We live in a blinking lovely time right now. Gone is the notion that genres like real-time strategy (RTS) and management sims can’t be controlled with a standard controller, and we have the likes of Two Point Campus and RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Complete Edition on Switch to prove it. Joining that field is SteamWorld Build, the latest game in the beloved SteamWorld series, and the first in 3D.
On the surface, things seem very simple. You have a city in which you need to build (!) homes, refineries, and resource extractors. Each home can house a maximum number of workers, and the happier they are — dictated by the service buildings nearby and the resources available — the closer to that maximum you’ll get. SteamWorld Build does such an excellent job of easing you into its mechanics that it can seem almost painfully basic at first glance, but that’s all part of the plan.
As you progress you rapidly unlock new facilities to build and improve the lives of those that live in your city, and in time you discover that your workers can be elevated to the rank of Engineer, on a per-household basis. This is the first inkling you get that there’s more to discover than you may have initially thought.
And as you might expect, the discovery train doesn’t stop there, although the trade train will stop in your city. Yes, there’s a train that regularly comes by allowing you to trade resources or cash for other resources or other cash. Considering the strain of trying to fit everything in neatly and maintain a constant supply of all the needed resources, this is a very welcome addition that eases the building burden. It all comes at a cost, naturally, and you’ll have to pay more than what resources are worth to make good use of this bartering system.
But back to the proverbial discovery train. Once you have enough Engineers at your disposal you are able to repair the mineshaft (which was the whole point of your Steambots upping sticks and dropping tools in this particular location), and this is where the game goes from surprisingly layered to literally layered.
The mine is an entirely separate map beneath your city, which you can switch to at the press of two buttons, and it’s instant. We don’t mean 'there’s barely a loading screen' or even 'a short transition', we’re talking a sub-one second process, and it’s utter bliss.
The mine allows you to mine (!) for minerals and other resources to support the city above, and improve the lives of its population with the likes of moonshine, spare parts, and many other bits and bobs that Engineers love to have. Make them happy enough, and you can even boost them to the heights of a new class, Aristobots, and by this point you’ve got the whole thing sussed. The Aristobots and their woven glass hats are the top rank with ludicrous demands and top-tier rewards, right? Well, we’ll get back to it, but obviously the answer is ‘no’.
The whole reason you’re in the mine to begin with is to uncover parts of a spaceship that will allow you to escape the planet which is crumbling and exploding beneath you a bit. It’s the sort of motivation that maintains itself, to be honest. To find them you need to maintain quarters for the four types of bots, navigate unbreakable bedrock, and prevent cave-ins from delving too greedily and too deep. Eventually, you reach a kind of watershed moment, because the mine you entered through a mineshaft has another mineshaft within it.
SteamWorld Build starts out as a simple city builder and slowly reveals itself to have a total of four levels that you can switch between in an instant. Remember how we said it was actually instant before? Well, it still is, and it’s incredible that the developers have achieved a game where four maps are clearly running independently and simultaneously on Nintendo’s little hybrid.
These lower two levels also bring with them some complications in the form of enemies. You’ll need to employ Aristobots as guards to keep the other workers safe and fend off these foul foes, and we start seeing some light RTS-like mechanics seeping in.
To be honest, the whole game feels like it’s riding a line between management sim and RTS at times, and — once you gain the ability to place turrets and other static defensive structures to stem enemy flow — even some tower defence ideals, taking us right back to the series' roots. It’s quite the intoxicating blend, although the penalty for miners being eaten by giant worms or guards being blown up is fairly small, as they’ll just be replaced fairly briskly. The harder difficulty definitely gives combat a bit more edge, so if you’re the type that goes for that, that might be something worth thinking about.
Throughout an entire playthough you’ll be discovering new structures and resources that need to be managed, culminating in Scientist bots advancing your understanding enough to rebuild the rocket and ‘Junior Birdman’ the heck off the planet. Whenever we felt we’d discovered it all, the game gave a hearty chuckle and then revealed that we needed to use more of our sulphur gas and oil reserves because the Aristobots demand a sparkling diesel manufacturer (hmmm).
The whole thing, as every good management sim should, becomes a delicate balancing act of managing resources, maintaining populations, and expanding to achieve progress. One thing we hadn’t banked on was the weird self-inflicted social commentary of moving low-level workers to the outskirts of the city because it really is just easier to do that, leaving all the wealth and services further away from those with the least. Oof.
Such a complex game sounds like a struggle for the Switch, and truth be told the graphics are pared back a lot compared to other platforms. The game runs at 30fps and details are muddy, but considering you’re zoomed out so far 99% of the time, it’s not a dealbreaker. Moreover, graphical fidelity has been sacrificed to maintain performance, and although you will encounter dips as scenes get busier, it's still very playable in both handheld and docked mode. We’re sad not to see more detail of the robot cat on a bench, but prioritising performance is absolutely the right move. The touchscreen goes unused, and we would like the option to scale down the UI in docked mode, but we got used to it fairly quickly.
There’s also a story that will accompany you on your first playthough (although you can disable it), and it’s a nice little context-provider. It’s not breaking any new ground, but it’s a harmless addition that stuffs more personality into things. Similar levels of personality can be seen in the finer details of buildings and how they function, such as a sand refinery simply flinging out whatever it deems too coarse to make it through its filter, presumably hitting some nearby family’s home repeatedly and at all hours. Again, this is lost to a degree due to the graphical sacrifices on Switch, which is a bit of a shame.
