Power to the People - PC (Steam) Review

Power to the People by developer Hermes Interactive and publisher Crytivo—PC (Steam) review written by Susan N. with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes 

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Introduction

Power to the People is a management simulation game that lets players focus on maintaining a functioning power grid. Players don’t need to worry about building up a city as it increases in size progressively. This allows players to be challenged organically. Players are given a few different power sources, a tech tree, and adds natural disasters to keep players on their toes. It is a fun game to play but doesn't offer much in replayability.

Gameplay

Other management simulators are where players have to split their attention between traffic, health care, schooling, pollution, and other aspects of city management. Power to the People focuses solely on maintaining and stabilizing a power grid. Should players fall below 50% power distribution, they automatically fail the campaign map and will have to begin again. In order to keep power consistent, players have a variety of options like wind power or diesel power. Additionally, players have access to a tech tree that allows players to upgrade the amount of voltage distributed through the power lines. Players can also increase the power storage capacity. They can also create ad campaigns to boost the city’s morale when power efficiency isn’t high.

For players who like to be challenged, there are two modes to choose from. First, there is the regular mode which passes daytime hours fairly quickly and pauses at midnight. Players are then able to make any changes or add buildings to succeed. The other mode does not have a pause option which requires players to think quickly on their feet. While the day moves at a steady rate, players have the option to speed up the process even further.

There are a couple of challenges beyond budgeting between massive spikes in power consumption. First, a unique feature of Power to the People is the fact that power plants will periodically undergo maintenance. This challenges players to have power storage facilities or redundancies to pick up the slack. In early gameplay, I found myself struggling to have the cash to keep the cities afloat because of maintenance. To compare an element of this title to Cities: Skylines, when you build multiple generators at once, they will often go into maintenance mode at the same time. In Cities people will generally die at the rate you erected the residential buildings. Thus, some of the strategy lies in staggering the building of multiple generators.

Another unique feature of the game is the fact that natural disasters will occur while you are managing the power. This often causes issues if your power lines or your generators are struck by lightning. In fact, the giant ‘boom’ sound causes players to frantically look for the striking point. Nonetheless, players must focus on maintaining and stabilizing the power to complete the campaign objectives to move on.

Players have to deal with setting up an effective power grid, but they must also watch out for potential incoming problems. This means that players must plan accordingly. What is readily apparent is that players need to be mindful of where they put their power lines as there is no refund for demolishing them. As such, Power to the People has a wonderful core gameplay loop. However, I’m not sure about its replay potential for people who enjoy titles in this genre.

Graphics and UI

As with any management game, there are a number of inclusions with respect to the UI that assist the player in campaign success. Notably, on the left of the screen lies a graph that shows the upward or downward trend of power needed. If that isn’t enough of an indication to boost power production, on the top right of the screen will be notifications like ‘10 days until generator maintenance’. Another one might state ‘14 days until a new city.’ These indicators help players determine when to boost their power production. Alternatively, they can add power storage facilities to handle the load for a period of time.

One of the other important factors to note is the various overlays that players can enable. An important overlay to look at is the power line usage overlay. It shows how much power is running through the lines. This allows players to determine if any of the lines will overload and it's critical to head off any issues. There is also a Satisfaction overlay that shows how many of the citizens are happy with the distribution of power. Another useful overlay is the NIMBY overlay (Not In My BackYard) which shows the radius that pollution (noise or environmental) will bother citizens. Finally, there is the power demand overlay which shows how much power each building requires to function at a hundred percent capacity.

Power to the People does a great job of giving players a lot of information through graphs and popup windows.

Pro and Cons

There are elements of the game that I dislike. For one thing, the game can be fairly tedious. In the easy mode of the game, players wait for the day to pass before expanding. If not for that, then the day passage is often chalked up to waiting for an influx of cash. This is clearly something that is more important in the early part of gameplay.

Because the focus on the game is to provide power, there isn’t much to do other than wait. Yes, one could argue that that is what the harder version of the game is for. I still feel like the gameplay loop may lose its luster over time.

Otherwise, the game has a lot of wonderful features that I appreciate. The graph that shows projected power usage on the left of the screen is incredibly useful. Also, the ability to see when a new city erects helps players strategize their next move. Finally, I like the overall concept. Power to the People isn’t focused on everything of city management. It focuses on one aspect that people often take for granted. While the game doesn’t seem like it would be enjoyable after one playthrough, it is a fantastic title for those who want a focused objective.

Full Powered Conclusion

Overall, I really enjoyed Power to the People. It’s a fun and relaxing simulation game that tackles city management in a different way than others in the genre. It runs incredibly well despite the low poly graphics style. Power to the People has a nice aesthetic that players of all ages can enjoy.

