Reus
Builder Meets Puzzler
83/100 (B)
Positives:
- Simple but pleasing art style
- Deep, complex Giant power combos make for engaging gameplay
- Easy to enjoy in short bursts, longest game mode takes an hour at most
Negatives:
- Limited story, no real overarching plot
- Very limited replay value; not much new to find after a few play-throughs
- Difficult to manage all four giants at once, easy to become disoriented
Reus is an odd sort of game. It takes the formula of the typical city-builder "God Game" and shifts its focus slightly. Rather than playing as a single omnipotent being, you instead play as four separate Giants, each with dominion over a different type of terrain: Mountain, Swamp, Forest, and Ocean, respectively. What makes Reus a bit more engaging than some other "God Games" is that no single Giant can do everything by itself: it must rely on its fellow Giants to make a successful village.
Each Giant has several powers at their disposal that can create an environment, create a natural resource, or enhance resources with new Aspects that allow them to evolve and improve further. Due to the way the individual Giants have different synergies with one another, Reus plays very much like a puzzler mixed with a builder: with limited space and limited time, the player is forced to make decisions about what resources to place where in order to take full advantage of various synergies and combinations. Different minerals, plants and animals interact with one another differently: to make a village succeed, the player has to take full advantage of the resources their environment provides.
One of the more challenging aspects of Reus is the happiness and greed of the various villages your Giants work to maintain. If a village is left to grow unchecked, they will get greedy and begin to wage war on their neighbors, and eventually even on the Giants that gave them life. This greed can be curbed by creating threats to surround villages and keep them on their toes, but too much threat will cause villagers to start dying off. Awe is a slightly harder to utilize mechanic, but functions just like threat, without the potential for overdoing it. With the mechanic of greed to contend with, town-building becomes a delicate balancing act for the player.
This sense of balance and harmony is actually most of what makes Reus engaging and fun to play; you aren't just trying to make a village with the most possible food and resources. You need to strike a harmonious balance in order to maintain peace and order among your various villages. Reus is by no means perfect, however, and suffers largely from its lack of replay value. Most city-building or "god game" titles offer tons of ways to customize your civilizations and your game world. Reus, unfortunately, offers the player very little room to expand: the planet you are confined to is tiny, and you don't have enough options available to warrant dozens and dozens of play-throughs like you would get from the Civilization series or other similar games. For its price, though, Reus is an enjoyable title that will keep you occupied for a good while, though your mileage may vary depending on how much you enjoy micro-management.
Link to the "Reus" site, if you're interested!
- Simple but pleasing art style
- Deep, complex Giant power combos make for engaging gameplay
- Easy to enjoy in short bursts, longest game mode takes an hour at most
Negatives:
- Limited story, no real overarching plot
- Very limited replay value; not much new to find after a few play-throughs
- Difficult to manage all four giants at once, easy to become disoriented
Reus is an odd sort of game. It takes the formula of the typical city-builder "God Game" and shifts its focus slightly. Rather than playing as a single omnipotent being, you instead play as four separate Giants, each with dominion over a different type of terrain: Mountain, Swamp, Forest, and Ocean, respectively. What makes Reus a bit more engaging than some other "God Games" is that no single Giant can do everything by itself: it must rely on its fellow Giants to make a successful village.
Each Giant has several powers at their disposal that can create an environment, create a natural resource, or enhance resources with new Aspects that allow them to evolve and improve further. Due to the way the individual Giants have different synergies with one another, Reus plays very much like a puzzler mixed with a builder: with limited space and limited time, the player is forced to make decisions about what resources to place where in order to take full advantage of various synergies and combinations. Different minerals, plants and animals interact with one another differently: to make a village succeed, the player has to take full advantage of the resources their environment provides.
One of the more challenging aspects of Reus is the happiness and greed of the various villages your Giants work to maintain. If a village is left to grow unchecked, they will get greedy and begin to wage war on their neighbors, and eventually even on the Giants that gave them life. This greed can be curbed by creating threats to surround villages and keep them on their toes, but too much threat will cause villagers to start dying off. Awe is a slightly harder to utilize mechanic, but functions just like threat, without the potential for overdoing it. With the mechanic of greed to contend with, town-building becomes a delicate balancing act for the player.
This sense of balance and harmony is actually most of what makes Reus engaging and fun to play; you aren't just trying to make a village with the most possible food and resources. You need to strike a harmonious balance in order to maintain peace and order among your various villages. Reus is by no means perfect, however, and suffers largely from its lack of replay value. Most city-building or "god game" titles offer tons of ways to customize your civilizations and your game world. Reus, unfortunately, offers the player very little room to expand: the planet you are confined to is tiny, and you don't have enough options available to warrant dozens and dozens of play-throughs like you would get from the Civilization series or other similar games. For its price, though, Reus is an enjoyable title that will keep you occupied for a good while, though your mileage may vary depending on how much you enjoy micro-management.
Link to the "Reus" site, if you're interested!
Each Giant has several powers at their disposal that can create an environment, create a natural resource, or enhance resources with new Aspects that allow them to evolve and improve further. Due to the way the individual Giants have different synergies with one another, Reus plays very much like a puzzler mixed with a builder: with limited space and limited time, the player is forced to make decisions about what resources to place where in order to take full advantage of various synergies and combinations. Different minerals, plants and animals interact with one another differently: to make a village succeed, the player has to take full advantage of the resources their environment provides.
One of the more challenging aspects of Reus is the happiness and greed of the various villages your Giants work to maintain. If a village is left to grow unchecked, they will get greedy and begin to wage war on their neighbors, and eventually even on the Giants that gave them life. This greed can be curbed by creating threats to surround villages and keep them on their toes, but too much threat will cause villagers to start dying off. Awe is a slightly harder to utilize mechanic, but functions just like threat, without the potential for overdoing it. With the mechanic of greed to contend with, town-building becomes a delicate balancing act for the player.
This sense of balance and harmony is actually most of what makes Reus engaging and fun to play; you aren't just trying to make a village with the most possible food and resources. You need to strike a harmonious balance in order to maintain peace and order among your various villages. Reus is by no means perfect, however, and suffers largely from its lack of replay value. Most city-building or "god game" titles offer tons of ways to customize your civilizations and your game world. Reus, unfortunately, offers the player very little room to expand: the planet you are confined to is tiny, and you don't have enough options available to warrant dozens and dozens of play-throughs like you would get from the Civilization series or other similar games. For its price, though, Reus is an enjoyable title that will keep you occupied for a good while, though your mileage may vary depending on how much you enjoy micro-management.
Link to the "Reus" site, if you're interested!
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