God Game Reus Asks You, Mighty One, To Aid Puny Humans

[Karloff]

God Game Reus Asks You, Mighty One, To Aid Puny Humans


When in doubt, throw a great big rock.

"For us, this [release] marks the end of working weekends and nights," says independent developer Abbey Games, but for you, oh mighty one, your godlike task in Reus is just beginning. Guide those weak humans to their allotted destiny, using all the tricks and world-bending powers at your disposal. Just bear in mind that, if they get too uppity, one of the targets they may take aim at is you.

Reus asks you to take on the role of the planet's ancient giant entities, with powers beyond imagination. "Ultimately you want to create a utopia for your humans," say the developers, "For example, you could create a forest full of helpful plants to help a village grow." But you need to cooperate to make that happen, so the ocean giant needs to create a watery expanse so your plants can grow. Then the forest giant moves in to place specific helpful plants in that forest to attract settlements. Welcome, puny humans, to your new Eden! This level of cooperation and symbiosis is what makes Reus tricky, particularly since - if you're a bit too generous - your humans will start fighting amongst themselves for the resources on offer.

This title is available today (about 1pm EST) via Steam, Desura, Gamersgate, GOG and the developer's own site [http://www.reusgame.com/buy].

Source: Abbey Games [http://reusgame.com/]


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[Candidus]

This level of cooperation and symbiosis is what makes Reus tricky, particularly since - if you're a bit too generous - your humans will start fighting amongst themselves for the resources on offer.

Doesn't it make more sense for humans to fight amongst themselves when there isn't enough to go around?

Not that abundance has ever stopped us fighting each-other. But y'know.

 

[Bernzz]

This level of cooperation and symbiosis is what makes Reus tricky, particularly since - if you're a bit too generous - your humans will start fighting amongst themselves for the resources on offer.

Doesn't it make more sense for humans to fight amongst themselves when there isn't enough to go around?

Not that abundance has ever stopped us fighting each-other either. But y'know.

One way or the other, really. We just need an excuse to fight over something.

 

[Reynaert]

Looks fun.
What first caught my eye was the name of this game. 'Reus' means giant in Dutch, after some research I learned the developers are Dutch which explains it. It's good to see they went with that name.

 

[cwmdulais]

ive played it a bit, its pretty fun but it gets a bit repetative

 

[Frankster]

Been playing it since yesterday, been having an absolute cracker of a time with it

 

[kailus13]

Looks fun.
What first caught my eye was the name of this game. 'Reus' means giant in Dutch, after some research I learned the developers are Dutch which explains it. It's good to see they went with that name.

It also looks like Deus which is latin for god.

Is there an option to just kill most of them if they step out of line? I feel god games should have that option.

 

[Zblade495]

Sweet! I worked on this game as a game design intern, so I hope you're all having fun!

 

[Strazdas]

From the trailer it seems that this game is a multiplayer where you compete aginast other player giants/civilization. is that right? because i dont want that, i want a singleplayer god game, not a competition.

 

[Ruairi iliffe]

From the trailer it seems that this game is a multiplayer where you compete aginast other player giants/civilization. is that right? because i dont want that, i want a singleplayer god game, not a competition.

Nope, Totally single player.

You control all 4 Titans at the same time, while attempting to manage human civ's cropping up as they demand help on Grand projects, its a resource and time management puzzle game.

 

[kouriichi]

I cant wait to run my civilizations directly into the ground for enjoyment.

But i do feel that the "God Game" market fell a bit after Spore (which i personally did enjoy for a few hundred hours). Hopefully the upcoming "Generation" of god games will live up to the older ones.

 

[TheBaron87]

I've played it, and it's great, but it doesn't reveal its rogue-like nature in the marketing material. This game plays out very much like FTL, XCOM, or the many other repeat-playthrough games coming out recently. You have 30 minutes to complete any combination of objectives available (each of which is an achievement, the achievement list and objective list are identical), which unlock new transmutations that make it possible for you to amass a higher score in the next playthrough. When you run out of the easy ones, you have to start going for the tougher ones which require more complex strategies and faster execution.