That said, there was at least one thing that bothered me about the gameplay. Power lines don’t refund you any money! Only buildings will offer a refund, meaning players have to be mindful of power line placement. While this isn’t a problem, I felt that the extra cash would have helped my gameplay.

Summary and Rating

“Power to the People is a relaxing game and I found myself rather pleased with it. It’s a game that challenges people at a level that they feel comfortable with. That said, while the game is solid, I feel as though there isn’t a lot of replayability. Additionally, the tech tree adds flavor and assistance to the player, but it’s a feature that management simulation games possess making it common place in this genre. Regardless, if management simulation games are your style, this is a great entry level title to pick up. It helps that it isn’t expensive either!”

Score: 8 / 10

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Automachef - PC Review

Introduction

Ever wanted to create the ultimate automated kitchen where you don't have to worry about pesky employees not being efficient enough? Well, now you can live your dreams in Automachef where you create the best, quickest, and tastiest meals. Just make sure to keep that efficiency rating high and don't anger the food critics! This management puzzle game provides several hours of entertainment as players scratch their heads over the fastest designs possible. Automachef is a great time for all ages and I'm enjoying the heck out of it.

Gameplay

I'm incredibly surprised at how much time I spent playing Automachef. It is a management game that has an intuitive design. Each level has objectives that players need to fulfill in order to succeed. If an objective is not completed then, when looking at the timeline, the circle next to that particular requirement would not be filled. Level requirements will be things like energy usage, orders fulfilled, food critic orders satisfied, total ingredients used, or time limits. In the campaign, completing these objectives opens up the next level, however, there are a couple of other modes that can be played.

Notably, Automachef possesses a Career mode where players begin with a budget to take on contracts. This mode presumes that players have already completed the game or understand what machines are needed to complete various orders. It does not hold your hand by telling you what is required for each contract. The most players receive is the menu list, a budget, a power usage, or total ingredients that can be used. Objectives in each contract changes based on the difficulty level set. While players can complete a contract on easy, they will receive less money, less of a bonus payment, and a lower efficiency target to meet. The objectives will also scale accordingly, allowing players to produce fewer dishes during rush hour times and lower energy use. Overall, this mode is great at providing a challenge once players finish the campaign mode.

There are three other options that are self-explanatory. A scenario mode allows players to make their own challenges with their own objective list that can be published on the Steam workshop. At the moment, there aren't many scenarios available, but there are a few that players can try.

Another option is the test site where players can see how their builds function, apart from testing them out during levels. Players are able to stop the level from completing when something isn't working and because of that, I haven't really needed to use this mode. I imagine that it is useful for players who are looking to build complex kitchen designs for scenarios they will publish at a later point.

Finally, there are mods for Automachef. Currently, there are four available (at the time of writing this review), and each presents different food choices like onion rings or steak. Instead of just cooking a steak to one base rareness level, players have to cook it to the specifications of the order (like medium or well done). With the mods, players will be able to add more management fun to an already entertaining game and I love it.

UI

The UI in Automachef is quite intuitive. On the left is a menu screen with two tabs, one labeled Parts and the other is Blueprints. Under the parts tab, different machines available to you are listed. Once you click on a machine, a drop-down appears that displays the power usage, cost, and description. Under the blueprints tab, players can create machine setups that will be frequently used in their kitchens. This comes in handy when playing the burger frenzy optional level where the objective is to crank out 50 plain burgers in under 2 minutes. Your setup has to be fast and efficient to succeed at this level. Trust me. And when you find the right design, making a blueprint goes a long way.

Above the machine list are four buttons: move, duplicate, recipe, and turn camera. The move button allows players to move whole sections of their automated machines, instead of having to individually click on them. Duplicate is self-explanatory. The recipe button shows players what ingredients are needed to complete an order, though it does not tell you what machines are need - something that needs to be figured out by the players. Lastly, there is the turn camera option which twists the camera 45 degrees on the right then left and back to normal again. To me, the camera option is the most useless feature, but I digress...

After setting up the kitchen and when you begin taking orders, the screen changes to have new information displayed on the left. The Level Progress will appear, displaying objectives to succeed such as, the number of dishes delivered, energy used, total ingredients used, food critic orders satisfied, or time left to complete objectives. Underneath those will be power usage and reputation percentage. Reputation is most important in Contracts mode, where players will bolster the rating by successfully completing contracts. In the campaign, the reputation remains at 100%, and thus far, I haven't determined how important this is in later levels.

When players are fulfilling their objectives, there is a drop-down menu on the right side of the screen which displays useful information like Power Usage, On/Off, Bacteria, Fire Hazard, and Infestation Hazard. All of these display options help determine the success rate of kitchen designs for the player, which is incredibly useful for later levels where some of these kitchen issues are introduced.

