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Ark of Charon play as a combination of a dependency sim ( aka RimWorld , the game I would most compare Ark of Charon to if I had to make any comparison at all ) and a pillar defense title .
As the secret plan ’s opening cutscene explains , there was once a great , gargantuan tree that gave the world life , manoeuvre society into the modern age before of a sudden decaying . As the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree decay , it brought with it darkness , some kind of force of malicious entities fix out to destroy all life story . After this Revelation of Saint John the Divine , a seedling for a new tree suddenly appeared , and it is your caper to protect it from the iniquity that would seek to destroy it once again .
Ark of Charon start in the first neighborhood , seemingly thin of resource , and prompts you to prepare . You have three golems , who are like your colonists in RimWorld , all of them consummate project and can be ordered to prioritize certain activities over others in much the same path .
As you will promptly learn , Ark of Charon has a storm of wickedness that will lento encroach upon the localization of the seedling over time . birth your groundwork and golems in this storm will cause them to speedily take terms ( your structure and seed core will decay within the tempest , too , golems and groundwork include . )
Thus , your project in Ark of Charon is to gather all of the resource you’re able to in one location before heading to another , view as your base deracinate itself from the earth and walks to the next , storm - free location .
In my first attempt at Ark of Charon , I had no idea that the foot moved . I was surprised , therefore , when everything uprooted itself and then not only left behind but in reality crushed the building I had construct outside of the tree diagram ’s spoke .
Having to progress your base on the walk tree ’s back obviously set your dependency construction radius , but the way in which Ark of Charon deal this egress is really coolheaded . Instead of building - astray , you build towering , lop - sided structures that await like something out of Howl ’s Moving Castle , giving the game a really unique look .
That being said , the game ’s build system is n’t the skillful , and it can make construct your base a biz of trial and error as you adjudicate to figure out what is a platform , what ’s a roof , and what will stomach without supports .
Since Ark of Charon constantly has you on the move , your game plan is to exploit the resources in regions as apace as possible , work up as much of a ego - sustain bag as possible , and then move on . Interestingly , since the game is post - apocalyptic , I seize most of the imagination are found underground , include Mrs. Henry Wood , which is mined from the earth from jumbo roots .
The pillar defensive structure view of Ark of Charon get into play when you travel to a new region . Choosing to move from one stead to another triggers a transitional period where your Golems ca n’t interact with the earthly concern floor and where opposition attack from the right side of the concealment . In rules of order to protect your Seed nitty-gritty , you ’ll need to have automatise defence ( tower in the towboat defense biz ) place up , which means a good part of the meter you spend in each region has to be spent preparing your weapons for locomote to the next one .
I really wish this vista of Ark of Charon . It makes you play a constant game of feeding your robot and preparing your weapon system , have a go at it that you WILL confront opposition soon ( the violent storm force you to leave , place you into a guaranteed combat encounter instead of just being a randomized affair that can happen in other colony sims . ) It ’s not something you could put off and push you to make strategic decisions about how to use your golem ’s meter as well as your resource .
Ark of Charon is unique in its genre , not only in its display but also in the way it think differently than most other game . This is both a great selling point for the title and something that can make a morsel of a learning curve .
Using the deterrent example I repose out in the first place , harvest Tree is not your independent origin of Natalie Wood income in Ark of Charon . The biz alternatively wants you to take care underground to amass these fabric , something that is not in a flash enounce but instead take that you would figure out . You will , of course , but it took me several Modern game before I note what was happen and started mining those big root word blocks below my understructure .
A honest amount of my time betimes in the game was spent like this . I made some mistakes while con the biz that left me unprepared for the dark invasion coming shortly , lead me to start a new game and try again . I think I must have restarted five or six times before I finally made it safely into the game ’s second region .
My only real issue with the secret plan , as it now subsist in former Access , is how it care building . Each structure you place has a ceiling , but not a floor , meaning building right up on the sharpness of your walking base can be a hit - or - miss experience as some installed chopine stay and some crumble when you walk to the next region . The roof of these buildings ca n’t be climbed , though , like in other 2D building title of respect ( Terrarria and Starbound , for example ) , requiring you to leave space on the side of the structure for ladder , which then further limits the amount of buildable space you have .
All in all , Ark of Charon is an interesting claim . While still in Early Access , I think a lot of what it needs to fix can easily be buff out before the game ’s full spillage , making for a truly great colony sim / tugboat defense compounding .
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