Outlanders

Though the unforgiving moments where I watched my followers drop like flies wore on me at times, I loved how each scenario challenged me to balance all of these factors to accomplish a set of goals. Outlanders can be challenging and frustrating, but I rarely felt overwhelmed. Outlanders doesn't deliver on the grand scale of the large city simulations many associate with the genre, but its small-scale approach appeals to the task-oriented part of your brain, creating an immensely satisfying experience that brought me back time and time again.

The slow pace of Outlanders gets a little too slow at times, but this is a genuinely charming town builder with a modern sense of humour, and a great antidote to towering skyscrapers or technological arms races.

Outlanders blends satisfying strategy with an enticingly chill vibe, and packs a surprising amount of humor into its mostly wordless story. Don’t let its cute exterior fool you — Outlanders will test your strategic abilities even as it draws you in with its cozy charm.

Outlanders is a small-scale city-builder that pulls you in with the jolly visuals but really gets its hooks in you with the focussed objectives and micromanagement. Things play out at a pace just north of ‘glacial’ which can be relaxing and/or infuriating, but the chill banjo soundtrack will do its utmost to calm the savage beast of your frustration and keep you chugging along. A fun entry to the genre - I loved the stripped back, low-stakes objectives and the need to keep an eye on the smallest details, but the mechanics don’t leave a lot of room for error which can be a headache when you’re learning the ropes.

The beautiful art and relaxing music of Outlanders can't save it from totally busted systems, constant softlocking, and exceedingly poor UI design choices.

Outlanders is a fun game with a significant challenge for the player. I enjoyed trying to meet the leaders’ demands on each mission. I didn’t always succeed first try, but that’s part of the challenge to try again.