Generation Exile

This game needs more time in the oven. In addition to the meriad of minor bugs, much of the balance and UX of the game is wanting. Waste storage and management is a nightmare. There are no ways to set up solid, self-sustaining production chains. Everything takes constant micro-management, even at the end of the game. Also, the campaign is a joke. When you get to the end of chapter 4, the game essentailly starts over. I thought the game had bugged out because all of my settlements were gone and it said I was on Turn 1 again. I actually went back to my older save and replayed it only to end up back in the same place. Insane design decision that was likely made to cover for the bad pipeline management I discussed above. There are so many better games in this genre. Pass on this one.

I heard about this game when one of the developers went on the Virtual Economy Podcast (to talk about it not being financially successful). The elevator pitch for the game sounded interesting and I wanted to try it out. I like it. I have made it to the second biome and look forward to playing more of the game. Pros: - Each biome (effectively each level of the campaign) unlocks different buildings, gameplay, and objectives. - I like how crisis and favor points accumulate directly based on your worker placement decisions. Properly train and match your workers (stewards) to tasks and you can directly effect how quickly crisis and favor events happen. The UI also shows how many crisis or favor points have you, so you can roughly know when these events will trigger. It makes it feel like you have more agency over the random narrative events (which are pretty similar to random events in Crusader Kings but with a sci-fi spin). - The core gameplay is a turn-based logistics and construction loop. I like the turn-based spin on this genre because it completely removes the time pressure element like in an RTS game or The Settlers. Cons: - I don't like the color scheme. I understand it…

Really wanted to love it, it's a cool concept, but there's not enough story/narrative. The resource management and supply chains are pretty good but without more substance to the game it's just not engaging.

While this game has its highlights, it also has its low points. Exploring the story of the spaceship and creating a civilization is nice. This game plays like Civ 6, with district management as well as resource management. If you have any prior experience with turn based survival, this game will be quite easy. However, even though this is a positive review, I would honestly give this game a 'Meh'. It doesn't really offer anything new in the genre and the game can be quite frusterating in certain parts. It got pretty buggy at the end, with building dissapearing, resources not counting and other problems. However, none of the bugs prevented me from beating the game, just made it take longer in the end. Overall, a decent game, support small devs.

I really enjoyed the campaign for this game. Have yet to start on Planetfall mode. Coming from other more stressful 4X games like Endless Legend or Endless Space, this one felt so much more relaxing.

Unfortunately not enough here to compete with other colony sims in the genre, like Frostpunk.