The Colonists Switch Review – An Adorable City Builder
Sometimes it’s nice to take a break from those intense games that take up all your time and brainpower. It’s nice to just sit down with a game, relax, and not have to really think about what you are doing. And that’s the beauty of The Colonists, a game that can be played mindlessly for hours upon hours upon hours.
Having been available on Steam since 2018, The Colonists has become rather popular with its very positive reviews. Now, given its success, it’s now leaping onto consoles.
The Colonists is a relaxing city building game in which you give a bunch of space robots the task of settling on a newly discovered planet. I mean, don’t you just love it already?!
The game has a few modes in which you can spend your time (which we will talk about later), but I naturally started the Campaign mode first. Upon doing so, you will be given a quick tutorial of how things work around here. It can be a little overwhelming at first because it seems as though there is a lot of information to remember, but the more you do it the simpler it will become.
Each bot has its own purpose (or job), whether that be farming, fishing, or chopping down trees – just to name a few. Each building or object you place and/or build has its own bots assigned to it, so you don’t need to worry about running out of bots at any point. They’re pretty much unlimited. But you do need to keep on eye on how much energy you are using, as this is what keeps your buildings ticking over.
Every building requires energy to run, and the way you get energy is by building a residence for your bots. So, making sure these are plenty is a must. It’s things like this that you need to look out for in The Colonists. It’s an infrastructure, so all things need to work together in order to work at all.
The gameplay itself is pretty easy. Simply open the build menu by pressing ZR, and you will find a range of tools at your disposal. Constructing buildings, paths, and roads, and even an advisor to give you tips on what to do next is what you will find here. Simply click on what you would like to build and place it. Simple.
What becomes a little complicated is when the buildings require other buildings’ components to run. For example, I needed to build a furnace in order to smelt iron but for the furnace to work, I needed a fuel source. I needed to build another two buildings to get it to work. In this aspect, The Colonists is very in-depth.
As I touched upon earlier, The Colonists has a few different game modes to explore and try out. There is the Campaign mode which consists of numerous scenarios for you to complete. There is the Challenge mode which isn’t that different from the Campaign mode. Finally, there is Sandbox Mode, which allows you to build to your heart’s content. All on randomly-generated maps.
I would’ve liked the Campaign mode to be more story-like as opposed to the scenario aspect, but that’s not too much of an issue. The good thing about this is that it’s easy to jump in and jump out of.
The soundtrack that accompanies The Colonists is nothing short of wonderful, and it compliments the relaxing gameplay so well – giving it a more casual atmosphere. The graphics are lovely, also, incredibly pleasing to the eye without being too in-your-face.
Overall, I had a blast with The Colonists. It’s fun and addictive gameplay that is incredibly relaxing and easy to pick up and play. Providing hours of entertainment, I can see why this one has done so well – and will continue to do well with its console release.
The Colonists Review provided by Nintendo Link
Developer: Auroch Digital
Publisher: Auroch Digital
Release Date: March 03, 2021
Price: £19.99, $27.29
Game Size: 658MB
Easy, relaxing gameplay
Robots are cute
In-depth infrastructure
Wonderful soundtrack
Would have preferred more of a Story for the Campaign mode
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