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Kaiserpunk is a city - build grand strategy crossbreed that originally stand out to me because of its unique setting . grow up as a huge history dweeb , I ’ve become somewhat obsessed with the concept of dieselpunk , diachronic sci - fi , and alternate story put around the interwar menses of 1919–1935 . I love the idea of a world where giant , clank mechs and horrifying hyper - industrial enterprise exist alongside that old - school military esthetic , where uniforms still looked cool and had a focus on panache over just practicality . It ’s the kind of set you see in Iron Harvest or its display panel game equivalent weight , Scythe , where soldiers might carry deadbolt - military action rifle into battle alongside gigantic wanderer - tank car .
unluckily , though this is more of a me - specific issue , Kaiserpunk does n’t entirely scratch the itching for a context like that I hoped it would . Grand scheme city builder ? Yes . alternating history interwar period ? Certainly . Dieselpunk / historical sci - fi ? Though some of the game ’s art might indicate so , unluckily , this Kaiserpunk is not .
While this for certain wo n’t let down other players as much as it disappointed me , Kaiserpunk is free of any of the sci - fi outlandishness I ’ve been look for in the music genre . Instead , it is technologically historical but not politically , depart from the real - world political science of the time ( something you certainly wo n’t see me complaining about ) .
Instead , Kaiserpunk follow a world ravaged by the end of the First World War , with every single nation - State Department fall apart . Weary lot of soldier return home to rebuild , mold young metropolis - states in the process . History tends to reduplicate itself , however , and as these cities grow larger alongside their demand , their drawing card begin to appear beyond their borders .
When it comes down to core gameplay , I think Kaiserpunk has a batch of great ideas that fall a chip brusk in their execution .
The city - building in Kaiserpunk is pretty good , if not the best I ’ve ever see . The grid - based building locating is nothing compared to the natural building and city growth of Manor Lords , though that is quite a high bar to reach . Instead , Kaiserpunk palpate a stack like the Anno series , where you produce a serial publication of supply chains to both satisfy the motive of your citizens and produce goods to fortify your thriftiness and military machine , eventually expanding out to capture the map around you .
These supply mountain range , in and of themselves , are moderately unspoilt , with a riches of industry to be progress in your cities on both the economic and military side of thing . However , there feels like a foreign lack of depth in the factual city - edifice side of these production chains . civilian do n’t quetch when living near factories , there is no pollution , and societal services are well accomplish by just placing down instantly built buildings where they take to go . In fact , the social side of the game feels way too easy to satisfy ; civilians move in quickly , kick about picayune , and do n’t require a whole lot of yield to meet their demands .
This is clearly because Kaiserpunk want you to focalize on the rattling strategy side of things , where your universe is more of a vas to produce military units to go out and invade other region on the map . While a cool idea in possibility , this is probably the vista of the biz that feels like it had the least amount of sentiment put into it .
The twist - based combat is boring , renovate poorly , and often feels like it was n’t deserving the effort it took to work up up those units . It is n’t swell when the production side of your warfare game is more fun than the war itself . Since the game is already a city builder , I do n’t see why we do n’t simply fight these struggle in real clock time on the maps themselves . Even the Tropico serial had a more solid combat organisation than Kaiserpunk , which hypes itself up on its wondrous strategy elements .
While I bang the ability to play anywhere on the map , the scale of the plot feels a fleck uncanny to me . The map itself is divided into fabulously large regions , and it is n’t until you realize that your city , which is struggling to get beyond a universe of 1,200 , has just inhibit the intact Middle East that you realize Kaiserpunk ’s map might not be the most astonishingly put together .
The game puts a fortune of vehemence on create your own ethnical identity as a novel urban center - land , something that is reflected through several starting identities that both give you passive abilities and change the look of your vehicles , from British / American , Russian , or German historical models . It is , therefore , strange to me that every other unit and building in the game has more of a British / American style , with not even your townspeople middle look different found on your cultural selection . I think having unlike models for different culture would be awesome in Kaiserpunk , especially since the turn - based combat kind of take away the sport of experience otherwise style vehicles anyway .
Reading this review , it ’s move to fathom like what I desire from Kaiserpunk is a circumstances more than what it has to offer — change made to mechanic , expansion on the mechanics I wish , etc.—changes that require a passel of piece of work for a game that ’s already been published . That ’s because I really experience as though Kaiserpunk is more in an early access stage as it is and should not have been fully unloosen . While the plot ’s ideas and indistinguishability are really cool , some more time in the oven could have made this game go from a mid - tier title to something incredible .
The Final Word
Kaiserpunk has a bunch of great ideas but feel as though it could have used more clip in development before being released . Big changes to the secret plan ’s lordly scheme mechanic and modest changes to its city edifice could have made Kaiserpunk one of my new best-loved title .
Kaiserpunk was reviewed on the PC . Find more elaborated look at popular and coming titles on ourGame Reviewspage ! Kaiserpunk is usable onSteam .
