You may hardly swing a cat on the Steam retailer with out hitting a dozen completely different simulation or city-builder video games, however if you happen to’re a fan of the style, this one deserves your consideration. Out now in Early Entry, Stario: Haven Tower is an uplifting (sorry) city-builder that goals for the skies, and it makes use of a uniquely vertical method and a few sensible mechanics to maintain you hooked.
You begin out with fundamental foundations in a sand-swept kingdom named the Sand Zone, and should develop vertically by putting layers and managing your tower as you go. Useful resource administration is important, as you place dew or mud collectors in your tower to gather water and dirt, respectively, after which use plantations or farms to develop crops. As you seize extra sources to construct extra layers, your trusty Towertizens dwelling within the tower transfer gadgets between these layers, utilizing porters, and later, some useful gadgets like pipes and balloons.
Want extra residents? Place extra huts to energy your collectors and farms. Nonetheless, you’ll have to resolve which jobs to prioritize and the way finest to allocate your troops. Then, you additionally want extra to work as porters as you develop upwards, so that you proceed transferring your sources between the step by step growing layers. The upper you go, the harder it will get to stability these many components completely, however the extra satisfying it will get to see issues working.
There’s a extremely regular development system on show right here, with a big analysis tree ready for you. When you’ve constructed a analysis station or two and allotted some staff to employees them, you need to use your many amassed sources and a little bit of time to develop new decorations, new farms, and a few nice new perks. This regular addition of recent buildings works properly alongside the gradual enlargement of mechanics to maintain you continually transferring between targets.
It took us some time to understand a brand new farm wanted wheat, which hinted I may change a farm to provide wheat as an alternative of potatoes. Equally, a later perk demanded glass bricks, which reminded us to construct a glass brick manufacturing facility. With city-builders, this type of development system can typically really feel overwhelming or punishing, however right here issues appeared to maneuver easily all through, with each new layer you construct bringing an thrilling new component as an alternative of a jarring drawback.
There are penalties right here, because the world typically brings desert storms and different pure disasters, which degrade your buildings and threaten the folks dwelling in your tower. Then, you should take into account stability when putting your constructing on the few out there partitions outdoors of your tower. You may’t simply construct outwards indefinitely, so it pays to contemplate the out there area and the wants of your residents with each extra layer, to not point out the very best positioning and form of every new layer you place.
Finally, I constructed so many new farms that no one was engaged on the dew collectors, so I needed to shift some staff’ jobs. Then, after steadily shedding buildings to the sand, the tower wasn’t constructing restore kits rapidly sufficient. In these first few hours, there was nothing actually troublesome, however as an alternative, the sport labored at a pleasing however participating tempo that labored properly alongside the atmospheric music and chill vibes.
I’m a sucker for city-builders that not solely provide you with this degree of management over all the trivia, but in addition supply sensible connections between the various mechanics. When you begin constructing pipes or balloons to maneuver sources between layers, you may actually see the potential for large towers with broadly linked techniques all singing collectively. There are even particular layers that match collectively in distinctive methods, and it seems like there’s a big wealth of different components simply ready to be found within the desert to reward your arduous work.
There may be some variation between the layers as properly, which calls for a bit extra planning. As you progress upwards from the Sand Zone to the Mist Zone, completely different farms and sources like quartz grow to be out there, and you’ve got a complete new sequence of components to contemplate. In the meantime, the sky itself is populated with flying jellyfish, stingrays, or turtles that lightly occupy the world round you, including a lot light worldbuilding as you merrily go about your mission.
With so many components, there’s scope for Stario: Haven Tower to get overwhelming, however alongside the gradual rollout of mechanics, the title has a extremely sensible UI that reveals the sources being produced on each layer, and any potential deficiencies. Simply swinging the digicam across the tower to position extra models in gaps and admire your handiwork is enjoyable, although I hope the completed product has the choice for a vertical monitor mode, particularly with a lot free area on both facet of the motion.
Altogether, Stario: Haven Tower feels well-designed and impressively stacked with mechanics, and the very best reward I can provide is that we didn’t wish to cease taking part in. It stays to be seen how properly the sport can hold gamers’ consideration past these first few hours, however what’s right here is already a fascinating city-builder with a novel twist and a few incredible aesthetic selections. Even after just a few hours, the time simply felt prefer it was melting away, and I sit up for constructing our tower even increased.
