Reus – Review
Ever felt the world would be a better place if you were God? Well, Abbey Games has made a game just for you. The young Dutch studio’s first game is a creative and innovative take on the god game genre. Is Reus a force for good? Let’s find out.
Story
Reus is not your average god game, as you don’t make any direct divine interventions. Unlike any other games in the genre, you take control of 4 giants that do your landscaping for you. Depending on how good your Dutch is, the game’s title would have been a giveaway, as “reus” simply means “giant”.
Even though you have full control over your giants, you do not control mankind. Humans get greedy and violent. Give your humans a finger and next thing you know, they’ll be taking a hand. It’s up to you to maintain balance and harmony between several settling tribes and nature itself.
Graphics
The game draws you in with its cartoony and vibrant 2d graphics. All four giants look gorgeous from up close and your planet feels very much alive. Unlike most other god games, this game doesn’t employ a top down view. We see the world from a cross section, which can be rotated. In order to see the world in detail or get a more global overview, we can zoom in and out. All components of the game have been beautifully drawn and zooming in only makes them look better. But don’t zoom all the way out though, as that makes the world look like an uninteresting grey blob.
The Giant’s color palettes match the type of vegetation they can create, so there is never any confusion. The visual cues greatly reduce the amount of tooltips you need to read in order to understand what is going on. It helps keep the gameplay flowing.
Sound
The game doesn’t have a distinguished soundtrack, but the sound effects bring the world to life. Erecting mountains produces a rumble, the sea produces calming waves and any activities the humans take part in make a subtle noise. You can hear the miners hitting the ores or hear murmuring at the town center for example.
Gameplay
Interestingly, the game doesn’t feature a campaign. Every time you start a new Era, the world is barren and lifeless and you have to start from scratch again. An Era determines how much time you have to unlock achievements in. At first, you can only select a 30 minute Era. Later on, 60 and 120 minute Eras can be unlocked. You don’t have to play all those minutes in one sitting however, you can save intermittently.
You must be wondering how any kind of progress can be made if the game always starts from scratch. Well, the achievements you gain aren’t just for show. Every achievement unlocks something new that can be used in the game on the next play through. For example, you get animals with better stats, more natural resources, better buffs etc. This allows the humans to complete higher level projects, which in turn unlocks more achievements.
In order to make civilization possible, you need to do some serious terraforming! Each Giant can create a unique biome, with the exception of the Rock Giant, which creates both mountains and deserts. As there are 4 Giants, this mean 5 biomes: Ocean, Mountain, Forest, Swamp and Desert.
In order to turn such a biome into habitable land, you need to provide some natural resources. If there are currently nomads wandering around the planet, a (new) settlement arises. Depending on what type of settlement it is – Ocean, Forest, Swamp or Desert, villages do not spawn in the mountains – different types of projects are available.
Humans will decide on their own what kind of project they want to develop. If you don’t like what they’re building, you can only destroy it and hope they get the hint. In order to complete one of these projects, the humans will need natural resources. It’s your job to make sure they have enough resources before the timer runs out. Completing projects leads to unlocking achievements and making further progress in the game.
There are 3 basic resources: food, wealth and technology. By skillfully placing different types within range of each other, symbioses can be achieved. This will increase the yield for every affected patch of land. Aside from granting bonuses, this can also grant special resources like “awe”, “danger” and “nature”. Additionally, the animals, plants and natural resources can be upgraded several times by using Aspects on them. This allows them to “transmute” into higher-yielding varieties. These transmutations have symbioses of their own, so this mechanic gets quite deep.
Adding yet another layer of strategy, the Giants themselves can be upgraded by placing Ambassadors on them. Ambassadors are humans that reside on your Giants head and they can be earned by completing projects. The ambassador system is fairly deep as the Swamp Ambassador unlocks a different ability on a Giant then for example a Forrest Ambassador. Each Giant has its own unlockable abilities by the way.
Sounds complicated? Luckily, Abbey Games has set up a wiki that explains everything in great detail.
Conclusion
Reus is an intriguing take on the god game genre. The idea of only being able to indirectly control the population by advanced manipulation of the landscape is a refreshing one. With a variety of over 100 different plants, animals and minerals an enormous replay value is ensured. Unlockable achievements help keep the gameplay fresh as they keep adding new methods of reaching your goals. Besides all that, the game retails for only €9,99 and is therefore certainly worth your consideration.
Reus - Review,
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