Aurora Dusk: Steam Age

It was a great idea, and it's not a bad game, but I'm going to go with not recommended. Please note however, this comes with a caveat that I have not tried a lot of custom or multiplayer, so my review is basically just for the campaign. So I like the variety of things you can build and do, and it could potentially be a pretty fun city builder/rpg/strategy, however said campaign seems to rush you with its objectives and therefore I feel like I wasn't really encouraged to get into the intricacies of it. Other issues I had with it, for its simple 2D graphics, it sometimes lagged when I played, or the animation wasn't very smooth. Also all the dialogue is text, yet in the campaign it's pretty short and pretty bad; would have expected more from a game not limited by voice acting or elaborate graphics. The game itself is kind of cool, but late game I found the best strategy to be just spawning lots of resources, starting high level buildings, and then just letting the AI villagers finish the projects. Gollems, and some of the defense towers are pretty over powered, and unfortunately they seem to be the key to victory. I kind of wish the game had focused more on smaller units and lea…

This game is an absolute hidden gem. If you're looking for a long RPG with persistent characters and levels that stay with you, try this out. It's genuinely fantastic. It also has a civilization style 'age advancement' as the campaign or the missions progress. The only downsides with it is there appears to be a memory leak after a few hours that causes maps to run sorta bluh but you can quit and finish easily. The game also seems weirdly choppy when characters move, and if a sequel is made it would be nice to be addressed. Multiplayer also is iffy. While it works, it seems that whoever joins needs to manually reconnect occasionally, but all of your equipment and inventory is the same so it's not a big deal.

Aurora Dusk: Steam Age is an ambitious indie strategy and role-playing hybrid developed and published by Sylvain Harlaut. Rather than concentrating solely on exploration or city management, it combines colony simulation, survival, crafting, real-time strategy, and character progression into a single experience. Players oversee a growing settlement while directly controlling individual villagers, creating a game that feels more personal than a traditional city builder. This blend of mechanics gives the title a distinctive identity, offering a refreshing alternative for players who enjoy managing both people and infrastructure instead of focusing on one gameplay style alone. The game's progression revolves around transforming a humble settlement into a thriving industrial civilization. Starting with basic tools and primitive construction, players steadily unlock more advanced technologies that eventually lead to the Steam Age. Every technological breakthrough expands the village's possibilities, introducing improved equipment, more efficient production methods, stronger defenses, and increasingly sophisticated buildings. This constant sense of advancement keeps the gameplay engaging…

Underdeveloped game with huge ideas. Unfortunately backed during the early days and now this is unpolished and rushed out the door.

pretty cool game, fun concept, just wish it was fun. No shared resources provides a weird play loop where it seems like there's a skill for gathering every resource and creating every type of gear/weapon, but not really any way to specialize the labor. With the low update rate, it plays like an old flash game, or end game AOE2.

Quite a unique game. I had the most fun playing cooperative. Simple enough for low skill players. Deep enough for high skill players. Single player is interesting. The game transitions from a tower defense into a bullet hell as difficulty increases. Fun, if you don't mind a challenge.