Microtopia Review (PC)

I’m currently one with the robotic hive mind, eager to put this theory to the test. A Queen, but without the well-oiled infrastructure and lineage of loyal followers to keep the automated world intact, I lack the concrete support to bring this petite colony to an innovational era. Like those who arose from the foothills before me, the road ahead is all too clear—establish the network, onboard a like-minded hive mind, and fulfill the need to automate anything that isn’t under lock and key. But when push comes to shove, I have a habit of falling at the final hurdle. Perhaps there’s too much to do, or perhaps I’m putting a little too much weight on my shoulders. Or, perhaps I’m just comparing just about every aspect of Microtopia to other automation sims, neglecting the fact that ants think differently, and that a shoddy hive mind isn’t self-sustaining.

I have a little experience in the field of automating systems and manipulating their courses for the sake of achieving some prestigious results—enough, perhaps, to know my way around a multi-track conveyor belt and all its interweaving mechanics contraptions. But ant hills are a different ball game, and robotic ants like those in Microtopia are of a completely separate breed. There’s a hive mind, you see, and if you don’t integrate with it, then you’re only as good as your worst enemies. And if there’s one thing I learned during my time with Microtopia, it was that every job, regardless of its size, value, or purpose, was a collaborative effort. If you failed to adopt that hive mind, then you had little chance of establishing yourself as a force to be reckoned with by rival colonies.

To Automate

Microtopia takes the classic automation sim for a spin with its own unique ant-centric configuration. Aside from it leaning heavily towards the general act of colonization and hive monopolization (the journey allows for you to expand and create vast independent colonies, just to add context to that), it also focuses on ginormous tech skill trees, moldable sentry and inventor battalions, and interchangeable robotic networks. At its core, it’s a traditional automation experience, but with the clever addition of several in-depth upgrade stations, unique species of ant, and tailorable logic gates, it suddenly becomes a lot more than that. Oh yes, it’s an automation game — but it’s also a tactical one with deep pockets of hive mentality.

The journey begins in a relatively straightforward way: you create logic gates—custom avenues that allow for your ants to pass through and fulfill a specific job criteria—and use a series of inventor ants to unlock greater perks on an overarching tech tree. As the game progresses, you gradually begin to earn more points from your ever-expanding colony, with which you can use to create more efficient ants, speed up production, and feed your Queen to earn more resources. The production process continues, and with each new tech point that you establish, another route eventually opens up to you, effectively giving you the opportunity to expand your reach and plant roots in alternate hives. Simply put, you build, you consume, and you evolve. This is, for the most part, your role as the overseer of robotic hives.

We Are One

I wouldn’t say that it’s a demanding game, though it is one that might pose one or two teething problems for those who’ve little experience in automation or city-building sims. If you can gloss over the behemoth of a tech tree system that serves as the primary point of progression in the game, then honestly, there isn’t a ludicrous amount to fret about. In fact, if you can pool your resources into the necessary infrastructure and unlock the appropriate nodes on the skill tree as early on as possible, then there’s nothing preventing you from teetering towards that endgame saga on your initial attempt. Naturally, you are likely to stumble across a learning curve or six, but with a generous helping of useful tutorials and a stepping stone system that’s both fluid and intuitive, you’ll struggle to find any major issues during the early portions of the journey.

Of course, the game is all about trialing fresh tactics to improve your overall grand strategy, and at no point does it dampen your spirits for adopting a bad tactic. As you naturally begin to move forward and develop the nodes on your tech tree, existing logic gates and routines become more in tune with your behavior and ideologies. And that’s sort of when Microtopia finds its footing — once the initial borders have been set, and the “winning” formula has been established to make room for grander innovations and investments. It’s the latter part of the automation process, funnily enough, that’s the fun part. But that pretty much comes expected from these sorts of rags-to-riches automation projects.

Making Mountains Out of Ant Hills

The graphics in Microtopia are surprisingly palatable. And not just palatable, but substantially more ironclad and visually impressive than a solid portion of alternate automation simulators on the market. It helps, too, that the game comes equipped with a snazzy, albeit oftentimes uninspired UI system that’s both thematically on point and littered with a lot of fantastic bio-mech features. Likewise, the sound design and general ambiance of its chosen futuristic locale are both pleasant complementaries to the UI. I can’t find it in me to lodge a complaint about any of that, truly,

As far as technical mishaps go, Microtopia does have one or two minor snags. Well, I wouldn’t go as far as to say that there’s anything particularly game-breaking stitched into the code here, but I’d also be lying if I said that every logic gate that I created during my career was structurally sound and capable enough for allowing dimwitted ants to pass through, too. As it turned out, several ants did get stuck on a track every once in a while, which meant that I would have to either neglect their existence, or come up with something to keep them on their allocated track. This wasn’t an error by default; it was merely the case that some ants just didn’t want to gel with the code prescribed to them. But hey — with so many ants and so many gates, it was to be expected, I guess.

Verdict

Microtopia establishes a clean, collected, and well-balanced automation experience that is consistently rewarding, engaging, and capable of keeping you on your toes as you navigate through its natural hooks. In addition to it having more than enough logic gates to sift through and tech points to designate and evolve, it also provides a ginormous slate of tailorable colonies, all of which feature their own challenges, networks, and hierarchy. Suffice it to say, there’s a lot of meat on these bones, and so, if it’s a beefy automation project that you’re on the market for, then this fresh twist on the genre ought to tick enough boxes to warrant your attention for a few hours or so.