Recent reviews by Choirmaestro

While this game does have a lot of similarities in comparison to Stardew Valley and other similar titles in the genre, it manages to hold its own and feel unique.

At first, I was unsure about the game. However, after about 10-15 hours in-game I unlocked the ability to have a bartender do the work for me. I probably could have done this sooner, however, it was a game changer to say the least. It was reminiscent of the zombie workers from Graveyard Keeper, but not as morbid. The only complaint i have is that the employees have to take breaks -- damn labor laws! (just kidding)

Having played many different city-and-resource management games in my life, I can confidently say that Foundation has quickly taken its rightful place among my favorites. The simplicity of the art style is shadowed by the complexity of the gameplay, and I found myself starting over multiple times to ensure I got the most optimal early game possible. Now, with almost 75 hours in the game, I feel I can confidently say that this game is a must-have if you enjoy city/resource management games.

I cannot count the number of times I've played this, from Settler difficulty all the way up to (my PB) Immortal, the game is nothing but fun and fantastic. This is my most-played game on Steam, and I simply cannot wait to see what Civ 7 has in store for us.

10/10, with mods or vanilla, get this game.

Edit 04/22/2024: DO NOT BUY.

I tried to give this game and, by proxy, Colossal Order, a chance. I thoroughly enjoyed Cities Skylines, and what C:S2 could have been. At this point, I haven't played the game in months, and don't see myself going back. Hopefully CO will get their ♥♥♥♥ together and provide a great game experience, but based on the (ALMOST ONE YEAR) since launch, I just can't see it happening.

Original review:

Despite what all the trolls in the comments say, this really is a beautiful game, in terms of gameplay and engine. Is it perfect? No, and I won't pretend that it is. With that being said, a lot of the performance issues that people are complaining about seem to completely miss the fact that this is a next-gen game, and is not supposed to be playable at 4k 144hz on 90% of the current-gen playerbase. If that were the case, then 10 years from now, CS2 would look like 20 years old, not 10.

Colossal Order really did listen to the community on a solid majority of the issues we had with CS1, and from what little chance I've had to play (thanks to a child at home,) I have enjoyed it thus far. And no, I do not have a crazy high-end system.

I do hope that CO keeps working on this game, which if CS1 was anything to go off of, I believe they will.

I have over 500 hours in Civilization 6, which is the game most people are comparing this one to. I would argue against doing that, personally. While they may be a similar concept (historical turn-based RTS), that's more or less where the similarities end.
Look, if you're trying to find a game that's the exact same as Civilization 6, then this isn't the game for you. BUT! if you go into this game knowing and expecting it to be similar, but different, then you'll have a much better time overall.
There are some things in this game that I find myself wishing they had done similar to Civ, however I'm happy they didn't. This game is its own entirely - and far more beautiful than Civ as well!

Early on the game is fun - collecting food, expanding your units, etc. However, you can fall behind very quickly if you get either a bad start, get boxed in by the AI, or just get lazy with claiming new territories. Later on as the game progresses, the War system is *very* fun for me! I love the concept of not claiming an entire civilization's cities in a few turns, which is how I would go about this in Civ. Instead, Humankind has the War Support system, and if a Civilization loses all of its War Support against you, you can make demands against them including, but not limited to, relinquishing territories to you.

Overall I would highly recommend this game for people who enjoy the RTS/Historical aspect of Civilization, however if you're looking for an exact-match, then you'll have to look elsewhere. 9/10 would recommend.

I haven't played the game for *too* long in all honesty so if my opinion changes I'll change the review, but I recommend this game!!
When this game launched, I was super stoked for it, just like the majority of us. After seeing all the reviews and the mishaps that happened I decided to not buy the game...
...Until last week.
This game is SO vastly different from the release version!! I know everybody is saying that, but it can't be more true. I've currently only logged 11 hours in the game, but that's only over 2 IRL days. I find myself wanting to explore each new star system, and before I know it it's 2AM! If you have spare time to invest in the game, and a spare $60, I would recommend getting this. 8/10 (still some bugs/performance issues, if I get them fixed or if they fix them it'll be a 9!)

This is very peaceful, as well as very frustrating. I find myself excited for possibilities of each 'hood, and then dissappointed when I fail to build my vision. It's an extremely good resource management/city-block-'hood-insert-word-here builder. I highly recommend it to everyone. I haven't played it for many hours but already find myself up until 4 am a couple nights because I couldn't leave the game.
The fact that this is still Early Access is quite amazing to me, actually, as most of the game seems realitively finished. The only issue I'm having (and I'm not sure if it's just me or if they haven't fully implemented it yet) is that in the Worlds option I can create the 'hood districts and the world itself, but I cannot actually build on the map itself. It's stuck in "delete" option.
HIGHLY recommend it, especially since it's only $10!

It's a really fun game, but also challenging. One of those games you should buy if you want to feel like you're back in old school times, but also want more to do than the old arcade games.