SteamWorld Build Review (Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Switch & PC)

The whistling androids are back for yet another hustle and bustle in an all-new survival-crafting, dungeon-crawling extravaganza. That’s right, SteamWorld Build has just hit the shelves, and it’s as equally bonkers about Western culture as the last chapter to grace the chopping block. Just as well, because I’ve been holding out for a new mismatch hybrid lately — and call me naïve, but I honestly had every reason to believe that The Station’s latest incarnation would quench my thirst for such a thing. Or at least, I had high hopes that it would tick all the right boxes and leave me feeling satisfied, anyway.

To set the record straight, I did have to step back into the roots of the SteamWorld IP before picking up the slack of its latest installment. Am I all the wiser, knowing that I’ve had the opportunity to soak up the previous 2D side-scrolling and action-platforming entrées? Not really, though I’m definitely a little fonder of the bots that have helped bring us to this point in time. Did I need to relive all those highlights that somehow culminated in a drastic situation between the planet’s inhabitants and the life-changing resources that wallowed below the surface? Again, not really — though I’m grateful for the additional context, all the same.

Having poured a set amount of hours into SteamWorld Build, I can once again part ways with the questionably lovable drones and fleet for the next nearby planet. Before I set out, however, I’ll rewind the clock and add a little more meat to the bones — if only to give you an idea of what it’s all about, and to also answer that all-important question: is it worth it? Care to ride along as we return to the tumbleweed-littered crags and crevices of the Old West?

“Our Planet is Dying”

SteamWorld Build slots you into the shoes of a generic overseer of a mining town inspired by the faithful Old West—a time during which steam locomotives ruled high and coal and ore reigned supreme as two of the world’s most powerful natural resources. It’s within this time that you, the robotic operator, must learn to play the conductor as the inhabitants around you not only hunger for a purpose, but also an escape—a goal that just so happens to tie in with an ultra-rare material that sits deep beneath the surface.

Your quest in SteamWorld Build, really, is to divide your time between building the foundations for a bustling mining town on the surface, and excavating rare minerals from the network of caves down below. For the most part, you’re either tasked with expanding your operations underground, or using the acquired materials to build new equipment to delve even deeper into the network. It’s very rinse and repeat — and weirdly enough, it just sort of works.

Given the fact that SteamWorld Build does adopt two different genres, you’d naturally assume that it’d be twice as difficult. On the contrary, it isn’t all that perplexing, and it’s mainly down to the fact that the actual building and enterprising aspects aren’t overly demanding, let alone absurdly unfair. It’s all rather smooth, if anything, and so, if you’re hell-bent on slugging through something that’s as bitterly cruel as, say, Frostpunk, then you’ll be in for a bit of a surprise.

Best of Both Worlds

It’s a bread-and-butter city-building game at its core, so while there are some confrontational elements, the bulk of the game mostly consists of building on dusty plots of land, and gradually evolving your citizens in order to harvest better tools, blueprints, and natural resources. For example, the initial chunk of the story sees you establishing the borders for an entire mining operation—a task that involves the construction of several residential homes, followed by a lumber mill, a general store, and a warehouse. For the most part, you’re either building new homes to attract more workers, or upgrading standard workers into engineers in order to tackle heftier tasks. Again, all rather straightforward and super easy to digest.

Construction work aside, there is the case of having to tend to your workers’ needs, which often means supplying each household with a connection to one of several local amenities, including a saloon, service shop, and place of employment. Nothing particularly overly demanding on that note, though I’d be lying if I said I didn’t receive the earful from my community every once in a while for not keeping up with the needs of my fellow drones.

The good news is, that progress rarely ever grinds to a halt in SteamWorld Build, as there’s usually something to forage, or a new blueprint to unlock. There’s also the locomotive that rolls into town every few minutes—a goodie train that offers you exclusive perks for oddly extortionate prices. So again, while there is indeed a lot of repetition in excavation, there’s never exactly a dull moment, either. Or at least, I for one never found myself twiddling thumbs and sitting contently until the next story beat came to pass, anyway.

Moving Up, Going Down

Of course, there are two sides of the coin to grasp in SteamWorld Build: the surface, which tasks you with evolving your economy, and the sub-zero layer, which gravitates more towards having you embark on dangerous endeavors and confrontational exploits with inhabitants from the realm down below. Is it easy to keep on top of both? Surprisingly, yes — and what a relief it is to say that. In fact, at no point did I ever struggle to keep on top of both sets of chores, as both duties often bled into one another, and if I wasn’t busy doing one activity, then I’d have another to tend to elsewhere.

Of course, SteamWorld Build starts out relatively slow, as it more or less gives you a vague idea of the endgame, but doesn’t you a huge shove toward grasping it by the belt and braces. Having said that, once the gears begin to grind and the resources soon become infinite, it quickly becomes all hands on deck, which meant, for me personally, I always had a target to work towards. And honestly, that’s what kept me on my toes for the duration of the campaign: the fact that I had a job to do, and that the more I worked, the more I had to fight for.

Don’t get me wrong, there is a bit of a grind involved in this one. Not that this comes as much of a surprise, mind you, what with it being a city-building game that puts an emphasis on making baby steps to develop the bigger picture. For what it’s worth, though, I never really felt encumbered by the volume of work; it was addictive, and I honestly couldn’t care less if I was mining for scrap, or that all-important Old Tech component.

Verdict

I’m all for the idea of reaping the fruits of my labor, especially when said labor is mostly carried out by Western-loving drones. As much as I almost wish I could say that it was a self-made profit, I do feel as though I owe a certain something-something to the workers that aided its success. What’s more, I feel as though I owe The Station my sincerest gratitude, as at no point was I ever led to believe that my efforts were insignificant, or that my role was even the slightest bit expendable. For what it’s worth, it was an easy course to follow, and one that, in all honesty, I’d be happily willing to tread again at some point in the distant future — if not in Build, then in an entirely different tale.

SteamWorld Build doesn’t necessarily change all that much about the city-building experience, nor does it go above and beyond to add a new coating of paint to what’s already been done a dozen or more times before, either. Having said that, it does excel in all the right spots — so much that it’s almost impossible to slate it for any particular reason. Sure it’s a little slow at times — especially when certain tasks require a set amount of workers to progress through the next milestone, but that was hardly enough to keep me from pushing forward to the next beat and on the trail of the newly discovered Old Tech.

When all’s said and done, SteamWorld Build isn’t going to change the face of the city-building genre. But then, it doesn’t need to, either, as it brings all the signature elements that we’ve come to know and cherish from the sandbox realm, and essentially elevates the benchmark to a comfortable degree. That’s ten points, right there.