Against the Storm is a city builder for people who have internalized the lessons of capitalism video
4 min read
Notes
In options > gameplay, mention setting default woodcutter mode to “only marked trees” so you don’t accidentally open a glade
From the start, you’re making decisions that feel like they have a meaningful impact
Games are at their best when they give you decisions that feel impactful
Against the Storm offers you so many decisions, and none of them feel like the classic loot game decisions where I’m deciding between another 1% attack speed and 3% poison resistance. It’s clear what the benefit will be, and you will feel it.
The “build” in roguelike terms consists of cornerstones and your building choices
cornerstones give you special or enhanced abilities as a settlement
Building choices shape the minute-to-minute options you have for how to grow out your settlement
It’s not any particular resource or technology that advances your settlement forward — they all do, but there’s a greater force: it’s exploration.
Discovering new glades is the fuel in your settlement’s engine
You need them to gain access to new resources and new opportunities to earn the queen’s favor
Uncovering each one is like making a gatcha pull, except without the emptiness of knowing you’ll need to pay for the next one: a shot of endorphins when you see what new stuff you got
Script
The city building genre is one I used to love as a kid.
I spent countless hours playing Sim City on my SNES and later other similar whatever-building™️ games like Theme Park and Theme Hospital.
Nowadays though, I just can’t do them.
It’s because city builders are typically open-ended sandbox games
Just like play in an actual sandbox, there’s no particular goal except the one you set for yourself
(This is not entirely true, but usually objective-based modes in city builders are more side dish than main course. The meat is the sandbox.)
This means there is no ceiling on the amount of time you’ll be playing a city builder — an absolute nightmare if your psyche has been ruined by capitalism.
Capitalism teaches us that our hours are only valuable if we can sell them.
“No, dummy, you misunderstand capitalism! The lesson is that you work hard and save your money so that you can put your money to work for you!”
Sorry, friend, but it’s you who misunderstand capitalism.
That’s the promise of capitalism, but if you actually look at it, the lesson is that although you could become the capitalist yourself and sit back while other suckers work for a living, capitalism is a pyramid — small at the top and big at the bottom.
You don’t have much chance of reaching the tip of that pyramid, so you’ll likely end up working for your whole life like the rest of us suckers.
Despite what capitalism did to me, I still understand that I need some recreation. I can’t sell every single hour. So, video games.
But a very particular kind of video game. Specifically, games with an end.
If I play a game that doesn’t have an end, I start getting anxious. “How long do I need to play this to enjoy it?”
When a game has a clear ending, the answer is… well, it’s clear: I can type in the name on how long to beat and see the answer right there.
When a game lets you play as long as you like, I just can’t stop thinking about the poor capitalists who I’m depriving of my time.
Seriously though, since they’re writing the checks, it’s actually me who is being deprived, and what I’m being deprived of is the money I need to survive.
Against the Storm is the first city builder maybe since Sim City 3000 that I was able to play guilt-free
In the case of SimCity 3000, that was just because I was too young to have been spoiled yet on sandbox games, but in the case of Against the Storm, it’s the design of the game
That’s because they’ve, best I can tell, designed this game for weirdos exactly like me.