One thing we have been left wanting is more replayability. You have multiple maps to choose from, and completing each map gives you a super building of sorts, but they all end up playing out roughly the same in the end. More distinctions and conditions would have been nice to give the player more reason to go through more than once. Having said that, the game is so enjoyable and well-polished that you may be tempted to do a second run straight away regardless, even if the second go around is almost the same as the first.
Conclusion
SteamWorld Build is a beautifully crafted game that seamlessly blends genres and ideas into a polished and premium package. There’s not another management sim like it, but despite it running surprisingly well on Nintendo’s system, it does leave us wanting for more reason to return to it. You’re all but guaranteed to adore your first time through, but subsequent playthroughs may not carry the same magic. Still, with all that being said, this is undeniably a triumph of mechanical marvellousness.
Comments 29
The SteamWorld games seem to be great in general. I did play a bit of Dig on my 3DS and found it enjoyable so I'll try to get this one eventually.
Love the series so far. Looking forward to this as soon as I knock out a couple other games.
More replayability for this sort of game would have been nice but if it plays well and runs well enough on Switch then that's all I really needed to be sold. I've played and loved all the previous games in the series and this one always looked fun so it would have taken some significant issues for me to skip it.
I was in love with Heist. Never got to finish it but it really was an excellent game.
The whole thing where your maximum amount of people per household increases with resources you provide, and then eventually upgrade households to higher levels where they have different requirements sounds exactly like how things work in the Anno series. If you have a PC and want more like this game after finishing it, I wholeheartedly recommend Anno 1800.
Even though performance isn't the best on Switch, I'm still tempted to get it on there just because I have a nostalgic fondness for city builders but don't have a single game in the genre on it (would love to hear if any other management/builder games on Switch are worth it as well)
So glad Thunderful have returned to Steamworld, as I've adored each of these games. Any word of a physical release? Super Rare released a physical for each of the other Switch Steamworld games, and I'd love that for this one as well!
@roy130390 Heist is awesome.
Maaannnn just stop it 2023. I'm playing so much rad stuff already, and cannot buy more.
@mlt Yuuussssss
My gaming plate is a bit full right now but I'm really excited to try this one out eventually! I've loved all the SteamWorld games, especially Dig 2, so I'm sure I'll love this too. I might end up opting for the PS5 version though.
Will play this on gamepass but if I enjoy it enough will grab the switch version once it goes on sale.
Another hit for the SteamWorld franchise?? Splendid!!
I absolutely loved every game in the SteamWorld series, with the exception of SteamWorld Quest which I just "liked a lot"
I've got to wrap up Cult of the Lamb before I dive into another city-management game, but this is will be a "must buy" for me.
I absolutely adore Steamworld Heist, so I'll come around to this sometime in the future.
Thunderfall delivers, again! I'll wait for a (bigger) sale though as I'm not always keen on this genre.
Limited replayability, but how long does it take to play through the first time?
If you were to remove all instances of ‘flipping’, ‘blinking’, ‘ruddy’ and any other adverbs, Alex’s articles would be half the length.
I enjoyed the Steam demo but would rather have this on Switch. This will be an eventual pickup once it goes on sale. WAAAAY too many games to play right now.
I've enjoyed all the other SteamWorld games I've played, which is all of them minus the TD game (Not a fan of the genre) and SteamWorld Quest (Eventually). SteamWorld Dig 2 is my absolute favorite, closely followed by SteamWorld Heist.
I like how they are constantly switching genres. This game isn’t really for me, but it does look fun. However, I just want heist 2. Dig 3 would be nice too. I did not like the card one, so I’m itching for a new steam-world game from those 2 series…
@chardir
"There's plenty to sink your teeth into in SteamWorld Build. Besides the campaign, there are multiple maps to try out and a sandbox mode for infinite management. To complete the story, it took me just over 8.5 hours."
from a pc review
@XiaoShao It'll be Super Rare most likely. I remember asking them a while back if they'd start publishing them through Rising Star Games which I believe they also own and their response was that they have a good relationship with Super Rare and want to keep it going.
My minds been all over the place with this one. I honestly am not in love with "Steam World" as a setting any more, I think it's getting a bit stale. Maybe because I overplayed "Quest" a bit, I don't know. And while I think the games are, as a whole, very reliably good ... I don't think they are reliably GREAT.
But I love city builders! They shot themselves in the foot with a holiday release, and I kinda wrote this game off as something I wouldn't have the time for, especially as it was coming out close to Skylines.
But then Skylines disappointed.
Then it was announced this was coming to Gamepass on the 1st! Went right back on my radar as something I could get into when I finished up some of the recent releases I'm playing, like P5 Tactical and The Man Who Erased His Name.
Until "Against the Storm" got announced for the 8th ...
And now I like a lot of what I'm hearing from this review. Still, I just don't see there being enough time between the 1st and the 8th to dig my teeth into this, and I don't see myself playing it when Against the Storm is an option.
The double edge sword of the Q4 release window, I guess. But it really seems like one of the best possible options for the City Building itch if Switch is you're only option, and it also looks like Switch was lead console in development.
@Cynas Dig 2 was awesome. My favorite too.
I have absolutely no interest in this genre, but I love the SteamWorld games.
Sold.
Loved Dig 1 and 2, wanted to get into Heist, but couldn't and haven't tried Quest yet. I played the demo for this however long ago and loved it, so I'll be getting this at some point.
I love the tie-in with the plot (if you played the right game, you know what I'm talking about), interested to see where that goes.
As another steam world fan, this is a must buy. However, just as I waited for quest to go on sale, I might have to wait a while for this. But, I am excited about this!
@mlt Heist is awesome
I didn’t even realize this was out! Welp time to get some eshop cards.
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