Take on the role of Ruinarch, an evil entity who wants to conquer, destroy, enslave, or play with humanity for their own whims. Choose from one of three archetypes, each with a different playing style. Will you take on the role of Puppemaster, whose powers revolve around sowing chaos indirectly and making the villagers destroy each other; The Lich, who uses cold, poison, diseases and undead to terrify the living; or The Ravager, who is all about direct harm, if he could reach out to the villagers and wring their necks he would do it...

The game gives you all the infernal tools you'll need to cause mayhem

Ruinarch is a simulation sandbox game where you create obstacles and cause conflicts in procedurally generated fantasy worlds. Inspired by story generator games like Rimworld and Dwarf Fortress, weaving tales of both anguish and humour is central to Ruinarch’s gameplay. The game gives you all the infernal tools you'll need to toy with people's lives and relationships, and lets you get on with causing mayhem.

I did have issues getting the game to work. I downloaded the PS5 version to the console but it wouldn't load up the main game. After deleting and reinstalling and getting the same result, I downloaded the PS4 version, which worked perfectly. To be honest, with the retro graphics, I'm wondering what the real differences are between both versions.

Cause conflicts in procedurally generated fantasy worlds

This is a game that gets more enjoyable the more hours you put into it. It really does reward those who invest time and effort into focusing on their goals. Explore every facet of the mechanics of the gameplay and you'll get hours of enjoyment here.

However, I have to question whether there's much replayability here. Would I come back to this in months or years to come? I doubt it. While fun for a short while, it soon becomes obvious there's little to do once you've experimented with all of your powers. That said, it's still a challenging and rather fun sandbox offering.

7

Nick Smithson