by I’ve had my eye on Synergy since we showed off the city builder back in 2022 during the PC Gaming Show. I’m a city builder simp anyway, but Synergy’s Moebius-style art really nailed the deal with its delicious pastel sci-fi charms. So far, however, I’ve only been able to take screenshots, but Leikir Studio has now made a demo available for Steam Next Fest. He didn’t let me down.
Although the synergy is not shy from the originality, the foundations are very familiar, born as they are from the formula that established the classic Impressions games like Caesar and Pharaoh. Arriving in a new, extremely foreign land, your settlers begin with nothing more than a ship’s stockpile and a gritty determination to carve out a home in an inhospitable land. From there, houses must be built, resources collected and jobs assigned, until you have ticked all the basic boxes.
Quickly, however, pleasant quirks begin to appear. All water is toxic, for example, it gives you your first production chain as your settlers collect the water, purify it, and then store it for consumption. Gathering more resources, specifically from the unusual flora, requires some additional steps that emphasize the exotic nature of the ecosystem.
Various plants produce fruit and other edible resources, but since your settlers have not encountered this type of flora before, they must study it first. Sending out field researchers to do some surface analysis shows how the plants can be used safely. You don’t want the denizens of your new settlement to run out and run out of poisonous thorns, after all.
Many of the plants I encountered had multiple uses, depending on how they were interacted with – harvest could yield fruit that could be used in the kitchen, and pruning could give me sticks which I could make into tools. The construction of two fruit picker buildings allowed me to send teams out to both prune and pick, after which the plant would grow slowly. In a pinch, all the resources of the plant can be removed even without separate buildings, but at the cost of destroying the plant.
Some resources, such as tree trunks, can only be harvested by cutting down trees, which comes with a downside: these trees provide shade from the harsh sun, which helps improve your settlers’ well-being. Therefore, maintaining the balance of the ecosystem is a top priority when trying to balance the need for resources with the quality of the environment. So you don’t want to be overly generous, but at the same time you need to maintain a healthy surplus of resources to protect your arrangement from the vagaries of the weather.
The change of season can bring new challenges, such as the dry season that causes plants and trees to grow or water to evaporate. A good stockpile can allow you to withstand these crises, and failure to do so can lead to sickness, starvation and eventual death. Good crack.
Learn to live
Research and exploration will help you create a solution that can handle these problems more effectively. Through the first, you can unlock new buildings, tasks and buffs, while the second allows you to send out expeditions that can return with new settlers, resources and even flora that can be planted in the local area. Eventually you will be able to create wells, irrigation systems, experimental laboratories and schools, filling the environment with new vegetation.
Once you’ve set up an explorer hut, you can access the world map and pick a destination. In the tutorial, a narrative event prompts you to visit a cave where a “chaotic flickering light” appears, so these events can also have a story-driven component. Although this event was only a linear path, the language used suggests that other events will allow you to choose your approach.
When you set up a trip, you can choose its size: the bigger the group, the more resources will be needed, but they will also be able to carry more back with them, and the trip will go faster. The danger is there, however, as I found out when my explorers came to the aforementioned cave and were enchanted by the blinking light. They never made it home.
That failed journey is where the exhibition ends, leaving me wanting more. My settlement only grew into a fairly large village, but it looks like we’ll end up managing a city full of distinct districts, each built around town squares that give special buffs to the area, as well as having demand to fill certain prerequisites. Even with survival bent, this is not a game about desperation and survival. With new technology and the introduction of new plants, you’ll be able to build gardens and parks, and have clean water running through your settlement, allowing your settlers to thrive rather than survive.
You can also start beautiful rounds, picking down decorations to give your new home more character – not that it doesn’t look striking right out of the gate. Every building has a rich character – even more so when you stick workers in it, who come to life, bringing life to buildings that have been dormant while they strive to maintain them. In the exhibition, there is not a single structure that does not look strange and beautiful, but always with a cohesive artistic style that ensures that nothing looks out of place.
You’ve still got the better part of a week before Next Fest ends, and since there’s still a lot of demos going on after the event, you might have more time to take Synergy for spin – and you should. There’s no hard release date yet, but it’s expected in the first half of 2024.
For other city builders worth paying attention to, check out Chris’ list of the seven city builders he can’t wait to play this year.
