Games worth discovering

Reach the Moon and Expand! Early Access Review Scorchlands

2K View2023-02-13

A new City builder and Colony Sim game released on steam

The game we are looking at today is called Scorchlands.

Summary:

The volcanic satellite, Helia, is filled with resources, so the daring explorers will not only discover new magical technologies but also harvest riches and establish colonies. Great discoveries are challenging to come by - the moon's surface is full of dangerous creatures waiting to fight for their habitat. The Giwi will have to use magic not only to fend off any predators but also to sustain their economy with arcane lasers allowing them to handle resource logistics by connecting all colonies into an industrial web.

Players must establish multiple colonies on the moon's surface to fully discover Helia's mysteries, discover new tech and magic, terraform the hostile environment, and fight against local creatures.

My Experience:

Honestly, I have only played a few city builders, but this one has a pretty good system with resources and unique ways to expand and grow your cities.

Even though this is early access, the dev team is doing a good job making a simple and unique system for a city builder and resource game.

Hex grid-based city-building – construct various buildings in your colonies. Each structure's productivity depends on neighboring resources and other constructions. Complex resource management – it's not only about extracting materials. Scorchlands takes account of logistics – the movement of resources between colonies and combining them in robust processing chains. And yes, we move resources using LASERS!

Terraforming for the greater good – use magic and technology to change the biomes on procedurally generated maps and exploit the new environment to gain its unique resources. Technology is designed to give fun – there's no fun in a sandbox if you don't have the toys to play with. The technology system in Scorchlands is vital for player progression, and discoveries open new ways to play with the game world.