Against the Storm is getting a new DLC called “Nightwatchers” on Steam at the end of July, along with a new race and fresh biomes. The game has accompanied MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus through tough times and delights anyone he recommends it to. The new content should provide a few more hours of gameplay.
What kind of game is this?
- In Against the Storm, you fight against a storm that threatens the land repeatedly. This storm regularly sweeps the map clean, and a playthrough starts over.
- As the “Vice-King,” you are sent out to build settlements to venture deeper into the wilderness and gain “seals” to keep the storm at bay longer.
- At its core, Against the Storm is a city-building roguelite where you manage different races with preferences and needs to build settlements and achieve specific goals in individual rounds. You rebuild the villages repeatedly.
What’s new: On July 31, the DLC Nightwatchers for Against the Storm will be released on PC (Steam, Epic, GOG, and Microsoft Store). The console version for Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PS5 will receive the DLC at a later date.
The main content of Nightwatchers is the bats as a new race that can be part of your settlements. Bats have a gothic, vampire-like architecture in their buildings and some special traits:
- They are enthusiastic metallurgists and are better suited for relevant professions.
- Bats despise weakness: regularly, you can kick out the “weakest” member of your settlement to strengthen the rest.
- When members of other races leave the settlement, the morale of the bats increases.
Additionally, there are two new biomes: Rocky Ravine and Bamboo Flats. In the rocky regions, there are more metals and resources, but few trees. The special gameplay mechanics here are greedy merchants and a black market.
In the bamboo forests, there is no fertile soil. Instead, you have a “Fluffbeak” in the settlement, a kind of large friendly owlbear. If you take care of the creature, it will produce fertilizer for you.
With Nightwatchers, new quests, world events, and rewards will also be introduced. Players who do not wish to purchase the DLC will receive new upgrades for the Smoldering City and additional content with the free update 1.8. The update will also be released on July 31.
Against the Storm is perfect for playing it again and again
Unlike city-building games like Anno, in Against the Storm, you don’t just keep expanding a settlement. While you can play a map for a long time if you want, the goal is to move on once the tasks are completed.
Each map plays differently from the previous one, because you start with different conditions, such as:
- a different biome that inherently comes with specific traits and mechanics
- races that you did not have before, and to which you must adjust your playstyle
- buildings that you must unlock during a round, making a “cookie cutter” build impossible
Depending on the difficulty and game speed, you spend about 20-45 minutes on a village. It can’t take much longer, because you are indeed under time pressure: the longer you take, the harder survival becomes. This way, it is easy to plan whether to start another round or not.
Against the Storm has a rating of “Very Positive” on Steam with over 28,000 reviews and everyone I recommend the game to falls in love with it. It typically costs only 30 euros and is often on sale.
Against the Storm has captivated me for over 180 hours, and with Nightwatchers, I will surely put in a few more dozen hours. This may sound little given how often I praise the game, but Against the Storm holds a very special place for me: A hidden gem on Steam has captivated me for almost 160 hours – Always helps me when I’m feeling down
