EDIT: SPOILERS OPEN

Welcome to the Unsanctioned Unofficial Game Pass Game Club Year 3! Our 2nd game of 2024 is Steamworld Build. The target completion date is January 29, 2023.

We ask that until that date you use the forum software to mark any spoilers, either story based or mechanical, in the discussion below. Ideally the bulk of the discussion will occur after January 15, but if you want to comment before then you are welcome to so long as the spoilers are marked. We ask that if you leave a comment before that date you also come back to the thread after it to read other people’s comments and respond to them, though of course we cannot force you to do so.

All are welcome to participate regardless of whether you have stated a preference to or not and there is absolutely no commitment. You do not have to finish the game to participate but please let us know if you have not.

You are also free to come back any time after the completion date and share your thoughts! This club is meant to be open to all whenever you want to join in the fun!

You can find out more about the Unsanctioned Unofficial Game Pass Game Club or suggest future games for it here.

What is Steamworld Build?

A city building game set in the Steamworld universe where you manage a city for robots on the surface and explore a mysterious mine beneath the earth simultaneously.

How long is Steamworld Build?

How long to beat lists it as 8.5 hours long.

Tried out an hour-ish on console for the full sicko experience. I'll report back as I get further in, but it's pretty nice so far. I've been binging Against the Storm, and I definitely was much more hooked early on that one, but I'm still basically in the tutorial here.

@allthedinos: I have had an opposite progression as you, where I played 10+ hours of this and then recently started playing Against the Storm. Steamworld Build is definitely a more relaxed experience than AtS.

I'm excited to spend more time in Steamworld Build though. So far, I completed one campaign on one of the worlds.

I've put several more hours into this, and I don't think I like it very much. It was interesting to switch between the two layers, but the sheer amount of materials unlocked after a certain point just overwhelmed me. I moved my game over to PC but felt the same there as well. Maybe I just played too much Against the Storm and got a little burned out on city builders, but I think I'm unlikely to see this one through to the end.

@allthedinos: I think I mostly agree, but I have a more general issue of the game just having too many systems. Not just in terms of materials but also resources and requirements to sustain growth etc. And some of them are a little opaque and the alerts you get when there are issues aren't really sufficient.

It's just a lot of micromanagement in what should be a chill game, and not a lot of stakes or reward for advancing.

It's not a bad game in that I can't identify anything in particular that's awful about it except the general clutter, but sometimes clutter can be enough to make something a lot less fun than it would be otherwise.

@bigsocrates: Yeah, I think the biggest issue is that every time I completed objectives, I didn't feel like I was being rewarded. It's something Against the Storm (sorry for comparing it yet again) does well, with tasks receiving material rewards, upgrades, or more workers so you can naturally expand your settlement. This game also turns into a factory game a lot sooner than I would have liked, and I always felt like I was way behind where I should be.

Also... I do not dig the character models or dialogue sequences at all. I haven't played other Steamworld games before, and if they all have this aesthetic, I might pass on them.

And spoilers are officially open for the mysteries of the steamworld!

While I do appreciate this game being highly polished like the prior Steamworld games, I also found myself pretty put off by this game by the end of my one complete playthrough of a map.

My biggest issue is just that the progression here feels extremely linear and sorely lacking any level of depth or nuance. There's very little room for experimentation or creativity in your approach, and I feel like this type of resource management / strategy game really needs that in order for it to provide satisfying gameplay that's worth experiencing multiple times.

@chaser324: I had the exact same thoughts. It also had the problem of not giving you enough info. For example, the only way to find out if your people's needs were met were to go into upgrade mode and then see which houses couldn't be upgraded and that's really bad for a city builder. I couldn't help but compare it to Against the Storm which, while simpler in a lot of ways, still gives you shortcuts and graphs to manage your population.

Plus it felt like the mine levels were too similar. They could've just had one bigger mine level or just done something other than the three level structure. The game also doesn't really give a reason to start a new game, the roguelite parts of it are way too little to be interesting. There's also just so much more depth to Against the Storm's gameplay that Steamworld Build does not have, while managing to be almost more approachable to beginners. Build has more systems, yes, but none of the systems feel like they really interact with each other in any meaningful ways or have any room for player expression.

I seemed to have enjoyed this more than the rest of the group, but I don't think it's anything worth recommending to most people looking for a more traditional city builder. As others pointed out, it's hard not to compare it to the other City Builder that came to Gamepass, Against the Storm, but in reality they are two very different games.

I played Steamworld Build much more like an idle game than a strategic builder. There's not much reason to rush through building in this game and you can kinda just let it keep rolling until something attacks in the mines or you want to expand. I never found the game difficult, or even came close to seeing a failed state, so I'm not sure what even happens if you lose. I would usually just start a city while watching a stream and passively pay attention to it for a couple hours. Occasionally adding expansion areas, or focusing on the mines while I let my city build up resources above. I could get in a pretty calm, zen state while playing, so I did spend a decent amount of time with it at the end of the night to wind down, as well.

I do think the tutorial is too slow, and too long. And the "story" elements might as well not even be there. They don't add anything other than make you think there's more of a time constraint than there is.

All in all, I think it's a fine time, and a good time waster, just don't expect to make any decisions that alter your city's fate, or doom their existence. 6.5/10.

Oh wow, I just so happened to be playing this game at the same time as the game club here.

I have been sucked into this game over the last week in a way only Civilization games have done in the past, even with the lack of depth and challenge. I'm onto my third playthrough and am close to finishing all the achievements, something I rarely care about other than as an excuse to play a game for more time. We'll see if I actually finish it as the last achievement that will be left is just an enormous time waster (100km of roads is like an order of magnitude too many roads for even multiple playthroughs).

Still, I'm really enjoying my time with it. It's time waster junk food, but its good time waster junk food. It would have made my game of the year list last year if I played it before the year ended.

I usually like Steamworld games, so I thought this would be a good time, and it mostly was. It has the basic town management loop going on, and the mine stuff could have been a good addition. It's just in practice where juggling the town and the mine doesn't really work past the first three or so hours. I didn't finish the game, I got to the part where you need to fuel up the rocket while the monster spawners are constantly popping off and before I quit out of disgruntled apathy.

The production pipelines it wants you to use don't hold together well and the map isn't good for town layout, especially as you need to expand in the late game. I'm not an expert at this genre, but it felt off. Probably a 7/10 kind of game if I'm being generous.