Floodland

Performance and pacing problems mar an otherwise novel and comprehensive survival city builder.

Floodland is a city builder that triumphs because it focuses on its citizens as much as the city. A strong narrative both in its story and in your interactions with the clans means constant decision-making that'll always make you think in a way that city builders rarely do.

Vile Monarch's post-apocalyptic city-builder puts its people first to great success but walks a fine line between providing too much or too little to do.

Floodland is a game with enormous potential, and I hope the developers will continue working on it for a while longer. It still contains plenty of bugs that need to be fixed, especially in terms of gameplay. I’m really getting fed up with the constant freezing and slowdowns. On the other hand, it’s a very well-made simulator, and although there are occasional logistical issues with clunky graphics, all the building elements in it make sense. Including that fantastic soundtrack, which is capable of carrying the entire game on its own.

I laud Floodland for being a shockingly niche game, aiming to please a very minute and specific subsection of gamers into survival, city builders, and strategy simulators all at once. It is flawed, being way too slow before it becomes really interesting, not to mention some performance issues, but it does indeed succeed at what it was developed for. It’s just a really hard sell for anyone besides this very specific niche of gamers, and not enough of a “city-builder” for those who are into the genre in particular.

The solarpunk genre is here and only is going to grow as our climate starts to transform. Plenty of people are going to find a way to express their existential dread at a problem that seems so big. There will be plenty of corny stories about rebuilding a world from the ashes of the people we were before. Where Floodland has a leg up is in its subtlety. You aren’t constantly talking about who you want to be and how you want to run your apocalypse town. You are showing who you are by how you build it.

There was a lot of replayability factors in Floodland I loved, and a strong political message. If you love micromanagement games, this had a treasure-trove worth of content.

Floodland has a lot of great ideas and an addicting gameplay loop, but its Clan mechanics quickly suck any fun out of a game as soon it rears its ugly head. With only one scenario to play and no customisation options for these clans, it's all too easy to suffer a slow decline for reasons that don't feel like your fault. With such a major mechanic feeling so flawed, it's hard not to feel like Floodland has taken a wrong turn at the last minute. For such a solid base, it's a real shame.

Floodland is a surprisingly complex survival sim with a unique aesthetic and setting, but is that enough to keep it afloat?

Despite shortfalls, attempting to save my people from collapse became something I was determined to do, and I sunk quite a few long sessions to do so. While wading through trials and tribulations was a lot of pressure, I was curious to see if I could overcome all obstacles. The motivation to be the best leader possible became the ultimate endgame for me, but sometimes the pacing got in the way of my experience.