When I first saw this game by Thunderful Group and The Station,it had my interest. A trailer or two later and it definitely had my attention. Then came the fateful day I got an email saying they would be happy to supply me with a review code, and that made me very happy and grateful. It also made my girlfriend very unhappy.
See Steamworld Build seems like a simple and straightforward game. You pull up on a wagon with your little robo people and a mysterious ball talking on the back of the wagon, get a short bit comprehensive tutorial and find all the pieces to a rocket to launch yourselves into space.
And honestly, the game is technically that simple. On the surface you will build basic buildings, a warehouse, farms, charcoal kilns etc. These will keep your robo people happy and functional. It is also quite in depth with how it is done, but not so in depth that it drags. Simply build a wood cutter near trees and they will chop them down and move them to the warehouse. From there they will go to a kiln or logger etc and they will become charcoal or planks.
From there you move onto the underground section. This is where all the mining takes place where you can find different materials and even locate the rocket parts.
Down in the mines you will create different places for different robots to live, whether they be minors, guards or other things you need. There are multiple levels or biomes down here and each time you find 2 rocket parts you can move down to the next level. Each level gradually gets harder and it never feels unfair. Even the enemies on each level grow stronger,with the first level not even seeming to have any just to ease you into the experience.
Each new material underground will help you build new things and robots above ground,these will help you get further down into the mines. The whole thing is very well done and interconnected in a way that is a master class in how it should be done.
My only real complaint is that as you get new robots above ground is that you don’t build new ones, you upgrade old ones. Workers become engineers, engineers become aristocrats and those become scientists. Each new class has new requirements of things they want to live near and have access to. This made me feel like I was constantly rebuilding and rearranging my town. This wasn’t game breaking or killing my fun at all, it was just kind of annoying when I really wanted to be in the mines.
Now I haven’t really touched in the sound or graphics, and that’s because nobody expects a game like this to break new ground in these departments. The game looks good and the sound is great. I never got sick of hearing the train come in and each level of the mine had its own sights and sounds to enjoy.
The controls however will make it break this type of game traditionally on consoles,but in recent years companies have been nailing them. Steamworld Build is no exception,the controls won’t please mouse and keyboard purist, but nothing on console will. They felt great to me however,and if that’s a concern of yours this felt like one of the best to ever do it.
This game is just fantastic,9/10. I spent hours ignoring my family just to play it. Ok maybe that’s a bit of a stretch, but it wasn’t because I didn’t want to, they simply wouldn’t let me. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Savior Gaming 