I am a big fan of city builder management games, which is why when I see the arrival of new titles belonging to the genre, I am more than happy to be able to try them. The latest expected is floodland, the new video game by the Polish team Vile Monarch, inspired, from certain points of view, by one of the best exponents of the genre, Frostpunk.
With these premises I certainly couldn't help but try it, also because it was a rather poor year for the genre and this could be a decidedly interesting experience for those who appreciate this type of video game.
Let me be clear, what I tried represents a small section of the game, but already from what little I've seen, the sensations can only be positive. But now, let's get into the details.
A city builder with many facets
In Floodland, due to climate change dictated by global warming, the sea level has risen dramatically and the world has been submerged giving rise to swamps and small islets where people are forced to survive by collaborating. In addition to this, a mysterious event known as the "Event" literally compromised all electronic devices, regressing humanity by thousands of years.
Right at the beginning of the adventure I am asked which tribe to start with (each with pros, cons and unique characteristics that distinguish it), after which it's time for the difficulty level, which promises to greatly change the impact on the general approach.
The title of Vile Monarch is to all intents and purposes a city builder that takes a great game like Frostpunk as its main inspiration. Unlike the 11 bit studios game in which you have to protect your population from very cold temperatures, in Floodland the aim is to gather the various survivors of the various "islands" present in the map and try to make them coexist through a deep management system social.
In fact, the larger our settlement becomes, the more the difficulty curve rises, making it more difficult to organize and keep the inhabitants under control, which leads the player to understand which technologies and buildings to discover and build first depending on the game situations.
So, in addition to being a city builder, Floodland hides a whole component of micromanagement of people and rather advanced issues, not very far from what we saw, precisely, in Frostpunk. It is therefore up to all of us to try to find a team with adequate internal policies and a high general level of satisfaction.
A fundamental part of the whole gameplay component is the exploratory phase, very important for finding new survivors, finding artifacts in the collapsed skyscrapers of the ancient world to obtain additional technology points and enhance research; as well as to find food, resources and more.
Both water and food shouldn't just be recovered (it would be too simple, don't you think?). It is necessary to purify the water, cook the food and make sure that all the inhabitants have to sleep and are fed in the correct way. In short, improving technologies and enhancing the city is undoubtedly useful, but not without keeping our fellow citizens under control, building structures capable of becoming self-sufficient in a short time.
The demo ends before the game really starts showing off the more complex mechanics, which among many things will also include a series of climatic events capable of putting us in difficulty during the more advanced stages, in a somewhat similar way seen in Frostpunk.
A seemingly lively world
Visually Floodland presents itself as a product with a lively and colorful impact, where the sun shines almost constantly and the reflections of the water mirror the greenery of the marshes.
Honestly, I really appreciated the style used by the developers for this game; it doesn't rely heavily on realism but it doesn't look too cartoony either, in general I think a great job has been done in this sense and many players will appreciate it.
Summing up
Floodland looks to be a pretty cool management experience. Even if the time I was able to dedicate to was reduced to practically just one hour and a little more, I must admit that the desire to continue playing it and understand how it could have become my camp is still quite strong now, which for a management software it is certainly positive. To understand the depth and complexity that the game could reach, we just have to wait for November 15, the game's release date. If you are looking for a city builder that can catalyze your attention in the coming autumn/winter months, the Vile Monarch game is one to keep an eye on, perhaps giving a chance to the upcoming demo so you can get a more personal idea .
