Developer: Squatting Penguins
Publisher: Squatting Penguins
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Tested on: PC
The Mims Beginning – Review
We’ve previewed The Mims Beginning quite a while ago and were impressed with the adorable adventurous god-like simulation game with a pinch of real-time strategy elements. The strategical single-player is set on a variation of mysterious and mystical floating islands, inhabited by a plethora of fauna and flora with vibrant visuals and a calming soundtrack.
Story
The fantasy world of the Mims is set in a galaxy far, far away. One day, the palm-looking aliens were minding their own business on their spaceship when disaster struck. During its flight, the spaceship was struck by a meteorite splinter, causing the ship to go off course and venture even deeper into the galaxy. The damage to the freighter was immense and the ship could only drift inertly in space. Due to the intensive damage to the ship, the Mims were sucked into space and could only drift idly waiting for help to arrive.
Eventually the freighter reached an atmosphere comprised of hundreds of small, mysterious floating islands and crashed into them on several occasions. Now these mystical islands contain the DNA Orb as well as important parts of the freighter while the Mims continue to float. A handful of Mims reached the escape pods in time. Their timely reaction allows them to help their fellow Mims as they sent out pod after pod from the various islands to retrieve them from outer space.
Sound
The sound is actually fairly calming but is highly dependable on the environment. A floating island that has a river flowing through it will result into soothing wave sounds while these are absent if there is no water body around. Each island has a different shape and is home to different kinds of flaura and founa so the ambiance sound varies somewhat but the overall soundtrack is a steady mixture of all elements combined.
Other than that, the game features several other sounds warning the player of impeding creatures and other dangers. Setting a fire for example resembles the sound of crackling fire and the Mims will scream in fear – or pain – if they are near the fire. Each action has its specific sound and it is clear that a lot of time was spent in creating the perfect atmosphere for a god-like game. The Mims themselves do not talk so be prepared to listen to incoherent mumbling for the duration of your sessions.
Graphics
Although the vibrant color scheme and adorable looking creatures – even the venomous spiders, majestic dragons and skilful tigers look cute! – seem childish, the game is anything but childish. At later stages, the vibrant visual aspect gets traded in for gloomy sceneries that are just as stunning as their lively counterparts. One reoccurring element is the cuteness overload, no matter the environment.
Gameplay
While the preview only offered a glance at the story mode, the full release of the game offers players a secondary game mode, namely the survival mode. Both modes are equally fun and challenging although the difficulty of the latter mode can be upped to a point where it’s nearly impossible. The story mode also offers a tutorial at the beginning, which you can somewhat skip if you want to but as the game uses specific mechanics for specific events, the tutorial is a welcomed feature.
The game is a god-like game where you are the “god” in the sky, watching over the Mims which have landed on a floating island. As the governor, it is your task to figure out tactics to increase your survival rate – or that of your beloved Mims while completing each preset goal. There are tons of floating islands at your disposal and each of your missions take place on a special designed island. Certain missions overlap on the same island so you need to make sure that you did great from the very beginning or all hell will break loose as you advance in the mission.
You’ll start each game by placing a PSI tower which acts as your headquarters. The tower has a specific range so you place it just right to reach most of the island. Don’t worry if the range isn’t good enough just yet because you can upgrade the tower when you’ve gathered enough materials, which will increase the range. Next step is the silo in which your biomass is stored but it won’t do you any good without a grinder-like machine, the Extractor. Your Mims will walk around the island, gathering fruits thrown from plants – which you can also plant – and throw these into the grinder to turn it into biomass which on its turn acts as a resource for nearly everything you do.
Many of the various buildings are a must-have if you want to complete the objectives and the bio lab is one of the most important ones. The bio lab allows you to research new types of fruit and livestock creation, meaning you could create chicken that will start eating the excess yellow fruit meaning no fruit will go to waste. There are other livestock too and each animal will eat different kinds of fruit, ranging from yellow to black, from violet to red. Most fruits won’t be available at the start – unless you are playing survival – but will gradually be unlocked when researched. Once your livestock has grown into adults, you can sell them by transporting them on a spaceship. Once the ship returns, your Mims will start unloading gems. These gems are highly important for progressing because nearly everything you build requires gems. There are a few ways to gather gems but we wouldn’t want to spoil all the mechanics.
The more fruits you have laying around, the higher the fruit smell will be which attracts unwanted visitors such as caterpillars of some sort. The game offers various types of enemies, ranging from the rather innocent caterpillars to biting spiders to slashing tigers. While creatures are dangerous when not contained, the island itself can be hazardous as well. The earth can rumble leaving buildings in ruins or it can grow toxic trees. That’s not the last of it though because the atmosphere itself can be dangerous too, meteorites and acid rain are no strange phenomenons in the world of The Mims Beginning. To counter these dangers, you’ve been given a certain set of abilities which requires a different kind of resource. Let it rain when your Mims are on fire or blast the beasts from the island while you burn up trees and surrounding critters. If you want to be more prepared, you can help the shaman predict the future by researching new technologies and teaching the aliens new skills by unlocking the science center. If that is not enough, you can start building up defenses by adding a defense tower or transform workers into guardians in the garrison.
Conclusion
The Mims Beginning is an adorable-looking god-like game that does what it must do with interesting real-time strategy elements and clever designed mechanics. While the overall gameplay is fairly simple the tactics aren’t, advancing in the game feels like a tedious task. Even so, the amount of content is absolute amazing and it features a more than decent gameplay experience for any god game simulation fans.
The Mims Beginning – Review,
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