Reus 2 & the DLC Ice Age by developer Abbey Games and publisher Firesquid Games—PC (Steam) Review written by Valerie with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
My first time reviewing a 'god game' by the name of Reus 2 and I'm, so far, enjoying it. I had wondered whether or not I had to play the first one in order to understand this sequel, but it looks like I'm ok.
First impressions of the graphics are a cartoony style that I like because they give me a relaxed feeling during gameplay. The stress comes later of course, *laughs*, and then my frowning started.
The starting tutorial brings you through selecting a giant, placing your first biome, populating it, laying resources, and so on to terraform the first planet. During that process I was occasionally stuck searching for the next 'button action' to activate. One of the two that I am referring to, I had to wait until the progress of the settlement was high enough to activate and then it was front and center for me to click! I even got a 'hooray' from the population! But there was no indication of the progress of that stage.
Seriously though, the tutorial has question marks for you to read your next quest, but it didn't activate any of the buttons, nor presented me with a 'screen map' or hud image showing where I click said button. It felt like my first time playing Mortal Kombat with an actual PlayStation controller where all I did was 'button mash' instead of memorizing any combos to knock out my opponent!
From there it was totally frustrating. It was like being stuck in the game and not having the benefit of a separate tutorial where no actual damage or consequences arose. I couldn't resolve a request because no button or clickable area in question ever showed up. There was just the angry face in the quest log on the left of the screen. It annoyed the heck out of me, even right up to getting one hundred percent on the Prosperity gauge! When that happened it took that quest away and replaced it with a cry from the Inventor of 'Help Me!' with, again, nothing blinking or anything to activate or address the issues.
I didn't see any option to get out of the tutorial with no way to shrink or minimize the 'Requests' on the left. My suggestion would be for that to be a 'side panel' that is popped out or in with a click of the mouse. Also, when an issue needs to be addressed, to have one of those many icon/emotes showing to click that side panel out. Possibly to gain the information needed to progress and an activation mode/button to address that issue.
Onto my next issue, the music. I almost fell asleep with the music during the first attack from one settlement on another. There should have been some sort of war, advancing army music instead of the light piano (or was that stringed instrument?) music that was playing.
Now for the gameplay. Other than the missing buttons/activation areas in the quests, it's pretty easy. There are 3 giants to choose from for placing a biome in which a small group of people will settle. Those giants have resources to place so the settlement can flourish and prosper. There is a warning that you can't place settlements right next to each other, so you have to create another biome a few 'blocks of wasteland' away.
Your 'hotbar' in the middle bottom of the screen is where most of the magic is. The giants are on the top and what they offer you is right underneath. As you get through the quests and city requests, you earn Population, Wealth, and Technology points which are recorded in the bar on the top left of the screen. There you can also view your Prosperity points as they show up on the far left of the bar. Above those are your Eon points that you have to spend before you can progress to the next Era.
The top middle bar shows the amount of 'biotica' accumulated from completing city requests and other quests. The left icon is the bioticum you are in, and the flowers icon is the amount of biotica gained. When there is enough of those you are able to place those resources.
What I find great in Reus 2 is the ability to zoom in and see the action going on. I am, however, annoyed with the 'sidebar' of quests taking over my view of that action. I know I suck at multitasking in a game, but I would definitely love to move that 'sidebar' out of my view so I can think what to do next!
Part of the action is the settlers expanding their biome area. In the image above you can see them boarding boats to facilitate that expansion. I'm sorry I missed getting a screenshot of them jumping up and down in the boats as they fulfilled that quest. That was cute.
Since I haven't played the first one (and I'm thinking of getting it) I am hoping the developers see this to facilitate some improvements I've mentioned. With that said, once you've used up your Eon points, you can advance to the next era. Just make sure you have a good amount of Prosperity as that helps a lot later on.
With all this leveling up and advancement, I'm now onto the DLC for Reus 2 called Ice Age. Thanking my lucky stars that I can skip to it because I was taking my time going through the game. Now, onto the next adventure in Reus 2: Ice Age.
When I advanced the progression so I could unlock Ice Age, I now have more of everything! When placing some of the resources, I now have to make sure they are the correct level for the item being placed. Also, I had to make sure to meet some of the requirements for those resources, animals, or minerals. I definitely had my mind swirling around with ideas as well as the occasional $$$ itch!
So, if you're looking for a nice simulation god game, I can say for certain that these gods have quite the range of features as your progression advances. Reus 2's colorful graphics and soothing sounds of settlement building made me grin. On my next run through I'll attempt using the 'disasters' buttons to wreak havoc! *grins evilly*
Score: 6 / 10
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