MyMMO editor Benedict Grothaus keeps playing Against the Storm on Steam. This roguelite city-building game combines the feeling of achievement with the challenge of constantly overcoming problems. And a round fits perfectly into any evening.
The MyMMO editorial team wants to introduce you to games that our authors are currently engaging with on Steam over the next few days. The idea behind this series is not to present you with our “favorite games,” but rather what is currently consuming our time.
After completing Baldur’s Gate 3 in my first playthrough and also successfully finishing the extremely difficult Lies of P, I am currently drawn back to city-building games – a little relaxation after dramatic stories and tough boss battles.
On Steam, the game has a rating of 95% and is therefore “extremely positive.” And I can fully understand why that is.
The fight against windmills – uh, the storm
Against the Storm combines two genres: city-building and roguelite. This has become a popular combination, especially in the indie scene: You build a city, earn points for it, and in the end, it gets destroyed somehow.
The premise resembles a fantasy novel: The banished queen is to reclaim the wilderness. The smoldering city serves as her main base, the last bastion in a world destroyed by a storm.
As the viceroy, I now set out, repeatedly founding new settlements and defying the storm to extract what the city needs to survive from the wilderness. The special thing about it is that I play in cycles.
It rains constantly. Instead of seasons, there is drizzle, summer rain, and storm. During the storm, the whole world becomes more hostile, everything more dangerous. Villagers can die, a corruption can destroy my buildings.
But that’s not enough: After a certain time, all my constructed settlements are destroyed again, and I have to start from scratch. Almost, at least, because each time there are rewards that allow me to unlock permanent upgrades.
Beavers and foxes are my secret weapon
The game starts with basic cornerstones for a village: houses, buildings for food production, wood, and more. Everything a city-building game needs. Additionally, there are different types of inhabitants with special abilities:
- Humans are particularly good at planting and harvesting plants
- Lizards are skilled in handling meat and leather, and also very religious
- Beavers are better than anyone else at handling wood and chopping down trees
Later, harpies join as experts in fabrics and herbs, as well as foxes with their discovery instinct. Personally, foxes are a top choice for me. Although I need to pay close attention to their needs, they can better solve special events in the forest than anyone else.
Such things are important because new resources, rewards, and challenges await in the clearings in the forests that I conquer. A combination of beavers and foxes is therefore always welcome to explore a forest.
This suddenly makes it important to see what inhabitants I have and where I assign them. Because what is available to me varies with each settlement. Depending on the map and requirements, different inhabitants may be more or less suitable.
Replay potential through increasingly greater challenges
Additionally, the game gets harder. Or more precisely: it can get harder. Through difficulty settings, you can set further hurdles, for example, that residents leave faster when they are dissatisfied. There are also greater rewards for that.
The goal of the game is ultimately to venture as far as possible into the wilderness to obtain seal stones that can protect the smoldering city. I haven’t reached an “end” yet, despite almost 100 hours of playtime. At some point, it simply becomes really tough.
I choose my path through the wilderness myself. The world map features different biomes or types of forests with advantages and disadvantages, as well as special events, such as wandering traders. After each cycle, the map is reshuffled.
For me, Against the Storm is so exciting because it can be played perfectly in between. It usually takes 20–30 minutes to complete a settlement. On the expensive gaming laptop on the train, I can easily fit in a round when I’m out and about.
You can get Against the Storm on Steam for €29.99 and currently, you can even test it as a free demo. It should also run on the Steam Deck. By the way, the game only narrowly beat out others for my time, as there are indeed other Steam games consuming my time:
- Kingdoms Reborn, a mix of Anno and Rimworld
- Diablo 4, which is now on Steam, which I do not play on Steam
- Baldur’s Gate 3, with which I’ve already completed, but I am still planning the next run
The city-building game Against the Storm is probably not for everyone with its fantasy comic graphics. However, anyone who enjoys city-building and roguelite should definitely take a look at the game. Against the Storm has been in Early Access since November 2022 and receives a hotfix or even an update with new features every two weeks.
A selection of games for the tight budget can be found here:
