The games follow each other and are not alike. Just before, I was able to discover Wildmender, a survival game in the middle of the desert. And there we go to the bottom of the oceans of Abyss-62e with a city-builder! A title developed by OverPowered Team (based in Madrid) and published by Shiro Games.
Surviving on this new planet covered by the waves is not going to be an easy task. Two main resources must be taken into account: oxygen and electricity. Both are essential, even if the first is much more complex to manage than the second. Indeed, for electricity, it suffices to connect the electrical wires and to ensure a certain minimum production. Overall, the balance comes fairly quickly. On the contrary, oxygen already requires planning, in order to provide the place for the pipes, and above all the right angle between the arrival and the exit of the different buildings. Then, if the pressure becomes too low, it no longer works, which can be due either to too high a distance from the source, or to too many intersections (with separators). It is then necessary to add pumps to compensate. Finally, leaks are not uncommon, forcing them to have to be repaired quickly to prevent everyone on board from dying of asphyxiation.
After having defined the position of the heart of the base, we created houses and farms, in order to ensure accommodation and food for our divers. Because yes, of course, the population is reduced to fish men, insofar as it is not possible to see inside the buildings. Then we added mines around a bradium deposit. A notion of proximity must be taken into account for the proper functioning of industrial buildings, because workers do not go there if their homes are too far away. Finally, we finished our presentation with a bit of exploration, requiring the installation of light sources to avoid being attacked.
The game as it stands seems promising, but still too "young", and not easy to learn. I do not sulk my pleasure so far. I had a great time testing different things and trying to get one of the buildings to work. But it's not necessarily very easy to understand how each unit works, nor what the game will give in the longer term, beyond the usual primary needs of the population. Of course, there is no tutorial to help understand who does what. And the person who showed me the demo was not always very sure of certain aspects. For example, we had recurring oxygen leaks, which we ended up fixing with a cheat code to avoid the premature death of our inhabitants.
But the studio still has time to refine all these details, improve the interface and add a tutorial. The release is not scheduled before the first or even the second quarter of 2023.
