"City-builders, sadly, seem to be part of a genre that peaked in the 90s and early 2000s, before fading away into the dusty archives of forgotten videogame history. Some of my favourite gaming memories as a kid are of building sprawling cities in the likes of Pharaoh, Stronghold and Caesar. But, along with most strategy games, city-builders seem to have abandoned modern gaming and left us only with their mutated offspring in the form of Farmville, Clash of Clans and Kingdom Rush. There have been some interesting throwbacks to classic city-building lately, such as Banished, Stronghold II and Towns – but it’s been a long time since we’ve seen something truly unique in the genre; something that pushes the boundaries and expectations of a gameplay style that has become increasingly simplified and formulaic over the years. That is, of course, until Gaslamp Games’ recent Early Access title Clockwork Empires showed up."
Tom Chick - "If I was to make a game that I didn’t want anyone to actually play, it would look a lot like Clockwork Empires. A torturous interface with lots of busy little buttons and information spilled across various mutually exclusive screens. Basic tasks that require about two too many steps. Lots of waiting among the various stages of any process, so when you went off to do something else, you might forget the first thing you were doing. One way doors into unrecoverable economic death spirals that you don’t know you’re in until it’s far too late.
Also, it would crash a lot."
Gather your colonists! You will need great wits to get your steampunk colony up and running without facing the wrath of the Occult in Clockwork Empires!
Clockwork Empires feels like a flawed gem. Gamers looking for an accessible colony simulator will certainly find a lot to love here, but frequent crashes and numerous AI issues spoil the experience.
