The power to create and destroy!

I have a soft spot in my heart for god games, not necessarily RTS’ (where you get the god’s eye view, and which I do also enjoy) but the type where you can annihilate your creations when they start to doubt your omnipotence, or in some cases when you’re just pissed off at the world (more fun than drowning Lara Croft).

Previous games like Dungeon Keeper, Black and White and Spore have influenced newer games, one of which is my focus today; Reus.

So I picked up this game in the Steam Summer Getaway sale recently as it piqued my interest when it was first released and i’ve become mildly addicted. This addiction won’t last though sadly, as I have many other games to play and Reus is, in a sense, a sandbox game.

There isn’t a story progression like Dungeon Keeper or Black and White, instead you’re presented with a blank, baron planet at the start of every game and it’s your job to populate it with villages and then help these villages prosper.

There is still progression though, through completing achievements of varying difficulty. Each of which rewards you with possible new transmutations of plants, animals and minerals, creating much more powerful versions. This allows your villages to complete otherwise impossible tasks, such as Castles or Island Towns.

It’s a simple premise with simple graphics to boot (the sprites of people and animals remind me somewhat of Prison Architect (another awesome game)) but the game play is strangely addictive. It’s not always the same, villages always want different combinations of things each time you play through and the building projects they undertake always have random specialisations that can at times be frustrating to fulfil.

The challenge I find is trying to balance 6 different villages spread across the planet, whose borders all meet and who all are at war with not only each other, but also my giants (your 4 tools of war and creation, one for each ‘element’).

I find this game entertaining for its strategic and simple game play (retro gaming principals) and would recommend it to other fans of god games for those very reasons; it’s fun to play!