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A rogue-like city builder that takes place in a dark fantasy world beset by the blightstorm, the apex of a never-ending torrential downpour that grows in intensity over time, until it eventually brings about a biblical flood that wipes out everything. The sole exception is the mystical Smoldering City, a lone sanctuary ruled by the imperious Scorched Queen, a phoenix-like figure who has appointed you one of her many Viceroys.
As Viceroy, you have but one edict: sally forth after the deluge, build colonies in the Queen's name, and attempt to seal the evil behind the blightstorm.
Should you fail, then when the blightstorm returns, all you have built will be wiped clean from the map, and you and your settlers must flee back to the Smoldering City to wait out the deluge, before venturing out to try again once more.
Success will extend the time before the next blightstorm hits by a few precious years... Time urgently needed to forge forward and find more powerful seals, which lie further and further away from the Smoldering City the more potent they are.
And maybe, one day, the final seal can be reforged...
"Sounds like a job for me, gigachad city-building veteran that I am" I muse. So, after a quick tutorial session to get familiar with the mechanics of the game, I set off with a bunch of colonists that included humans like myself, alongside an eclectic mix of animal-like races all united under the Queen.
Among those you can call upon are Beavers, Lizards, Harpies, and Foxes. Including boring regular humans like ourselves, every race has something they're particularly good at.
Humans, for instance, excel at agriculture (and so are ideally suited to regions with fertile land), making booze, and... working in hospitality. Because, apparently, even in a dark fantasy game with so many diverse races, we're still working for tips on minimum wage. Sigh.
Next you have Beavers, industrious rodent-folk best described as a less metalworking-inclined, more lumberjacky version of Dwarves, with a great passion for woodcutting and carpentry. Basically, they all work at dark fantasy IKEA.
Then you have Lizards, your not-Argonians who really like killing and butchering hapless woodland creatures, cooking said woodland creatures, and beating the crap out of each other when they run out of woodland creatures. They also like working with fire in general, and thus all likely have fanatical hard-ons for our fiery monarch, and probably relish getting high on incense in their Clan Halls while fervently discussing their self-written Scorched Queen fanfics with each other.
There are also Harpies - lofty, tea-sipping, Mean Girls Birds who simply cannot believe you're wearing that outfit for the second time in a row this week ("A stormy apocalypse doesn't also mean fashion apocalypse, dah-ling!") But don't fret, they excel at making you clothes that will keep the rain off you while keeping you looking so hot right now. They're also skilled herbalists who probably secretly enjoy watching your starving ass pick up a whole bunch of toxic berries from the wild, painstakingly bring it back, and then, just as you're about to eat... they'll tell you that it's poisonous with a snide grin.
Finally, you have Foxes, who are essentially furry Elves that the forest doesn't like anymore. Or, well, not that much anymore. When feeling sad, the forest still drunk dials the Foxes sometimes for one-night stands. I think they used to be in a toxic relationship. You know what, it's complicated. These guys will steal your lunch from the fridge even though you explicitly labeled your tupperware, and if you don't let them eat your lunch they'll just keel over and die. Really.
So with this colorful cast, I set off to build a colony as ordered. And it started off well! I was soon receiving and completing the Queen's orders for simple things like building dirt paths that cost me nothing (except grudging complaints from Beavers who mutter under their breath about how they have an engineering degree and are being wasted on this). As a reward, the Queen gave me a random assortment of blueprints for advanced buildings. I got one for a farm, and happened to have found some fertile land in a clearing made by my forest-decimating Beavers. Soon, I had food in abundance due to the humans being super good at farming, and was completing orders for packs of crops to be sent back to the Smoldering City. Eventually, I made such a name for myself that I was... kicked out of my now self-sustaining settlement and told to do it all over again.
And that's the gist of it! In every game, you earn reputation by completing the Queen's orders as you build a nice little colony for her... but do it quickly. See, the Queen's impatience is constantly ticking, and should it reach boiling point, you will be fired recalled and whipped reprimanded. But fear not! The Queen is still a girl at heart! Her impatience, like any girl, can be tempered by presents (ie. sending her crates of goodies you salvage from the wilds)! Oh, and by wiping out her enemies and enforcing her cult like a good little Commissar Viceroy, of course.
Anyway, after a string of successes, I soon found myself in front of one of the fabled seals... a broken one, rather. With a gigantic eyeball of evil glaring out of it, oozing malice.
I go in confidently, thinking this would be no big deal...
... But, as one infamous narrator from another dark fantasy roguelike is fond of saying: Remind yourself that overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer.
First off, remember how I said the blueprint awarded are random? Well, I kept finding fertile land, which I would've farmed - except I didn't get the blueprints I needed. Instead of a farm, I kept getting blueprints for things like a temple, tavern, or bathhouse. Cool, thanks... except none of these help WHEN WE HAVE NOTHING TO EAT
Then I ran out of woodland critters to kill and couldn't find more - so my carnivorous Lizards who kind of need meat to survive started to drop like flies.
Oh and while trying to reforge a seal, you not only have to complete the Queen's orders, you need to do another set of pseudo-orders from the sealkeeper, too. All while that broken seal is SPITTING OUT PLAGUES OF LOCUSTS AND ALL-CONSUMING DARKNESS THAT MAKE THE SEVEN PLAGUES OF EGYPT LOOK LIKE A WALK IN THE PARK
"The Queen is getting impatient, Viceroy, she demands 20 packs of crops from us," a wide-eyed Harpy croaks at me while chewing on her own feathers in hunger.
I stare incredulously at her as we both huddle in front of the hearth. "Sure," I gasp out, as I throw the last piece of wood in the fire, "She can have the extra food we've stored up over the OH WAIT WE DON'T HAVE ANY BECAUSE SHE DIDN'T GIVE US THE BLUEPRINT FOR A FARM!"
The flame sputters under the wind and rain; if it goes out, it will be the end of us. I squint past the storm and see a Beaver hurrying toward us with a pile of firewood in his arms. "I'm coming!" he hollers, then suddenly freezes in place, eyes bulging, and faceplants into the mud. Dead.
"What. The. Hell!?" I sputter out.
"Plague of Death," says the sealkeeper shivering next to me, before sneezing heavily and sniffling. "I warned you."
Long story short - I failed miserably and fled back home as the flood began, and the Queen screamed at me for the entire duration of the blightstorm while ignoring my desperate one-word pleas of 'farm' and 'sorry'
But then, the storm finally clears, and the Queen boots me out of the city, ordering me to try again. As I trudge out into the woods, I see that all I built before is gone. The forest, once cleared, is back in full force. Here, and there, I find the shattered remnants of past colonies, perhaps mine among them. Above me, storm clouds gather, and a drizzle begins...