You can't go TOO fast though, or your settlements get greedy and begin attacking each other, ruining your progress. All this really means is that you can't devote all your time to a single settlement unless you're trying to get an objective that only requires one. If you spread your attention evenly between multiple settlements you should avoid overloading one and causing it to become greedy. Greed increases when the resources your village is using is lagging behind the resources they have available on their land, so you need to give them time to catch up after developments or they get aggressive and will even attack your giants. This is the only way to get the objectives requiring multiple settlements or high planetary prosperity. Prosperity only counts for resources within a settlements' border, and even though settlements can extend their borders, one settlement will never cover the planet and will kill you anyway if you attempt to meet the planetary prosperity goals through them alone. The end goal is to meet every objective (in other words, earn every achievement). Some of the final ones require astronomical prosperity scores that are completely out of my reach due to not having enough max-level transmutations unlocked yet.

The best part is that the game doesn't require cloud saving to achieve that functionality. Since your objectives and achievements are completely mirrored, you can play the game from any PC and it will read your steam achievements to know what you've unlocked.

 

[Strazdas]

From the trailer it seems that this game is a multiplayer where you compete aginast other player giants/civilization. is that right? because i dont want that, i want a singleplayer god game, not a competition.

Nope, Totally single player.

You control all 4 Titans at the same time, while attempting to manage human civ's cropping up as they demand help on Grand projects, its a resource and time management puzzle game.

Ah, indeed it is going to be a time management problem if i control all of them. i like being focused on one god. can i be like a christian god? that is, to never ever do anything at all?

 

[Ruairi iliffe]

From the trailer it seems that this game is a multiplayer where you compete aginast other player giants/civilization. is that right? because i dont want that, i want a singleplayer god game, not a competition.

Nope, Totally single player.

You control all 4 Titans at the same time, while attempting to manage human civ's cropping up as they demand help on Grand projects, its a resource and time management puzzle game.

Ah, indeed it is going to be a time management problem if i control all of them. i like being focused on one god. can i be like a christian god? that is, to never ever do anything at all?

Well there is a pause function in which you can issue orders to the Giants, but i would say time management is a core aspect due to the 30/60/120 Minute time limits depending on the era you play (although there is a free-play mode without the time limit, just you don't unlock new animals/plants/wonders)

And as for the Giants, each one has unique sets of abilities that you learn to mix with the others, like making an ocean with the Crab Giant so wetlands appear, then using a forest one to create woodlands ect.

Lastly, sure you can do nothing at all. Just nothing will happen on a wasteland, or if you at least made the planet habitable the people will just wage war on each other and kill the giants. If you find that entertaining.

 

[Krantos]

*snip

Thanks for posting this. The marketing materials for this game definitely didn't make it sound anything like that.

Unfortunately, that probably means I won't be picking it up. God Game = good. God Game with timed objectives and time management puzzles= less good. God Game with all that and an iterative focus rather than freedom to build you civilization as you see fit = not really my thing.

Guess I'll keep hoping Molyneux's "upcoming" god game manages to break the Molyneux-curse and actually be good.

 

[Reynaert]

After playing this game for a couple of hours I can honestly say I like this game. All plants, animals and minerals you put on the planet (there are a lot of different resources that you unlock along the way) have different ways of interacting with each other. You have to mix and match the resources on the limited space given to complete the projects, which, in turn, gives the giants new powers.
I like the concept of the 'short' sessions (30, 60 or 120 minutes). You can play a game in one go and afterwards you reap the rewards in form of new achievements and new achievements means new recources. (NB: You can continue your game after the set time if you want.)
I do wonder if the game will still be as engaging after you have completed all achievements. This will take quite some time though. If it stays fun till that point, the game is definitely worth the money.