If you don't already know what a god game is, let me give you a little bit of info. God games are generally where you take control and grow a world indirectly, like how a god would work. You can control the world around the people, but you can't control the people themselves. Any action you take affects the environment and encourages behaviours, but you can't tell the population what to do.
In the case of Reus, your will is carried out by 4 giants that have control over different aspects of nature. As you make use of their unique abilities, you can create vastly different environments for your villages to grow in. With the different resources you place down on the varying types of land, you can encourage a village to make use of what is abundant in the area.
It might sound simple, place resources on a piece of land and watch everything grow, but it's a lot more strategic than it sounds at first. As a village grows, it's needs more resources and sometimes different ones too. As such, the resources around the village may need to be replaced or strengthened, and you have to utilize the space you're given appropriately such that there is symbiosis between everything.
There is a lot to Reus, and thankfully a very helpful tutorial is ingrained in the game, under the Beginning mode. It's made up of three eras, each new era building upon what you learned in the last. Going through these tutorials gave me a good understanding of how to do things, and what can happen when you do things. After that, I was set free to do as I wished. There are a total of 3 modes in Reus. There's the tutorial mode Beginning, then there is the Era mode, which consists of the main progression elements of Reus, and finally Freeplay mode, where you just do whatever you want.
Era mode has 3 different time limits to play in, a 30-minute, a 60-minute, and a 120-minute time limit. Now you might be thinking what's the point of having a time limit? Within Era mode, you start off with only the 30-minute time limit unlocked, and having to earn enough development achievements to reach the next level, unlocking access to the next time limit setting. So basically you're earning achievements to unlock new things to experiment with, but that's not the only thing.
When restricted by the time limit, the game forces the player to learn about the various aspects of the game without giving the player enough time or resources to reach highly complex situations that might confuse a new player. As the player proves that they have figured out more about the mechanics of the game, and show an ability to cultivate a civilization in a timely or restricted manner, the game lifts the limits a bit to let you experiment further.
The point I'm emphasizing here is that the game is paced very well, and really helps bring in new players easily. The game gives players 3 goals to achieve in each game, with neat icons and a description. These goals are the easiest developments to reach for, and are conveniently placed on the UI for reference at any time. Now, this doesn't mean gaming veterans won't enjoy the game. Just because there are 3 goals shown to you does not mean you are limited to achieving those 3, as you can get any development in the unlocks list at any time. The core game itself is a lot of fun, and someone who can quickly pick up on how to play the game will be able to progress significantly faster by unlocking many things at once.
Reus is a beautiful game with great environments that you can see. As you watch your village grow, you can see the people and buildings change. The great thing is you can zoom out to see the grand view of the world, and then you can zoom in to watch the people and see their thoughts shown by icons. It's wonderful to see people walking over to use the resources your giants have placed down, and being able to watch the on-goings on the villages. A woman might be sweeping the ground, a new farm may be created, all these details made me feel like my effort meant something to the world that I was cultivating. And then when the armies began to march, I could feel the impending doom.
A really great aspect in Reus is the greed meter of villages. If a village grows too quickly, it gets greedy and the people of that village start wanting more, and even demanding more. They might even start wars in their greed, and begin assaulting the giants. Not only does it help with the pacing for new players, it adds an entirely new element to the gameplay. You could even fuel a village's thirst for war, aid them in their chaotic endeavors, and help them grow to be a mighty war-mongering civilization! Of course, this is all at the expense of all the other villages that you've painstakingly worked on.
This unique god game is an absolute blast to play, I have immensely enjoyed my time spent on Reus. The artwork is beautiful, and everything you do is represented visibly in the world. Reus is easy to pick-up for beginners to gaming while allowing gaming pros to enjoy the complexity of the world.
9/10
No comments:
Post a Comment