Look Ma, I'm Building! SteamWorld Build Review

It's that magical holiday time filled with family, fun, and of course, those sweet, sweet holiday sales.  Although it's a bit of a newer title, so likely won't see much, if any, kind of discount, you might give SteamWorld Build some consideration.  I've been playing through the newest entry in the multi-genre SteamWorld series and finished the story so it's time for the review.

What is it?

SteamWorld Build is the newest entry in the indie SteamWorld series.  The most unique thing about the series is the fact that it crosses genres but the stories take place in the same universe--one that is filled with steam powered robots known as steambots.  The series includes SteamWorld Dig/SteamWorld Dig 2--classified on Steam as platformers/metroidvanias; SteamWorld Heist--a turn-based, strategy game and SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech a deckbuilder.  SteamWorld Build offers up a city builder to round out the lineup.

What's the gameplay like?

It's a combination of city builder-lite, management, and some light tower defense type of mechanics.   Part of the gameplay takes place on the surface of the map you choose (there are 5 to choose from).  That part is the city-builder portion--it largely consists of building housing for worker-bots, building factories to produce items to meet the needs of your workforce, and upgrading your bots.  Building all of this is, of course, dependent on producing the needed resources.  The gameplay loop centers around unlocking upgrades by accomplishing certain population-based milestones--for example, you might need to have 80 workers before you can begin upgrading them to engineers.  Upgrading your bots is essential to unlocking more advanced production and the items needed to keep your bots satisfied.

Once you've upgraded to a certain point, you unlock the ability to repair the broken mineshaft.  This unlocks the underground portion of the gameplay which is more centered on exploration and resource management.  It's somewhat reminiscent of SteamWorld Dig with workers who dig through cubes of earth to discover new parts of the map and find resources.  The mine uses special workers to mine, gather resources, provide protection from underground threats, and mechanics to build and repair machines used for defense or resource gathering.

The first map you play covers the story portion of the game.  I won't spoil it, but it hinges around exploring the different mine levels to find hidden rocket parts, to fully assemble a rocket, to fuel it, and then to escape.  After you've finished the story once the other maps follow that pattern--to complete a map you need to assemble the rocket and escape.

I finished the initial story map in around 6-7 hours, so if you just play through the story, it's fairly short.

Pros:

+ Cute, SteamWorld style.  You've got the different kinds of steambots from the past games and the nod to SteamWorld Dig.  It's a nice, familiar feeling for fans of the series.

+ The story ties into other games in the series.  It's nice to see the connection between the games.

One of my cities (using the holiday Jingle Bolts theme).

+ The five maps each have their own unique, fun designs.  One map contains the ruins of an old, abandoned amusement park--another has an abandoned drive-in movie theater and sort of abandoned movie set theme.  Each map is worth scrolling through to find the fun features.

+ There are different difficulties to choose from.  I've been playing on the recommended "balanced" setting, but there are easier and harder difficulties.  There's also a sandbox option if you just want to build cool cities.  On the balanced setting it's a fairly casual type of city builder--most of the focus is on making sure you have the correct number of workers and are producing the needed resources for upgrades and keeping your bots' needs met.

+ Lots of little cosmetic items to make your city feel unique.  They're all robot-themed and cute.

A view of a mine level.

+ The mine map changes on each new map you choose.  The mine portion of the game is fun because it involves exploration and finding all the hidden nooks and crannies.  There's also a light element of defense as certain levels of the mines have "hives" of enemies that will periodically spawn attacks on your operations.  You need to build defensive structures and maintain a force of guards for protection.  Things get a little chaotic the closer you get to competing the rocket--attacks happen much more frequently.  Exploring the mines is worthwhile because you can find special items that can provide buffs for your surface and mine level structures.

+ A helpful tutorial to get you started.

+ Even though you can complete the story on one map, it's worth playing through the others because you can unlock special structures that grant bonuses that are nice to have on the other maps--for example, the first special structure makes trains move faster (trains deliver special purchaseable items to the train station every 5 minutes or so).

Cons:

- The story is short.  I was hoping there would be more to it, but after the credits rolled when I finished the first map, I realized that it was over.  I really wish that it stretched over all the maps and there was more to it.  The gameplay is fun enough that you'll likely want to play the other maps anyway.

- I sort of wish there were more little details built in.  I want to be able to click on an individual bot and find out about them.  Maybe it's just me, but I like those dumb, little fun things.

Recommendation:

If you're looking for something that's more on the casual side of the city building genre, SteamWorld Build would be good. The gameplay is relaxing and enjoyable even though the story portion of the game is a bit disappointing.  If I had to give it a score out of 10, I'd probably go with a 7 or 7.5.