It's due on Steam Early Access (I KNOW I KNOW but come on it's a mainstay of PC gaming now, we can't just will it out of existence) on February 12th. Not long to wait to find out whether this new frontier for build'n'bash is a safe one to settle on. Instead, according to this elaboration on Polygon, you'll need to assess the lie of the land and work out what you're going to focus on. I'm relieved to hear that the spread of resources will be random each game, so it won't be a matter of rote-learning a precise strategy that you have to enact within the first minute of a match or it's all over. Of course, the great test is to then making money-juggling and corporate espionage as exciting as blowing up tanks, but if this is quick and punchy enough about that stuff I daresay it can pull it off.
No fightin', see? There's not even any unit building - just bases, and market manipulation. Since Endless Legend, I'm mad keen for strategy games with designer interfaces. ApStardock and Mohawk Games have announced Apas the release date for Offworld Trading Company, the economic strategy game from Civilization IV lead designer Soren Johnson.
Lots to talk about here, but one thing I'll say straight off is that it's full of UI porn. It looks out of this world no no no I'm so sorry, I mean it looks like a very interesting and attractive game from this world. A real-time strategy game which isn't at all militaristic, but instead focused on colony expansion and economy, and the Machiavellian manipulation thereof? Gimme! While a prototype has been available since July to anyone who feels comfortable throwing $80 at speculative projects, Mohawk have just now broken cover with first footage for everyone. Each resource has a value that can increase or decrease depending on the demand and supply.It's impossible not to be interested in whatever Civ IV designer Soren Johnson is up to, despite a disconcerting dalliance with wait/pay/spam social games at EA a while back, but even so his next project, Offworld Trading Company, is pressing even more of my buttons than I'd already expected. Some, like steel, food, and chemicals, are produced from other resources and require special buildings.
Most of the resources, such as iron, aluminum, and water, can be mined from the Martian soil. Offworld Trading Company has thirteen types of resources. Each level starts with the player scanning the surface of Mars to find resources and build his or her headquarters next to them. The game puts a strong emphasis on mining and trading resources. If a rival company obtains the majority in the player's corporation, he or she loses the game. The main goal of the game is to assume control over all four companies by purchasing their majority stakes and to create a monopoly. However, they can secretly organize acts of sabotage against each other, eliminate resources with underground nukes and hire goons to attack or defend. They seldom fight outright, and their rivalry is largely economic.
The other three companies become the player's rivals. The player has to choose a company he or she will control. The game mixes resource mining and construction used in real-time strategies with a stronger economic element. In the sci-fi game Offworld Trading Company, the player can lead an interplanetary corporation in a futuristic trade war for control of Mars.