A demo code was used with many thanks to GrabTheGames.
I’m always looking for interesting survival city-building games with a different theme from just plonking houses down. United Penguin Kingdom Huddle Up is something different from the average city-building game. This free prologue version of the United Penguin Kingdom covers the content from one year of in-game time.
It’s a survival city-builder featuring penguins, where you build a settlement and satisfy their various needs. You’ll also have to deal with seals and killer whales and stop them from stealing the settlements’ food supply. The game is being developed by Turquoise Revival, who released Oxygen last year, which I reviewed.
United Penguin Kingdom Huddle Up
First off, you can choose to play a game your way by choosing your settings or dive into one of the three tutorials. There is only one map to play on, with five maps being available in the full version of United Penguin Kingdom when it’s released.
The three tutorials are quite good; they take you through the basics of the commands and the principles of the gameplay. Each tutorial is very well explained and can be completed quickly. Also, the game offers the ability to move on to the next tutorial from the previous tutorial without having to return to the menu, which I like.
Complete the Tasks
In United Penguin Kingdom Huddle Up, you must complete the timed tasks in exchange for resources and reputation points. So, for instance, you are asked to build a newcomer ramp, and if completed within the time, you earn five gold, ten krill, six plastic, ten snow blocks and reputation points. Obviously, with the penguins living in icy, snowy conditions, the resources you need are ice-based. You won’t be building a forester’s hut as there aren’t any trees around, so completing the tasks is how you receive some of the resources.
You’ll move on to building some homes for the penguins. Adult penguins require lodges to live in, and the young penguins live in kids’ houses. If your penguins are happy, they will breed and produce baby penguins. While playing the prologue, even though my penguins were happy, they seemed to produce very slowly, and I struggled to have enough penguins to run my settlement. Maybe that’s something the developers need to look at before the game’s full release.
Collect Resources and Supply Power
Furthermore, you’ll build fish farms and trawling docks for food resources. Eventually, you’ll build a science hub and generate science points so you can develop more buildings to construct via the science tree; for example, you’ll unlock a herb collection hut and a carousel to add as a decoration in your kingdom.
Most of the buildings you’ll construct need electricity to run them, so you must place wind turbines that generate power. Placing the wind turbines is probably my only major complaint about the game, as the turbines have a very small range that the electricity reaches. So you end up having to build lots of wind turbines to power your settlement, and it’s overkill.
Mind Your Reputation
While you are building your settlement, you must keep an eye on your reputation score, which is the overall evaluation of your settlement in the kingdom. If you meet the requirements by improving your reputation and cheering up your penguins, your settlement will level up from a village to king level.
Security
That’s not all you have to do; due to threats from other sea animals, such as killer whales and seals, you must protect your settlement. You can build an Ice spear tower to produce ice spears and an Ice cannon tower to protect your settlements from killer whales if they try to destroy a building close to the water’s edge.
When your penguins are slow to breed like mine where, you can build a Newcomer ramp, which allows new penguins to arrive at your settlement. Luckily for me, with the new penguins arriving at my settlement, I was able to make use of the extra flippers by putting the penguins to work on one of the Ice towers.
Entertain the Penguins
Did you know that penguins like to be entertained to be kept happy? No, neither did I. However, in United Penguin Kingdom, supplying the penguins with fun activities is a must. You can build various ice-themed entertainment, from an ice rink to exercising at gyms. Watching the penguins take turns on the carousel or skating on the ice rink is funny and cute in equal measure.
Graphically, I like how the game is presented as United Penguin Kingdom features colourful, cartoonish visuals, and penguins are cute. The building designs and penguin animations are all very appealing,
As yet, there isn’t a confirmed release date for United Penguin Kingdom other than 2024, but in the meantime, you can try out the prologue here and give it a wishlist.