Maroc - 3RD-STRIKE.COM - A La Une - 07/Mar 00:01

Microtopia – Review

In the past, we’ve taken a look at management sims featuring sentient animals as well as ones where robots were in charge, but up until now, none of them were about robot animals. Enter Microtopia, a logistics management sim about a colony of robotic ants. Combining logistics gameplay with ants makes sense, given the fascinating behaviour of their real-life worker counterparts and the way their colonies are structured. But is there more to Microtopia than just a sensible concept? And why are the ants robots? Story If there’s one thing that is missing from Microtopia, it’s an engaging story. There isn’t a fancy opening cutscene or even a textual blurb explaining what is going on when you start a new game. You’re simply put in charge of a colony of robotic ants. That’s pretty much the gist of it. Now, a simulation game typically doesn’t need a story, but the choice to opt for robot ants instead of real ones is something that speaks to the imagination, and we would’ve preferred seeing Microtopia’s lore being more fleshed out. Graphics The choice for robotic ants allows Microtopia to add a sci-fi element to its aesthetics, which helps with making the visuals look distinct. Additionally, the game takes place across different biomes, which also helps with variety. Your individual ant workers have very little to offer in terms of visual presentation, and most of your time in Microtopia will be spent looking at menus and interfaces or monitoring your neon-lit production lines from above. This isn’t a game that pushes any graphical boundaries, but it doesn’t need to either. Sound With the absence of a story comes the absence of narration and, by extension, any sort of voice acting. Instead, Microtopia’s soundscape is characterized by atmospheric music and a plethora of sound effects. The music is soothing, contrasting with the bustling activity of your ant colony. Given that the ants are robotic, the sound effects sound suitably mechanical as well, with the whirling of buzzsaws and the humming activity of machinery being prominent throughout your playtime. Gameplay Given Microtopia’s core elements of ants and base building, it would be logical to assume that it’s a similar game to Empire of the Ants. While there are some similarities, in practice, the two games are vastly different. Where Empire of the Ants focused on real-time strategic battles between colonies, Microtopia instead is all about optimizing your own colony. The game sits in the same corner as other logistics-based management sim games like Factorio and Sweet Transit. Its core loop is well-defined and easy to understand. Your robotic ants need to gather resources to feed the colony’s queen, who in turn will produce more workers. These will need to be put to good use, in order to increase efficiency and make your budding colony grow, both in size and in technological advancements. Real-life worker ants travel on ant trails, and it’s this behaviour that Microtopia has turned into its main mechanic. You’ll need to create trails by connecting nodes, and your workers will diligently follow the paths you set out for them. Gradually, you’ll unlock new ways to improve your trails, enabling you to split a line evenly or limit the number of ants on a single line. Resources found along the way are automatically picked up by ants travelling a line, and are subsequently deposited at the first available storage point. This mechanic doesn’t just let you collect raw materials, but it also lets you move materials between different structures, just like with a conveyor belt. By setting up lines between various buildings, you’re essentially creating a factory. This is further emphasized by Microtopia’s ever-increasing production quota. In order to meet demand, your colony inevitably becomes more and more complicated as you’re adding new structures, reworking trails, and increasing efficiency. The above alone is enough to create an engaging logistics strategy game, but Microtopia adds some things in an attempt to make it stand out from other games in the genre. Despite being robots, your ants have a limited lifespan, and you’ll need to ensure a steady flow of new workers are born to keep things running. If your population levels can keep up with your expansions, it’s typically a sign that things are running efficiently. Microtopia’s gameplay is engaging and accessible, with one major caveat. The progression of your colony is partially tied to a tech tree that unlocks new technology, but the game isn’t very clear at explaining which unlock has which effect. This is something that inevitably becomes clearer the more you play and familiarize yourself with the mechanics, but early on, this can lead to unnecessary frustration and trial and error. Of course, this is the kind of game that has nigh infinite replayability, so in the long run, this is only a minor issue. At a very modestly priced RRP of €19.99, that’s a very small hurdle if you’re considering adding this one to your library. Conclusion A quintessential example of logistics management sims, Microtopia doesn’t bring a whole lot of new toys to the table. The core gameplay loop should still satisfy both genre enthusiasts and newcomers alike, however. The game’s tech tree could have been clearer, and the game’s use of robotic ants instead of regular ones screams for a compelling narrative. In the grand scheme of things, these are fairly minor shortcomings, of course. As a whole, Microtopia certainly delivers, although we’re still not sure why the ants had to be robots.