SteamWorld Build Review: Upkeep in a Town of Tin

The SteamWorld series has quietly built up a scrappy band of lovably rusty robots across a variety of genres over the past decade. From steam-powered platformers to tactical card battlers, Swedish dev Image & Form has shown real ingenuity in adapting its charming steampunk aesthetic to new game styles while retaining a distinctly lighthearted personality.

Their latest invention SteamWorld Build sees the iconic workerbots try their hand at settling an extraterrestrial frontier town, with a resource-gathering twist. The premise blends city builder mechanics with active dungeon excavations, allowing players to construct a bustling Wild West settlement on the surface while overseeing a subterranean mining company down below.

It’s a welcome shot in the arm for the somewhat stale city builder space. Beyond refreshing the familiar gameplay loop with interconnected above-ground and underground development, SteamWorld Build stands out through its vivid personality. The expressive robots bumbling around town provide plenty of visual gags, while the ramshackle machinery chugging away injects an endearing handmade quality.

Overall there’s a tangibility to both the steambots and their makeshift homestead that gives SteamWorld Build an accessible, scrappy pioneer charm. It’s a world defined by sprocket-spurting characters rather than sterile spreadsheets, closer to Costume Quest than Tropico in tone. For builders weary of dour, number-crunching micromanagement sims, this quirky community of mechanical misfits striving to make their mark provides a welcome breath of fresh steambot air.

Building a Boomtown, One Sprocket at a Time

On the surface, SteamWorld Build plays like a breezy frontier town builder. You’ll layout roads and houses to attract eager workerbots looking to make their mark on this dusty planet. Keeping your steambots cheerful is key, so constructing saloons, shops, and other civilized amenities amidst the cacti keeps community spirits high.

It’s not all desert views and moonshine though. Early on, you’ll gain access to mineshafts allowing you to direct mining crews below the earth. This flips the build loop on its head, as you carefully plot tunnels to vein caches while fending off unruly pests. Success below generates crucial resources and tech to expand operations above.

This intertwined progression system is SteamWorld Build’s mechanical heart, pumping vital materials between frontier boomtown and subterranean workshop. There’s a charming Rube Goldberg feel to the whole operation, as a new warehouse on the surface leads to upgraded picks underground, unearthing parts to construct an automated drill for the miners, boosting ore yields for the foundries back in town.

The interface makes juggling these plates surprisingly straightforward, with clear supply chain diagrams and notification icons that grab your attention when something needs addressing. The difficultly can also be tailored to preference, ensuring the cascading construction chaos never becomes overwhelming.

Approachable yet engrossing, SteamWorld Build’s dual-layered development loop provides plenty of nuts and bolts for veterans to tweak while remaining welcoming to newcomers. As your resource network grows increasingly complex between gritty mines and cluttered workshops, there’s an immense satisfaction seeing all those spinning cogs and hissing pistons harmonize into a functioning frontier machine.

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A Robot Roundup of Ragtag Rustbuckets

The distinct visual identity of SteamWorld is one of the series’ strongest assets across its genre hopscotching. From steampunk platformers to tactical card battlers, Image & Form have cultivated a cohesive cast of expressive bots that translate seamlessly into new game styles. SteamWorld Build is no exception, retaining the ragtag appeal of its rustbucket residents while organically weaving the art style into frontier town life.

The steambots themselves are marvels of mechanical characterization, conveying personality through charmingly limited body language. Miners traipse around tunnels with a bowed determination, aristobot bowlers strut about with a hint of pomp, and saloon bots hovering behind bars offer a vague sense of sleazy charm. Little touches like waving hello or scratches on metal domes bring these bots to life without complex animations.

This visual minimalism extends across the bustling boomtowns as well. Buildings feel hand-cranked into existence, a frontier settlement carved out through grit and sprockets rather than city planning software. The modular chunks and bric-a-brac materials feel appropriate to both the robots and the Wild West backdrop, with winding dirt roads and ramshackle roofs that practically holler “Howdy Pardner!”.

While the Americana could veer into kitschy pastiche in the wrong hands, SteamWorld Build uses just enough barnyard trim, cowboy hexagons, and mechanized farmsteads to root itself in the setting without drowning in yee-haws. It’s ultimately the robots and their borderland that shine here rather than any one historical reference.

From acoustic country twangs on the soundtrack to steam clouds wafting across the screen, the atmosphere here is invitingly lived-in. For all the nuts, bolts, and hazard signs adorning both town and tunnels, what stands out most is the heartfelt personality SteamWorld Build’s rustic robot community gives the world.

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A Short But Sweet Steambot Stay

Don’t ride into SteamWorld Build expecting a sprawling space cowboy saga. This jaunty steambot city builder is more short story than epic novel when it comes to progression and content. The main campaign storyline wraps up nicely within 10-15 hours, granting a satisfying sense of conclusion without overstaying its welcome.

Your primary goal across the handful of maps is constructing an operational rocket from recovered parts to evacuate your rusty residents from their dried-out planet. It’s a straightforward objective bolstered by enough charismatic writing to bring dimension to the robots’ wayward plight. The varied biomes also contribute by introducing environmental obstacles to navigate around in the town planning, even if the core loop remains largely familiar.

It’s an amiable adventure then, but unlikely to spur months of dedicated devotion like some of its simulation siblings in the genre. The procedural underground mines provide some variability, but surface progression unfolds predictably across locations. Additional challenge modes mix up freeplay beyond the story, however the lack of distinct game modes or playable characters ultimately stifles extended replay value.

