the video, there's a free demo on Steam. The demo gets updated along with the full game. If you end up buying the full game, it automatically imports your save game from the demo. I unlocked everything in the demo after about 6 hours (roughly 8 games for me). When I got to ten hours of play time I realized I should look into buying the full version.

I appreciate you talking about that as adults we have extremely limited gaming time and that should be respected. You can’t compete with a 15 year olds for time invested in grinding.

Such a great game! Packing that much complexity in such a compact playtime while being accessible and having a fresh universe is fantastic.

This game is SO GOOD! Also, some of these other games that you feature look interesting but are not mentioned in the description or in text on screen, that would be helpful!

You're a good reviewer. I've been looking for info on against the storm. Your review is well thought of and well edited. You should do more of these more often until your channel blows up.

NOTE: its on sale rn! After this sale the price is going up, so now would be the time to get it!

Honestly this is one of the best City Builders I've ever played the way the game is set up is that not every play-through is the same and it rewards you for your time invested in it. The smoldering city aka the main city of the game that survives the apocalyptic blight storm comes with it's own tech tree to not only unlock stuff that help improve your gameplay long term but also give you a goal to work towards. There is even missions that reward you for completing certain runs a certain way which reward you with really nice permanant passive buffs, more trader npcs, unique buildings, etc this game is built for both short term and long term investment.

That was, A LOT, of sarcasm to get through at the start haha. Good review after that though

Roguelites are always nice for gamers like us, that’s why I love the genre so much!

That game looks cool, thanks for talking about it! As a kid I played a lot of Cultures: 8th Wonder of the World. More akin to CIV than other city builders I think. Think I only ever played the first two maps/missions, and always on easy mode (means people don't need to eat, except to heal, iirc). Considering I was only allowed 30 mins of PC time a day I'm guessing it's also friendly if you're time strapped. There's definitely some tech trees to climb, though I recon they're less complex than some of the crunchier games.

Excited to try this one out!

I played the demo and am seriously considering buying the full game because of this review. As someone who has never played a City Builder before, I think that says something about how well you captured everything great about this game in 13 minutes or less!

Sounds great! I always love a good roguelike and will definitely check it out.

I recommend Cardboard Town. It's coming out this month. I liked it as much as I saw at demo.

Great video, I'll have to check this out (but Signalis is godlike)

This game is a gem. I'm totally with you on this. I play so many city builders in 20 years... This is so refreshing and quite unique play style

"If you dont have enought time", im on my 3rd week playing this game with 90h in, what a great game

I bought this game on a whim and it turned out to be one of my favorite games in the last few years. Such a fun game play loop, graphics are nice to look at, the game runs well and the strategy changes each session. I love that they keep updating it and look forward to sinking even more hours into it

Amazing review!

good review. thank you

I've been holding out on this because of the Early Access, but I enjoyed the demo. It's definitely taking the city builder genre in a new fun direction.

Thanks for the vid

Well made review. ❤

2:30 to skip the overly long preamble

This game is SUPER good. and that says something coming from someone who does NOT even a bit like either rouge lites nor time pressure, especially in builders

frostpunk

Play the demo. It has at least 5 hours of play time, more if you go through it twice.

#mood

what where the other games shown at the start ?

I've been playing this game for some months, and is one of the best games I played in years. Also should be said, is crazy how hugely the choices affect the gameplay, that's why the game feels so good, because your choices matter A LOT. Also, is crazy to think this game is being made by a studio of FIVE people, AAA companies should be ashamed of themselves...

it's great indeed.

Holding out for a full release. The publisher has me cautious because Hooded Horse has quite the roster of Early Access titles. The one title in their line up that got me most suspicious is Empires of the Undergrowth, which has spent 6 years in early access and mostly seems to get refreshes of existing content as its updates. Obviously different devs, but hey, you choose your publisher and you choose the baggage that comes with that publisher. When this game gets a full release, I will definitely jump on it right away. But no earlier.

love the warcraft 3 artstyle of the game .

I wonder if he played Frostpunk because the challenges in that are much worse than food.

Please! What is the top down shooting game we see a glimpse of around 3:45 in the video? If anyone knows i would appreciate...

Anyone know the song playing around 2:20

I couldn't even beat the first level 😂😅 I put it down after that but instinctively i know this is a solid game. I know if I can understand it ill get hooked.

I tried Frostpunk but its SOOOO SLOOOOW. Yes I know you can fast forward but the progression is still slow.

Im torn on getting this game or Rimworld

This isn't really a "city builder".. this is a fantasy game.

Bought the game a few days ago and yea wow. I kind of like it. I'm still playing at lowest difficulty, because I'm not THAT good at it yet, but it's still entertaining and provides 'some' challenge even at lower difficulty.

What is the game at @3:45?

What is the game at 3:47

Bought this game partly based on this glowing review! I disagree with some things said and actually personally don't like a lot of things about this game. I like having more of a connection to my bases and population. It's worse than Rimworld in almost every aspect, worse than Cities Skylines in terms of micro management, worse than Banished in terms of actually being able to gather specific resources for your goals and setting up pipelines... the more I think about it, the less I like the game. I love the warcraft 3 art style but after trying this game for 6 hours in two play sessions I really am not sold on it. Just my opinion!

I'm 100 hours on this game 😅

is it just me or does the game not click for anyone else ? It sounds so awesome but im still waiting for the fun to arrive tbh ^^'

Jeez that intro was long

That intro went for way too long

2:30 its a long ass intro to a short video so skip to it

No time to play video games but you have time to upload to youtube. Ok buddy

It's simply not a city (or colony) builder. It is a boardgame like deck building run-based game that happens to use a colony setting. I don't think it does a great a job at that either. It's utterly unlike say Rimworld, Dwarf Fortress etc. I truly hope this game style doesn't creep into other actual city/colony builders. Massively overrated.

Get to the frickin' point!

Get to the point already dude... ~sigh~

Well-spoken, articulate, concise review!