Our Verdict
SteamWorld Build offers fantastically moreish gameplay in a sandbox city-builder package, set in the well-loved SteamWorld universe. Fans of the franchise will definitely like this entry, along with newcomers, and anyone who enjoys building up a sprawling city from the ground.
SteamWorld Build brings a new entry into the SteamWorld franchise, a beloved and successful name since its debut on Nintendo DS in 2010. Previous entries include the excellent SteamWorld Dig and its sequel, and all the games share a delightful old Western theme, mixed with steampunk and rusty technology.
Carrying the same aesthetics into a different genre of game, Build needs you to aid its steambot citizens in this sandbox city builder. The planet you’re on is done for, and you gotta leave, but to do that, you need to build stuff to get out of there, you know, like rocket fuel and all that.
SteamWorld Build’s gameplay loop is very engaging. It’s captivating. It grabs you and before you know it, you’ve been building a metropolis for your steambots for hours. It’s all about careful resource management and constant expansion, so don’t be afraid to go big, even on the Switch’s small screen.
As you enter the game, you pick one of the five maps to play, each with its own personality, secrets, and assets to take advantage of. One map even has an outdoor movie theater.
Your first port of call is just to… well, build. You need workers who can produce timber, food, and fuel, and they require housing. The more housing you make, the more workers you get. Once you make an area of housing for your workers, you need to place some amenities to keep them happy, like a workshop and a general store. Hitting 100% happiness with them improves their work, and allows you to upgrade them into engineers.
These engineers have more refined demands like a saloon and moonshiner that you need to build for them. Then when they’re happy enough, and you need even more specialist workers, you upgrade them to aristobots and scientists as you require them to power more complex factories and stations like a university and large stuff collider.
Basically, it’s a constant loop of building, upgrading, and refining your town so you get the maximum efficiency out of it while keeping everyone happy, and production levels rising. Remember, produce equals cash, and you always need cash. You can build however and wherever you want – aside from the forester that needs to be nestled in the trees, in case you couldn’t guess.
It’s not all just for capitalistic gain – you can decorate your neighborhoods how you see fit, too, with plenty of themed options like cacti, a mechanical dog, and streetlamps to light the way for your steambots.
It’s also not all about the surface, either. As anyone who’s played a SteamWorld game before will know, digging and mining is your friend. Beneath your town is a veritable goldmine – pun intended – filled with ore, scrap, and lost technology that you absolutely need to create newfangled workshops and items to improve your civilization. There’s a whole new set of challenges down here, though, like potential cave-ins and enemies, and different workers to house and keep satiated.
If, like me, you want to just run wild and experience it all, you absolutely can – there’s a freeplay sandbox mode where everything is unlocked immediately and you can create the sprawling settlement you’ve always dreamed of. I’m not going to lie, I spend most of my time in this mode creating some absurdly big (and aesthetically pleasing) towns.
My only worry with SteamWorld Build is that it may be fiddly to control on the Switch, and to a point it is, but it’s by no means annoying enough to hinder playing the game. It can be a little tricky to place things in precise areas, but then your controllers may be better than my crusty old Joy-Cons.
Upon first impressions, it looks a little gritty around the edges of buildings on the overworld, but the gameplay makes up for it, especially given that there are no hang-ups with frame rate or load times.
As settlements get bigger, a larger screen and the precision of a keyboard and mouse may be preferable, but the Switch comes out on top as I do like being able to sit anywhere I want to play games instead of being trapped at my desk. Just, however you play, remember to reinforce your mine with support structures – or else calamity will befall you.
I highly recommend this to anyone who’s a fan of mining, building, and constantly upgrading their bits and pieces, and SteamWorld fans, of course.
If you’re itching to construct more metropolises, then check out our picks of the best city builder games out there.