Reus

from Elemental Forums

Anyone else enjoying Reus? Picked it up a few days ago for 9 bucks from steam, already got 20 hours played.

It plays like a god sim, where you control 4 giants that place various resources around the world. These resources are used up by human villagers, and when they finish "projects" you get ambassadors. Send your giants over to pick them up, and unlock new capabilities with your giants. The projects differ every game, so no game plays the same. There is a huge focus on what type of giant picks up what ambassador; almost too complex to explain but basically lots of trade-offs. There are also other fun mechanics such as humans becoming greedy and declaring war on each other or even your giants. Or maybe you decide to breed some dangerous animals next to a village - maybe they prove too much for the village to handle and destroy it. Some animals will help defend the village if it comes under attack as well. And so on.

My only real issue with the game is that you can't really play it without the wiki open in the background. The depth is too much to have in mind when you play. Heck, even with the wiki I often find myself making the "wrong" choices (that is, less than ideal for my current world and its inhabitants).

Overall a very thematic game with a vast complexity that doesn't lose sight of having fun gameplay. Its only shortfall is that it doesn't do a good job at visualizing the complexity in-game.

 

27,264 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

> Looks beautiful; thank you.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Oh my, will have to look into this.  It seems like I saw this and overlooked it, but it looks really interesting now that I spent 30 seconds reading about it.

Multiplicity - Control multiple PCs using one keyboard and mouse
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

I forgot to mention one thing, the gameplay relies heavily on "unlocks" that stick between different games. So you start out with a not-so complex game, trying to achieve fairly simple goals. Then, as you complete these unlocks you gain access to higher tier resources, which in turn makes it possible to complete more difficult unlocks. Okay, that's an awful description of it, but it is a key part of the game and it is (imho) perfectly pulled off. These unlocks really challenge you to play the game in different ways to reach different goals. One goal may be to have a village at the end of the game with 8 ocean tiles, another could be to have a village that has won 6 or more wars.

A game lasts 30, 60 or 120 minutes. The longer games become available as you do the initial unlocks.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Hmmm. I saw it, but skipped it because the graphics seemed like something you'd see in a cartoon for toddlers.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top


Anyone else enjoying Reus? Picked it up a few days ago for 9 bucks from steam, already got 20 hours played.

 

I held off posting about this, and now that I desired to do so...someone had the nerve to beat me to it. Damn you to a hell consisting entirely of telemarketers, sir! :O


My only real issue with the game is that you can't really play it without the wiki open in the background. The depth is too much to have in mind when you play. Heck, even with the wiki I often find myself making the "wrong" choices (that is, less than ideal for my current world and its inhabitants).

 

Agreed. I find myself wishing that the game included all the wiki comments. As it is, I've decided to print them out, and proceed that way. That aside, it's a very clever little game that carefully conceals its choke points, and offers the players plenty of variety as it slowly doles out new, more complex variants in its rules.

 

Overall a very thematic game with a vast complexity that doesn't lose sight of having fun gameplay. Its only shortfall is that it doesn't do a good job at visualizing the complexity in-game. 

 

The graphics don't bother me particularly, since the thing runs fast, and can easily work in a background window. Hell, it could have been worse--Dominions 3--and I would still be playing it.