This limited scope is unlikely to satisfy strategy fans yearning for complex systems to dissect and optimize for chain reactions. However for players seeking a chill builder to casually potter around in on weekends rather than strictly regiment, SteamWorld Build’s condensed campaign provides pleasantly breezy entertainment.

The experience seems consciously designed for palatable pick-up-and-play rather than commandeering endless hours. Chirpy writing, intuitive menus, and forgiving difficulty make progression smooth without excessive distraction. For all its juggling of plates between mines and boomtown, SteamWorld Build wants you admire the spinning rather than stress about potential crashes.

Sometimes it’s refreshing to simply enjoy a crafty bit of frontier engineering rather than manage intricate spreadsheets. SteamWorld Build won’t set up permanent residence in your daily routine, but it’s well worth resting your spurs awhile in its lively robot locale before riding onto the next adventure.

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A Well-Oiled Machine

For all the nuts, bolts, and hissing valves adorning SteamWorld Build’s scrappy steambots, what truly drives this adventure are some remarkably smooth game design cogs. Beneath the ramshackle pioneer props lies an accessible yet engrossing mechanical loop finely tuned for functionality over frills.

The primary piston powering the experience is the smart interplay between building up the frontier boomtown above while excavating precious resources from the mines below. It’s a multi-tasker’s dream scenario, allowing attention to organically drift between urban planning sessions and hands-on tunnel expeditions without negative repercussions.

Getting sidetracked sprucing up saloons or chasing mineral veins won’t tank the operation. Helpful interface reminders combined with the ability to freely pause and tweak priorities provides flexibility to step away temporarily without triggering catastrophic breakdowns. It cultivates an exploratory mood driven by curiosity rather than compulsion.

Accessibility is further aided by the clear conveyance of systems. SteamWorld Build won’t be confused for a spreadsheet simulator, but there’s enough underlying logic within the simple production chains to engage more calculating minds. The interface makes grasping these connections intuitive, clearly communicating how new structures fit into the machinery.

Straightforward systems also pave the way for supplemental action via periodic enemy waves when underground. These tower defense-esque moments provide spikes of tension to contrast the tranquil town tweaking, giving you an active role in saving your tunneling bots. Besides valuable resources, these ancient foes guard narrative critical parts – rewarding bold spelunking with story progress.

For all its cutesy robots and silly frontier props, SteamWorld Build harbors an expertly balanced experience between conquering raids and fine-tuning resource conduits. The flexibility to step between battlefronts allows both thrill-seeking and tranquility without distraction – a smoothly oiled machine.

Room For Tinkering

For all of SteamWorld Build’s mechanical charms, a few rusty patches could still use some tinkering under the chassis. Frontier town construction unfolds smoothly, however repetitive structure means subsequent playthroughs feel more like tweaked reruns rather than bold new frontiers. Additionally, while customization options help add personal flavor, the tools for true spontaneous creativity feel limited.

The town builder gameplay loop serves its purpose splendidly, yet falls into fairly predictable patterns across each new save file. Procedural elements like the mineshafts add welcome variety to underground resource excavation and defense, but structural progression rarely deviates over multiple maps. Charming characters and diverse biomes regrettably can’t offset the repetition.

More customization freedom could help spur fresh runs, however player expression feels confined to decor rather than mechanics. Placing cactuses and wooden fences is better than nothing, but without adjustable building traits or road manipulation there’s minimal capacity to distinctively stamp your steambot settlement. Additional zoning and Claire or trade route options could have opened new creative avenues.

It’s somewhat surprising SteamWorld Build doesn’t take a page from its RPG sibling SteamWorld Quest and incorporate more card game-esque mechanics. Customizable ability cards for bots and buildings may have granted tactical opportunity beyond just supplementing stats with occasional visitor purchases. This underutilization of the steambot universe’s signature innovation seems a missed crossover opportunity.

Make no mistake – riding the rails through SteamWorld Build’s quaint robot outpost remains a relaxing joy, especially for newcomers to the genre. But some additional wiggle room for mayoral mavericks, wacky town layouts, and designing distinctive places could have removed any lingering acidic aftertaste of sameness between cities. It’s prime territory for a high-octane inventive sequel.

All Aboard the Boomtown Express

Like an express locomotive fueled by scrap and steam, SteamWorld Build barrels along at a brisk pace providing a joyously refreshing trip around familiar city builder terrain. Dynamic twists like lively tunneling defense missions avoid routine while clear controls and presentation allow passengers of all ages to comfortably ride along.

Veteran mayors may eventually find the lack of intricate economic sabotage or political scandals leaves the frontier feeling a tad tame. But developer The Station has built something ultimately more welcoming than overwhelming with SteamWorld Build. For once there’s space to admire the chugging machinery rather than constantly worrying about throwing a wrench into the gears.

That reliability and personality is SteamWorld Build’s mechanical heart – an accessible city builder built not for endlessly tweaking statistical models but for soaking up the ramshackle robot charm. Sure, additional environmental or architectural customization could have added long-term value. However in terms providing a welcoming waystation for the genre rather than an impenetrable mega-simulation, The Station has assembled something special.

SteamWorld Build probably won’t stand alongside beloved designer playgrounds like Cities: Skylines in the city building pantheon once the credits roll. But it delivers both an ideal introduction for newcomers plus a heartwarming nostalgic weekend for veterans in its lively frontier community. This locomotives may lack the endless intricacy of an entire railroad empire, but the scenic steambot countryside it tours makes for a getaway that puts smiles on faces rather than stress on spreadsheets. All aboard!

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