Combolands: Roguelike Citybuilder

Great game, highly recommend.

I wanted to like this. Tiny citybuilder + roguelite combos sounded great on paper. After a few runs I was just waiting for it to crash again so I could go play something else. [h2]The actual experience[/h2] The loop is placing buildings, hoping two of them happen to touch, and watching a number go up. That’s it. The first run is mildly interesting. The second run is the same thing with a different pair of guilds. By the third you already know the whole game. They sell “21 guild combinations” and “120+ buildings” like that’s replay value. In practice most of those buildings feel like reskins of the same adjacency trick, and once you’ve seen a combo pop off once, seeing it again is just busywork. Thirty-minute runs sound short until you realize you’re doing the exact same thirty minutes over and over. [h2]Bugs and crashes[/h2] This is the part that killed it for me. The game does not feel stable. I’ve had runs freeze mid-placement, the UI lock up when a combo tries to resolve, and full crashes back to desktop. Losing a run to a crash in a roguelite is already annoying. Losing a run to a crash in a game this shallow is insulting. Saves and mid-run states have felt unreliable on my end too. Nothing makes you want to “just one more island” less than wondering if the next click is going to eat the last twenty minutes. [h2]Who should skip this[/h2] [list] [*]Anyone expecting real replay value past the first handful of runs [*]Anyone who hates losing progress to crashes [*]Anyone hoping the citybuilding is deeper than “put building next to other building” [*]Anyone coming from actually good combo games and expecting that same spark [/list] If the store page sold you on deep strategy and cascading combos, temper that. What I got was a thin placement puzzle that falls apart technically and runs out of ideas almost immediately. Refunded.

This game is for you if: you're looking for a run-based game that you can play with just your mouse and each run takes 15-20mins. A lot of people make comparisons of Combolands to Balatro (both in Steam Reviews and professional publications) which is justified specifically in its play progression - run times and gameplay mechanics are similar (you are using your mouse to select things and each run takes 15-20mins). Outside of that, the games are fundamentally different (there's no poker here). Gameplay is pretty simple - you select buildings and place them. What makes Combolands both a bad and good game is the pretty stark lack of any tutorial as well as a relatively large pool of selections to make at any given moment. This makes the game pretty frustrating in the beginning - its hard to discern what is happening and why. However, this is also a game with fairly strict rules that it does a good job adhering to, which means that as you play more, your progression in the game becomes less about unlocks and more about knowledge gained. Over time you learn what works and what doesn't naturally from playing the game, not from being told "these two buildings go together as a combo." I think there are some people who will find this structure annoying, as the game does not guide you toward any particular style of play especially when there are so many choices. This can come across as unfair, and if I was just given a direction maybe I could head off that way and gain some experience. Other players will probably revel in this, as you are in turn not restricted from doing stupid things - the way you learn the game is by experimenting. Eventually, after a lot of learning (and failing), I agree with the other comments that it can become too easy. But personally there are enough combinations of guilds and each run is just different enough that I never actually get bored with it. Ultimately this is a great game in the "I've got to fill 15 minutes of time" genre, and while I think some people might find it unfair on the outset, if you stick with it, you can really dive deep into the mechanics.

Sort of like Balatro and Catan wrapped up into a simple city builder. Certain games scratch a certain itch and this game scratches several. Very addictive, very colorful and fun to play though I wish the sound effects were a little more tactile. (Balatro is auditory crack to me) It's very easy. Even at the highest difficulty it can be easy. A lot of the endgame synergies feel pretty similar to each other though it is still fun to find unique building interactions. I wish there were more variations to difficulty to add replay value and some simple quality of life improvements like hot keys to reroll, remove and banish buildings from the pool. All in all I find this game super addictive and I highly recommend giving it a try if "big number" roguelikes are your thing.

A surprisingly enjoyable puzzle combination game. I was initially hesitant due to its terribly uninspired name, but the game itself was solid. Each guild has its own innate combos that you'll need to learn to defeat it at the highest levels. There's a reasonable number of different buildings which all overlap with other buildings in a variety of ways. Individual sessions are relatively short ( less than an hour ), but worth coming back and playing repeatedly to try out all the different dual-guild combinations. Easily worth the time and price.

game good