Terraformers is an expansive turn-based colony builder and resource management game with roguelike elements. Explore the Red Planet, develop spectacular cities, spread life and terraform the planet with ambitious projects. Send your leaders to mysterious locations and uncover rich resource depots, giant crystal caves and stunning natural wonders. Found new cities on craters and in lava Tubes. Make them thrive and meet your population's rising demands. As the planet is procedurally generated, every new playthrough is unique. Choose the best buildings from a selection of randomly proposed projects at the start of every year. Plan your city layout efficiently and find strong synergies between buildings. Grow your cities into utopian metropolises or industrial settlements automated by robots...

Terraformers is a mix of city builder, resource gathering and city expansion

For city building fanatics Terraformers ticks all the right boxes. It's a bizarre mix of city builder, resource gathering and city expansion. But it's a mix that works wonders. You'll need to play the game a handful of times just to get your teeth into the mechanics and work out the best strategy to move every forward... and then you can restart the game proper.

The beauty of this game, aside from the fact that no two play throughs will be the same thanks to the procedurally generated nature of it, is that it caters for the novice to the experienced city builder out there. And, as you gain in confidence, you can simply step up the difficulty in future play throughs.

This is a game that you can sink plenty of hours into

In a nutshell, the game sets players the task of taking control of a colony on Mars. Under their leadership, the colonies cities can be expanded, new research can bring better and more efficient buildings and technology to help. New locations can be explored as well as the creation of new sprawling cities. Political decisions must be made and trade routes formed.

The turn-based element of the game ensure that you can really take your time and think each move through carefully. It plays like a dream and is certainly a game that you can sink plenty of hours into and still only scratch the surface of the potential.

9

Nick Smithson