Game: Scorchlands
Genre: Simulation, Strategy
System: Steam (Windows & Linux)
Developers | Publishers: Ringlab | Star Drifters
Controller Support: No
Price: US $11.99 | UK £9.99 | EU € 11,79
Release Date: July 25th, 2024
A review code was used, with many thanks to Better Gaming Pro.
I played the Early Access version of Scorchlands when it was first released last year. A year later, it’s time for Scorchlands to move to its 1.0 release.
Scorchlands and the Bird Folk
Scorchlands invites you into a world where magic and technology blend seamlessly, offering a city-building and logistics experience. However, the core gameplay is more about harvesting resources and delivering them to the right place for processing than actual city-building.
The game has a prologue, which acts as a tutorial; while it’s brief and not particularly in-depth, it gets the job done.
Then there is the campaign mode, where you can choose your settings and it also has a storyline. Scorchlands’ is about the bird folk called Giwi. The Giwi have always dreamed of exploring space and discovering the secrets of the cosmos and other celestial bodies. Despite numerous challenges, the brave birds have decided to embark on an expedition to the moon Helia. Here the Giwi, with your help, will establish several settlements on the hostile surface. Terraforming will be accomplished using both advanced technology and magic.
Leader of the Giwi
As the leader of Giwi, you explore new lands, reshape the environment, and develop colonies, all without the usual pressures and time constraints found in many strategy games. You have a leader avatar that you can move about the planet and explore to reveal what is under the fog. It’s an unusual twist to have an avatar in this type of simulation/strategy game, but it works, and I liked exploring the map.
The game’s map is hex grid-based. Here, you establish colonies around a large terraforming device known as the “Nexus.” Your primary goal is to refine resources, enhance your magic/tech, and deliver the resulting advanced compounds to the “Nexus” to commence your terraforming project.
All the buildings in Scorchlands are prebuilt, including stone extractors, tablet makers, and homes for your colony workers. Additionally, the neighbouring buildings also influence nearby buildings, and each other’s resources and constructing your colony can turn into a bit of a puzzle.
The influence of adjacent buildings adds a strategic layer and a hint of puzzling to building placement and encourages thoughtful expansion and planning.
Instant Resources
What sets Scorchlands apart from other automation or city-building games is that resource production has no time component. A quarry produces stone instantly, and it’s immediately available where needed. With the free construction of buildings, you can quickly experiment with different solutions without worrying about logistics chains.
Rather than simply extracting materials, you must manage the logistics of moving resources between colonies and create robust processing chains. The use of lasers and mirrors for resource transport is visually striking, unusual, and fun to manage.
Using Lasers, Mirrors and Catapults to Transport Resources
Transferring resources and expanding colonies can become a little tedious after a while. You see, your facilities are limited to your colonies’ sphere of influence, and to pool resources, you must send them via laser beam from one colony to another colony.
Furthermore, you can set up mirrors to redirect the laser in the right direction; however, the mirrors must be launched from within your colony’s influence range.
There are also catapults to use to transport resources, but the downside of the catapults is that they take up valuable space, come in two components, have a limited range, and are inflexible. If an obstacle like a mountain or a bush is in the way, you need to build a new colony to bypass it. Using lasers, mirrors, and catapults is all well and good early on in the gameplay; however, as your colonies grow, and the lasers can only transfer 100 resources at a time, this means that you have to build multiple lasers over vast distances with no interruptions to its beam, and that can be tricky.
Magic and Technology
Another aspect of Scorchland’s gameplay is the ability to perform rituals and use magic to terraform the world. You can create and empower biomes by terraforming, and each biome offers unique resources and opportunities for expansion.
The procedurally generated maps ensure that no two games are alike and provide endless replayability. The technology system in Scorchlands is designed to enhance your progression, unlocking new tools and abilities that keep the gameplay fresh.
Combat
While Scorchlands is primarily a peaceful game, it does feature a minimalistic combat system. When combat arises, positioning your avatars is key. You must think strategically and surround enemies by placing your forces in the most optimal locations to secure a victory.
The combat system isn’t that deep, it is simple yet effective; it adds a touch of excitement to the gameplay and breaks up resource management without overwhelming the player.
Visuals and Music
Scorchlands is bright and colourful visually, and I like the way the hex tiles ripple when you place buildings down. The music and sound effects all add to and enhance the atmosphere of the gameplay.
The game performed reasonably well on my laptop. There is a little frame rate slowdown as you move across the map, but it doesn’t interrupt the gameplay.
Conclusion
Scorchlands has come a long way since it was first released on Early Access. It is a refreshing addition to the simulation genre, offering a blend of magic, technology, and strategic resource management.
Whether you’re a seasoned strategy game veteran or a newcomer looking for a relaxing yet engaging experience, Scorchlands could be the game for you.
Final Verdict: I Like it a Lot 
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