Simulation and city-building video games have gotten increasingly frequent on consoles. It appears the restrictions of a controller over a keyboard and mouse are a factor of the previous. However how do you stand out on console, in opposition to the likes of Age of Empires II: Definitive Version and Anno 1800 Console Version, each launched within the first half of 2023 and each wonderful in their very own proper?
You want a gimmick, a brand new manner of going in regards to the conventional useful resource administration and metropolis increasing. And it won’t be the obvious alternative, however that new inspiration has come within the type of the standard die.
And never even a giant previous d20. A daily six-sided die.
Cube Legacy Definitive Version takes the standard city-builder and throws a dozen d6’s at it, forcing them to stay. Your controllable items are the cube themselves. Every face represents a unique capability that colored cube can do. The orange peasant cube that you just begin off with for instance are used primarily for gathering wooden, stone, meals and different sources. They’ve one facet reserved for combating, however that’s higher off left to your blue soldier cube. To get these although, you first want a barracks and a surplus of peasant cube.
Cube nonetheless solely have a restricted lifespan. After being positioned on a constructing to carry out a operate, they’re exhausted and may solely be used once more after rolling them. They are often restored however you want meals so as to add sturdiness to your dices.
You cube will be upgraded over time too. Their faces will be upgraded to offer them a bit extra energy on particular faces. Fusing two – and never essentially from the identical group – sees them Constructed collectively, boosting them considerably.
In addition to your cube items, there’s a large organize of sources to assemble, stockpile after which spend. Wooden and stone are for buildings, however you’ll be able to collect loads of different gadgets too. Wheat can be utilized for meals, however can also be used for making ale. Ale is used on the tavern to unfreeze frozen cube in the course of the winter months. And in Cube Legacy, that is solely one of many many points that will likely be thrown at you steadily.
There may be an terrible lot occurring, and sometimes Cube Legacy looks like you might be being extra reactive than proactive when taking part in it. It has a nasty behavior of simply always throwing points at you, to the purpose the place it feels a bit restrictive when taking part in.
In addition to the damaging winter months the place cube can freeze – and subsequently be unusable – cube can turn into sick. This causes their remaining turns to drop all the way down to zero till they’re in the end ‘killed’. Worst of all, if these sick cube are used along side one other cube to construct, forage or one thing else, this illness will be contagious and cross amongst different cube.
Then there are the enemies. Within the ‘tutorial’ mission Stranded, your major goal is to seek out out the place the band of mercenaries are residing. Tutorial is in inverted commas as a result of it’s a actual baptism of fireplace, and there needs to be no disgrace in selecting to restart if issues go awry.
The mercenaries make rare appearances as you start to familiarize yourself with the sport, however the extra you progress, the extra frequent they arrive down and attempt to destroy your village. You should utilize soldier cube and peasant cube to repel their assaults, offering the die is going through on the sword facet in any case.
Regardless of there being a considerable amount of content material in Cube Legacy with a number of campaigns, totally different characters, endings and extra, Stranded is the one marketing campaign open to you from the start. It does do a very good job of exhibiting you the ropes and the excessive issue within the sport, nevertheless it additionally highlights the principle points.
The maps on Cube Legacy Definitive Version all happen on a ring-shaped world. The buildings and cube you create are all very properly detailed, and that feeling of taking part in a board sport is additional added to once you take a look at the design of the sport. Although, as fairly because the world will be, Cube Legacy has a nasty behavior of blocking your view with pop-up menus once you spotlight buildings. These menus even block your cube on the backside of the display screen, overlaying every part till they disappear.
However, as appears to be the case, the transition from PC to consoles has the identical concern as many different metropolis builders: specifically the management scheme. Rotating across the ringworld for instance is completed utilizing the left and proper triggers, which feels odd and really out-dated. The opposite two shoulder buttons are used for rerolling the cube and locking them off from rolls. However even these really feel the improper manner spherical. After years of conditioning to make use of the right-sided buttons, the suitable bumper is utilised to lock the person cube while the left rolls the cube.
The d-pad is used for controlling time. Left and proper to speed-up/slow-down and holding down will cease time. That is helpful for planning and strategising in bushy conditions, however with a caveat. You may nonetheless view the present state of the world, your encyclopaedia (a really great tool to have), and most significantly, your cube. What you can not do although, is place your cube anyplace in preparation for resuming time. You are able to do just about every part else other than this, and it’s extremely irritating.
Presenting itself as a sport to enchantment to sim followers and board avid gamers, Cube Legacy Definitive Version affords up an fascinating prospect. The truth although is much extra tedious, with irritating gameplay components and an extremely gradual tempo all through.
It feels extra like Cube Legacy Definitive Version was designed to check a participant’s endurance with the quantity of points it throws your manner. It’s onerous, however typically not enjoyably onerous both. And sadly, no quantity of fairly dioramas can ease the frustrations had when slogging via Cube Legacy.