Overall, I love how simple and accessible the UI is. It has a lightweight feel to it and I find that because of Automachef's graphics, it is easy to play on older computers.

Pros and Cons

On the good side of automating food:

• Customers don't complain if you miss their order (in campaign mode)
• Provides hours of endless entertainment as you perfect your automated kitchen
• Allows for mind-bending puzzle solving
• Has Challenge levels that push players kitchens to the limits
• The companion robot is ambitious and entertaining
• The game runs rather smoothly, even on a laptop that is several years old
• Has several different modes: Campaign, Contracts, Scenario Editor, Test Site, and Mods.

On the bad side of food automation:

• The wait time at the beginning of each level is slightly annoying after a while (especially when you know the level is going to fail and you are trying to troubleshoot the kitchen)
• No option for flipping a blueprint, only copying of a layout is available
• The career mode should really be hidden behind the campaign because it assumes that players know everything before going in. As in, DON'T START IN CAREER MODE FIRST.
• The efficiency rating doesn't have defined terms to achieve 100%. Up until recently, the highest I could ever achieve was 98%. (Eventually, I completed the first level with 100% efficiency, although I'm not sure why. The tips only tell you criteria to boost your efficiency, but it's hard to tell how it is calculated.)
• When placing machines in the kitchen, there is an arrow that indicates the direction that the items will move. The issue I have with this is that the arrow isn't defined well enough. The green color needs to be more vibrant, because when your kitchen is larger, it gets harder to see the outline. However, this might be an issue with playing on a laptop where its graphics aren't ass good.
• The game does not seem to cloud save if you are playing it through the Twitch games tab. But, on Steam there is cloud saving so don't panic!

Thoughts on Cooking the Most Efficient Meal

I've been having a great time playing Automachef because it is a challenging management game. Plus it helps that the robot you work with has a lot of ambition and high expectations. There are different modes that players can sink their teeth into and there are all kinds of food options available to satisfy your hungry clients. Even though there are some minor grievances about Automachef, they are not enough to detract me from playing this title a ton.

As such, Automachef has made it past the chopping block and onto our plates with a solid 8 out of 10. So be sure to pick this title up for every gamer you know that love management puzzle simulators on Steam.

Be follow Hermes Interactive on their official webpage, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Keep an eye on Team17 for future published titles on their website as well!

Game Information

Platform:
PC
Developer(s):
Hermes Interactive
Publisher(s):
Team17 Digital Ltd.
Genre(s):
Management,
Puzzle
Mode(s):
Single Player
Other Platform(s):
N/A

Source:
Provided by Publisher

Article by Susan N.

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Automachef Joins Team17 Digital Ltd - Available in Summer 2019

UK, 1st May 2019 – Team17, a global games label, creative partner and developer of independent, premium video games today announced their partnership with Hermes Interactive as Automachef joins their games label. This puzzler requires plenty of brain food as players will be faced with increasingly challenging culinary conundrums! Automachef will be available on Steam and Nintendo Switch in Summer 2019.

In Automachef players are tasked with creating a series of fully-automated kitchens that can produce a variety of dishes, each is a puzzle where you must overcome spatial, energy and design challenges. Taking care to monitor energy and ingredient consumption, fire and infestation risks. Players must plan, position and programme numerous machines that can slice, cook, assemble and serve delicious meals.

Each kitchen will require multiple machines in order to take, process and complete orders. It is up to the player to decide which machines are needed for each recipe and where to place them in order to deliver meals in a timely manner! They won't be alone in this culinary journey, fellow human Robert Person will be there to guide them, at least…. he claims to be a human.

Key Features

• Three tasty modes! Take on the campaign, build a business in Contracts Mode or play untethered in Test Site Mode
• Feisty robots! Well, robot. Throughout your time in Automachef, you will be accompanied by Robert Person who will offer you help and abundant charm
• Machines! From the order reader to the assembler and everything in between, you must tell each machine what it needs to do (they can’t think for themselves…yet)
• Human food! Whether it’s cheeseburgers or salads, each recipe requires different machines with different commands to make it… and don’t even get me started on combo meals!
• Blueprints! Created the perfect production line? Save your plans as blueprints to use in future kitchens.

Automachef will be available on Steam and Nintendo Switch in Summer 2019.

About Team17 Digital Ltd

Founded in 1990, Team17 Group plc is a leading international video games label and creative partner for independent developers. The portfolio comprises over 100 games, including The Escapists, Overcooked, Yoku’s Island Express, Yooka-Laylee, the Worms franchise and many more from developers around the world. Visit www.team17.com for more info.

© 2019 Nintendo



Article by Susan N.

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