Recent reviews by T-Bone Spake

Rated up for 3.0 cuz a clown rated down for 3.0 (despite 3.0 not even being released yet).

A tower defense game that includes a resource system a la Age of Empires, a tech tree, and garrisoning- all standard RTS features that for some reason I don't see in other tower defense games despite tower defense games starting as RTS custom maps. Refreshing to see any innovation in the genre really.

It's a Soldak game.

I find it weird this game isn't talked about more since it's Harmonix's best work, but perhaps it's due to it being in somewhat awkward position between game, tool, and something else entirely. Fuser is able to combine some very unlikely disparate tracks into euphony with almost no effort from the player, allowing you just to vibe. The game is a DLC hog of course, as is Harmonix tradition, but it's somewhat more excusable here since unlike every other Harmonix game where you spend money for just the song, here you get the song along with every possible combination it has with all the other songs you have. The community is small but present- which is good since the game is somewhat reliant on it (the campaign is an extended tutorial and the only single player ways other than that that I'm aware of is to earn XP is rendering mixes as videos and doing the weekly community challenge. Try the demo, see if it's your thing, since there really isn't anything quite like it.

It's truly a shame that Tripwire's president prioritizes rapists over victims.

Rated up cuz the apely are rating it down. Closest comparison would be Light of Altair but only like 50 people played that so best I can do is say you'll be able to handle managing things just fine if your cranium doesn't echo.

This game has the look and feel of a passion project programmed in a garage circa 1998- low on the flashiness, heavy on the complexity, features oriented towards the genre hobbyist, and a sheer cliff of a learning curve unless you're already familiar with the game type. This is a game that does not make design compromises and is willing to risk having a broad audience for the sake of what it aims to be- and by the virtue of this zeal it has the capability to become the greatest of the games in its field. The game in a technical sense is still in a rough state and sometimes it's hard to tell what's a bug and what's a hidden system at work (see: when your orders aren't listened to), but even in its current state it's perfectly playable as it is.

Like if Islanders and Carcassonne had a baby.

The problem of controls in a proper three-dimensional space RTS games has always been a daunting one- with most developers deciding to just make space 2D because they don't want to deal with the issue (Homeworld being so notable due to it being a rare exception).

This game demonstrates that VR is fully capable of solving the problem, in a way that I think only VR is capable of properly executing- which is to say it is the best kind of VR game.

It took me a bit to really get a hold of what I think about this game, even though the systems within the game itself aren't really that complex- especially by citybuilder standards. The reason for my degree of thought is that this game seems to be in a very unique situation where its foundation and its structure feel like competing priorities- a confusing statement that warrants further explanation to be sure.

The foundation of this game is a post-apocalyptic citybuilder- there is no currency: your building materials are scavenged from ruins around the map and trade is done via barter. The day-to-day resource management for citizen needs is a bit simplistic (such as do you use less efficient buildings that produce faster or more efficient buildings that produce slower), although I do give credit for a corpse management system that both exists in the first place and is more complex than Frostpunk's (which works well since like Frostpunk the hardship of the situation tends to make people die in droves). The game also has a player avatar leader system that reminds me of the more recent Tropicos- and comparatively speaking I'm disappointed the leader creation system isn't more nuanced (with things beyond setting your religion, like traits) but on the other hand Atomic Society actually uses the player character in the game world (you can have your leader scavenge, build, etc) as opposed to Tropico where your leader felt like little more than a walking production buff. If this was all the game was, it would merely be mediocre.

However, on this foundation lies what I consider the actual structure of the game: beliefs, social issues, and the management of both. Each citizen has a belief system (typically a religion) that they belong to, and those who follow your set one are more likely to follow and enforce your set laws. You can encourage belief in your views through either education/propaganda or coercion. The laws in this game are entirely focused around social issues ie issues that can classify an individual into a group (gay? vegetarian? drug user? murderer? etc.) and for each social issue you can pick from a set of four punishments ranging from execution to short prison sentence, tolerance, or encouragement. I'm generally positive about this system as although it does restrict the range of laws even possible to implement within the game using the system, it results in a much more interesting choice than Tropico's binary edict system ever did. This choice is made all the more interesting by the context of the game (and is an example of synergy as opposed to the competition I will touch on later) where punishing someone for anything takes them out of the workforce- not a great thing for a post-apocalyptic society- so the more severe the punishment the more of a price you pay for your version of order.

However, now is where I get to what I was talking about in regards to competition between the foundation and the structure- for I personally feel that the law and belief system is the unique selling point of this game- but for such a small independent developer the logistical requirements of having decent traditional citybuilder mechanics takes time and effort away from that. Yes a society needs to have economic stakes at play to make a legal system matter more, but every citybuilder in existence has an economic system, not every citybuilder has a legal system. The developers previously stated that they regarded the three pillars of their game to be resource gathering, keeping people alive, and keeping things running efficiently- but I would say pillars need to actually support something or otherwise they serve no purpose, and those pillars should be supporting the player's pursuit of their vision of an ideological utopia built upon the ashes of the old world. To that end, although it is late in the game (no pun intended), I feel that the developers ought to embrace the system they have created and set it free- even to what might be perceived as extremes like laws in regards to flagellation/sadomasochism (basically the same thing and merely dependent of the context imo), blood sport, ritual sacrifice (both human and otherwise), and more. A player will generally be more interested in creating a post-apocalyptic Sodom than setting up yet-another-production-chain.

Still, even if the developers don't or are simply unable to heed such advice, I consider this a solid little citybuilder with some unique features that in my opinion make it worth the current non-sale price of $15.