Against the Storm

Against the Storm is one of the best games that I have experienced in early access, we could already tell it was going to be a classic. Plus the devs have provided a tight schedule of updates every 2 weeks, and it was quite fun to see the game grow in real time with more and more being added. Now that 1.0 is out it's finally time to talk about the game.

So Against the Storm is a roguelite survival city builder. It's a race against the clock to gain enough reputation before the queen has too much impatience. Simple enough concept? Yes, but the game does have a certain complexity and it's pretty hard to master as the difficulty increases.

Every run starts the same: you begin in a small patch of land surrounded by trees, and you need to set up some woodcutters in order to expand and open up other areas (called glades). These glades will contain resources and you can grow from there. The queen will send some orders for which you need to complete in order to gain some reputation points. If not, she grows her impatience points and if it reaches a certain number you lose the game. The game works in 3 seasons with the 3rd one being "the storm" where things don't go so well and you can't really send your woodcutters out as the hostility of the forest is too strong and makes your villager too unhappy (which will generally cause them to leave).

The roguelite elements comes in the form of various choices
1) The blueprints: you do not have access to all the buildings in each run, rather you must choose between a selection and pick the right ones in order to succeed. It will be pretty common that you need a certain resource to produce and you didn't pick it. For example to make biscuits you need one of the buildings that makes them, but also some flour which is produced by another building and then also one of the three: herbs, berries or roots. Those are produced by certain farms, but it's possible you didn't get the right one. Like a true roguelike, knowledge of the game will really help and you'll need to adapt quick to situations.

2) The Cornerstones: these are like perks. Some have a stronger effect but also come with a negative effect. You get a new one after the cycle of the 3 seasons, again knowledge of the game is important here as many of them have more of a "late game" effect and you might not be able to get their effect.

3) The villagers. There's 5 races and you are given a random 3 every run, however you will always get a choice between 2 packs with different resources. Each race has their own preferences so not the same thing will make them happy, and they also have certain activities they do better (ex: beavers are better at chopping trees).

All of these decisions will be very key in your success. Orders are the main way to progress reputation, but also high happiness of a race and completing some dangerous events will also please the queen and gain you some reputation. All of this against the clock, no time really to mess around as you will lose otherwise. But losing is part of the learning process. The game works with permanent unlocks, you get some resources at the end of a run (more if you win) and you can spend them in an upgrade tree to make the game a little easier. After getting the hang of it, you'll want to increase the difficulty in order to gain more resources and therefore unlock more of these permanent goodies.

There's a lot more to it but this does cover the basics, it's a game that provides a high level of challenge and things can always get harder... I am not that good actually, after 60+ hours I still have a hard time with the prestige levels and there's actually 20 of them. But even there it's a lot of fun and always pleasant to play, I feel that the game constantly tests me and requires me to adapt in so many different situations. City builders and RTS are genres that I enjoy but they aren't exactly my favorites, but the game manages to combine both and with the roguelite mechanics that you'll just want to play over and over. One warning however, this game is a huge timesink. Even with all my hours poured in, the upgrade tree is far from being complete and there's just so much more to do and challenge myself with. The devs here have managed this rather unique concept and everything flows well together, none of the concepts feel forced. All in all an amazing experience and of the better "rogue" experiences, you perhaps won't be making a grand city but you'll want to maximize the most efficient way to do it.