Reus takes the world building God sim genre and puts it on a
simple 2D plane. Don’t think the smaller scale means it is shallow, however, as it is actually incredibly deep
and complex and gives you a multitude of tools with which to build your world. There is a fairly steep learning curve that
comes along with all of that depth, of course, but once you wrap your head
around everything Reus is pretty fantastic all around. See all of the details here in our full
review.Game Details
- Publisher: SOEDESCO Publishing
- Developer: Abbey Games
- ESRB Rating: “E10” for Everyone 10+
- Genre: Strategy
- Pros: Unique gameplay; nice presentation; deep and strategic;
- Cons: Steep learning curve; not a lot of room for creativity; price
- MSRP: $25
Reus sees you taking on the role of a planet that can make
use of four giants to terraform the land and make it livable for humans. The planet is a barren wasteland when you
first start, but by using the ocean giant to make water, forest giant to create
forests, swamp god to make swamps, and stone giant to make mountains and
deserts, you can cover the surface of the planet with different ecosystems that
can all support life. Each giant also
has different individual abilities such as making plants or animals, creating
mineral resources, transmuting plants and animals into new ones, and so
on. When you pair certain plant types
next to specific animal or mineral types you create symbiosis, which makes them
more productive.
The point of the game is to provide your human settlers with
food, technology (derived from plants, oddly enough), and mineral wealth so
they can build their civilization. The
villagers will also start projects for things like schools or shrines, among
other things, that require specific resources to complete so you have to
provide them enough “stuff” to get things done. If the humans acquire too much wealth too fast, however, they
will become greedy and start doing bad things like fighting wars with
neighboring villages, at which point you can instruct one of the giants to
cause a disaster to knock them down a peg or two. You don’t actually have any direct control over the humans and
instead just sort of guide them along and provide what they need to be
prosperous.
The real kicker is that all of this is done on a 2D
sidescrolling planet with only limited space for everything. Each resource like food or animals or
minerals takes up one slot on the planet’s surface, so making new stuff for
symbiosis or to meet other requirements usually means tearing other things
down. Mind you, you don’t ever make
buildings or anything like that. You’re
just creating plants and animals and stuff that the humans then use to build
their own civilizations, but it is really fascinating to watch how everything
comes together.
Because there is only limited space, though, there is a
definite order to doing things the right way, which sort of means you don’t
have a ton of freedom to mould a civilization the way you want. You’re sort of just along for the ride here
much more so than in most “god” games.
There is also virtually no incentive to be an evil and vengeful god (you
can, it just isn’t worth it), which also somewhat limits how creative you can
get with things. It is still absolutely
fun and very satisfying, but in different ways than we’ve come to expect in the
genre.
It also has to be said that the learning curve for figuring
out how to do everything and how it all works together is quite steep. Because it is a 2D game, the controls are
actually quite simple, but there is so much to remember and so many layers of
depth to everything that can be hard to keep track of what to do. The game takes you through the basics in a
handful of tutorial levels, but then sets you loose on your own and it takes a
few games to really get the hang of it.
One thing the game does, probably wisely, is that it doesn’t
just let you do everything all at once.
Instead you have to unlock new abilities for the giants by playing
through the game. At first you can only
play 30-minute eras, but eventually you unlock longer and longer games that
give you more toys to play with. It’s a
smart system that eases you into more advanced tools and techniques, though the
learning curve is still pretty steep.
The presentation in Reus is quite nice all around and the
scale of everything is pretty impressive.
You can zoom all the way out to see your whole planet at once but also
zoom in super tight on a village and see the little people going about their
lives. The art style is sort of
cartoony and not realistic, but it is undeniably charming and looks great. The giants in particular have awesome
designs. Having the game take place on
a 2D plane instead of an open 3D planet gives the game a totally unique look
and feel, which we also really like.
