Alright, I'm seventeen hours into this game and have half the achievements in the bag, so for $2.50 (steam sale price) this was unquestionably worth it.

Is it a God game? Civ building? Puzzler? RTS? It's hard to categorize the game. Briefly, you command 4 giants clockwise and counter- around a flat "globe", creating features such as animals, minerals or vegetables in segments or terraforming into mountains/deserts, oceans, swamps or forests. Villagers move in. They'll randomly decide on "projects" which you complete by having your giants create resources in the village. But take care -- if the villagers grow too fast they get greedy, and either attack other villages or even the giants themselves!

Games are timed, and you're given rudimentary tools to start. You can't do everything that's possible in the game without "unlocks": achieving some goals each game. This may turn some off but it really works on multiple levels: limits the complexity to start and gives you different goals for each game so that you won't want to find the One Winning Strategy. 60 to 120 minutes is a big time sink (especially if you're pausing), but you can knock out a half dozen "unlocks" in a given game, especially at the beginning.

In a game where everything works together well, it only makes sense that the core mechanism of the game is "symbiosis". Some features work better next to others (e.g., bonus food for having this animal near this plant), and then you can embue features with different aspects and then transmute them into higher-level items which likely have different symbioses. This is crucial because there's simply not enough land within the border of each village to accomplish the goals as they get harder and harder.

And I didn't even mention ambassadors. Or having to have your giants "put down" advancing armies (or let them through -- Hammerville was looking a little snobby).

Really, everything in this game works together so well, and it's very unique. Definitely buy this if you like puzzle or sim games.

Alright, I'm seventeen hours into this game and have half the achievements in the bag, so for $2.50 (steam sale price) this was unquestionably worth it. Is it a God game? Civ building? Puzzler? RTS? It's hard to categorize the game. Briefly, you command 4 giants clockwise and counter- around a flat "globe", creating features such as animals, minerals or vegetables in segments or terraforming into mountains/deserts, oceans, swamps or forests. Villagers move in. They'll randomly decide on "projects" which you complete by having your giants create resources in the village. But take care -- if the villagers grow too fast they get greedy, and either attack other villages or even the giants themselves! Games are timed, and you're given rudimentary tools to start. You can't do everything that's possible in the game without "unlocks": achieving some goals each game. This may turn some off but it really works on multiple levels: limits the complexity to start and gives you different goals for each game so that you won't want to find the One Winning Strategy. 60 to 120 minutes is a big time sink (especially if you're pausing), but you can knock out a half dozen "unlocks" in a given game, especially at the beginning. In a game where everything works together well, it only makes sense that the core mechanism of the game is "symbiosis". Some features work better next to others (e.g., bonus food for having this animal near this plant), and then you can embue features with different aspects and then transmute them into higher-level items which likely have different symbioses. This is crucial because there's simply not enough land within the border of each village to accomplish the goals as they get harder and harder. And I didn't even mention ambassadors. Or having to have your giants "put down" advancing armies (or let them through -- Hammerville was looking a little snobby). Really, everything in this game works together so well, and it's very unique. Definitely buy this if you like puzzle or sim games.