Dream Engine: Nomad Cities, by developer Suncrash, is a fun factory style resource management game where you have to build your city and defend it from the monsters of a post-apocalyptic world. You play as Tiny, who is the robot defender of your city, with him you can build and expand your city by gathering resources from the wild and fighting off the nightmare monsters. There are many different difficulties to play in if you want a more casual playthrough or a more intense hands on one. Nomad Cities has many unique qualities from the cute art style to the flying cities and more.
When you open Dream Engine: Nomad Cities and start your first playthrough, you’ll select a difficulty based on how you like to play. I chose ‘Still Learning’ my first time, which is perfect for new players, but there are a lot of options to choose from. Then, you’ll move on to a tutorial-like phase, where you can still lose the game if you get attacked. That being said, It’s very fun once you understand the basic concepts of the game and it does well at telling you what to do and how to play. I especially enjoyed the mechanic of being able to move your city to a new location when enemies get too aggressive or you just need more resources.
The animation of the city flying out of the ground is also really cool. On top of that, Dream Engine: Nomad Cities is chock full of content from things you can unlock by playing to the in-game research and exploration of the different areas of the world. There is always something to do. The graphics are pretty good and give off a nice apocalyptic world vibe; I also find the smaller design and models of the people and the city to be really cute. The music and sounds of the game are nice and give you a sense of adventure. It also changes tone when something is wrong so it’s a very good warning to tell you to check up on certain things. Power and Food are probably some of the most important resources that you’ll want to always have an abundance of; You get extra food in the beginning, but once that runs out it can be difficult to get more. You can also cross over conveyors so you don’t have to build around a line, you can just go through it, which, although a small feature, is something I really appreciate and enjoy.
Taking into consideration that the game is in Early Access, most of the issues I have with Dream Engine: Nomad Cities are things that just make certain aspects of the game a little annoying. Such as the sandstorms in the desert decreasing the visibility a little too much, especially for raids even if it does look cool. The impassable areas in the wild make it hard to make conveyors and move around the city especially if they are too close to the landing site. That also makes it hard to expand the city later on in the game. With so many keybinds, they can get mixed up and it’s easy to forget how to open some interfaces and menus. The production of materials is painfully slow in the beginning most of the time even with two refiners, you can add more, but the resources to build and operate them adds up quickly. Not being able to build while enemies are nearby is fine most of the time, but for raids it’s hard because you can’t place down more turrets and that can go very badly very quickly as once the enemies get into your city they can destroy it pretty easily and if they get to the core you’re done for.
Dream Engine: Nomad Cities is a game for people that like survival style resource management and a bit of a challenge; There are multiple difficulties to play on though if you are looking for a more relaxed experience. It also reminds me of games like Factorio with the factory style management and Oxygen Not Included with the research lab layout. The post-apocalyptic world design is fun and the graphics are cute, the mechanics are interesting and the gameplay is fun, which are all aspects that can make a pretty good game.
Check Out the Dream Engine: Nomad Cities Steam Early Access Trailer:
Dream Engines: Nomad Cities is heading to Early Access on July 14th on Steam and Epic Games Store for $29.99/€29.99, with a release discount of 10%.
Related: Dream Engines: Nomad Cities Heading to Steam and Epic Early Access July 14
I enjoy a wide variety of games from intricate survival/adventure games to simple platformers. I am also a sucker for a good story game.
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