Sintopia: maze builder/god game by Team 17. 1.0 VERSION IS OUT NOW!!!

[Eyestabber]

Messed a bit with the playtest version of this game. It looks quite promising and with a lot of depth. You build your hellish maze to punish souls and purge them of their sins, so that they can respawn and repeat the process while you accumulate money, tech, cultists etc. I advise people who enjoy this kinds of games to give it a shot, I found it to be quite fun.

[Eyestabber]

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Well, my Hell layout was good enough to "win" the scenario. I use quotation marks because the game started chain-crashing, so I couldn't actually finish, BUT I reached the point where everything is running smoothly, money is flowing, mana is a non-issue and my main Imps are hardworking and fully motivated. Saints are particularly hard to deal with because the tools to do so aren't implemented yet, but for now making them loop around long lines does the trick. Kinda. I like that the overworld is very hands off, I was afraid the game would get bogged down by having to manage TWO towns at once, but that's not quite the case. STILL the game is in Alpha meaning there's plenty of time for devs to **** things up and over design things like in Against the Storm. For now tho, the game version I played is VERY fun and I highly recommend it.

[Eyestabber]

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Ok, NOW I got a victory screen without the game crashing. In this scenario I was a bit TOO "smart" for my own good: my hell was too efficient and my line was almost non-existent early game which sounds good but it really isn't. Saints are usually a mid-to-late game concern, BUT I started getting them super early due to souls respawning with near zero sin. I really like how this game prevents you from playing by flowchart: most mechanics are double edged swords. Deviants wreck havoc in the overworld, BUT treating them is more profitable, population grow means the overworld becomes stronger BUT it also means you need to expand your Hell otherwise massive lines will form. Every decision needs to be analyzed in context, there's rarely a clear cut "best" choice at a given moment, which I quite like.

In this game I also ****** up royally with casualties in the first few days: there was a moment where about 2/3 of all souls were in Hell, so naturally I expanded my infrastructure to accommodate and that was the root of my issues: once the initial surge was dealt with I was left overstaffed. If the game was harder that would've probably sent me into a death spiral. One thing I don't like/get is that motivation boosts from the Codex or promotions seem useless. A single big prop is enough to max out motivation in the AoE, so why would you waste promotion slots or research tokens on this?

[Eyestabber]

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Another game, this time I learned coming back is quite hard. Well, financially it's pretty easy, but in this game I screwed up mana generation and that led to my village getting absolutely BLASTED by Guacas, Zombies and fires which resulted in the loss of critical infrastructure, namely, the one and only farm in the village. Sadly the builder AI is GOD AWFUL and builders decided to make 3 markets while ignoring the farm, which meant my village was entirely supported by the Humus foundation (building that allows you to send food/mats from hell into earth) and every noon like half the village died of starvation. Every single day dozens of casualties, which meant I had little to no deviants for the entirety of the game. Turns out Humus need to LIVE in order for them to accumulate lots of Sin and my little guys had the lifespan of a housefly.

I also learned a better way to deal with Saints: doing ******* nothing. By leading saints straight to the exit I was getting little to no downside from their existence. Sure, their trip to hell is completely uneventful and they will respawn as saints, BUT the regular growth of the population meant they were still a small fraction of the overall soul count. I assume at some point I would HAVE to try and break them, but for the entirety of this game I got away with just giving them an express way towards the exit. Another thing I notice is that if you take several "increased X sin" prestigies you end up not really using any expert. It's best to let Humus focus on one or two sins, otherwise you spread yourself too thin and everyone ends up clogging the Omnisin Doctor. Speaking of which, that building is the thing that you need the most copies and it takes the most space. Next game I'll try to farm some demons since I got 0 this time around.

[Eyestabber]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app ... ?l=english
Game got a release date, finally! April 16!

[Tweed]

Is this some kind of new take on Afterlife?

[Eyestabber]

Game is RELEASED! No Early Access ********, it's an actual 1.0 release. And it's already available at my favorite store, horay!

[Eyestabber]

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Well, it happened. My very first demon summoned in the campaign aaaaand it's a twitch thot.

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[Oyster Sauce]

Hold up, is this a Dungeon Keeperlike?

[Eyestabber]

Hold up, is this a Dungeon Keeperlike?

Dungeon Keeper, Black & White and Two-Point Hospital are its main influences. But it's neither a clone or spiritual successor to any of these games.

Edit: I can only vouch for B&W since I didn't play the other two. So blame steam posters and the devs if this info is wrong.

[Acrux]

It looks like it has some Factoria-type game influence as well. Is it better than Dungeon Keeper Gold with KeeperFX?

[Tweed]

Wake me when someone can actually define what the **** this game is.

[Eyestabber]

► Show Spoiler

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Welp, finished the campaign. Whatever failings the first two missions had, the final mission more than make up for. It was AWESOME! The game gave me everything I wanted: a huge hell to build however I wanted, enough time to actually get to the very late game, the sense of urgency, a very cool end game crisis and it all ends with demons everywhere, my mana pool crying for mercy as I took on fight after fight. And there's cool metal music in the background during the demonic invasion! The full package, 11/10, absolute banger of a mission, quite on par with with the invasion of Korhal (SC 2, HoS), defeating Kerrigan (SC 2, WoL) and putting the Gantrithor in collision course with the Overmind.

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You can see the demons razing my temple right as the victory screen popped. I was out of mana and it wouldn't recharge in time.

Now, the game has its shortcomings and it mostly comes down to technical issues and the first two missions of the campaign being a bit too rough. So I think the smart play is to wait for a more aggressive discount. But man am I glad I stumbled into this gem on Steam. Also, potential buyers beware:

► Show Spoiler

While this game is free of SJW-style pozz, the theme of the campaign is incredibly offensive to a Christian cosmovision. And I don't mean it as "oh noes, don't joke about hell", I mean it's REALLY bad. Basically God aka "The Chairman" is an ******* who uses the "administrator of hell" as his janitor/***** boy and he decides to exile you right after the very first mission, even though what happens there is 100% not your fault. Then you team up with "Lili" and "Lu" to find a "gotcha" in the archives of creation to take out "the Chairman". Then void creatures prepare to rape reality, now that its shield is gone. The ending is a bit of sequel bait, since the Chairman's position is now vacant. Granted, your subjects aren't human and everything is played off as a corporation, but you have to be really stupid not to catch the thinly veiled heretical garbage being spewed.

[asf]

heathen

[MrTwinkls]

Is this game better than Evil Genius (the old one)?

[Eyestabber]

Liked the game so much I bought a legit copy. I've been playing challenge mode for a while, it's pretty good. Like sandbox, but with an actual objective. I already unlocked all 8 role models, now I just need to grind the last slot. I'm also much better at the game now, so much so that I'm considering replaying the campaign on Masochist. Well, after the next patch that is. Gonna leave a positive steam review too at some point.

[TheEmptyRoad]

Ah yes. “God and Heaven are akchewally eeval dontcha know? Play as le heckin wholesome DEMON rebel/underdog”

I don’t give a flying **** about how good the gameplay is if the message of the game is this blasphemous.

Sorry, I don’t mean to ruin your enjoyment of the gameplay. Thank you for the warning.

[Eyestabber]

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Well, beat the campaign on the highest difficulty. Funnily enough, I accidentally skipped the post mission cutscene the first time I beat it on normal,

► Show Spoiler

turns out the Chairman isn't actually dead, he just steps down after your team finds out he checked the wrong checkbox in a form he filled when taking over Heaven Co, which invalidates the chain of bureaucracy and forces him to take a vacation.

Also, the developers are French. So there's that.