Overall it's an fairly average experience, but I have come to have a particular distaste for it. The game ragebaits you with all the fine tuning need to get any basic going, and it tempts you, just one more technicality to iron out, another quirk of the game to figure out, and then finally, one thing would be done, but just that one is nothing by itself.
To make anything working, or head towards an actually functional economy, you need to build one thing, and then the other in a manner, that feels never ending. It satisfying to see the products of your labours, to build a neighbour, or a factory with a cargo station connection, but that is never enough by itself. You need research, you need investment, and logistics fine tuned to a T, to compete in this game. You need a web of essential city services available, first off all, which means you have put hours into the game, without realizing where it would go, or not. You accomplish one thing, and you are content for a moment, only to realize, it's barely enough, and games like, hey, just a few more things to take of, and then we'll be in the good place, and then, the same things repeats, before you realize you sunk over 10 hrs into a single gameplay, while barely reaching any close to the mid game.
The game can penalize for small over sights at times, didn't build enough heat exchangers for the neighbour, come winter, now your hospital would stop working cause of low temperature, a child would die, happiness score would sink, and people would began to leave, until your new still nascent republic is entirely abandoned. You mind that your critical infrastructure is adequately manned at all times, fire stations, water treatment facilities, otherwise a building would burn down, or people would be without water, which is a bit tricky in the early republic, particularly, when your facilities are somewhat scattered. Factory connections are tricky, and not the most intuitive, the same with railway, particularly using it for a variety of loads, and formats.
The graphics are nothing to write home about, but not unpleasant to eye either. The news of ai use to create some pieces of imagery/media for game are unsavory, though I haven't bothered to verify those a the moment, so don't quote me on that. The somewhat mid-fidelity graphics are a good tradeoff for a smaller file size, and a more robust performance.
Secondly, the game modes don't make much sense to me, it's know particularly, and played for it's realistic mode, and it's work just fine for that, that is, if you willing to make it your full time job, or devote, a whole vacation's worth of time to it, I am not making it up, you can check out the players on Youtube, it'll take them 4 or 5 episodes to get a core industry going. But, anyways, the point is that it works, but the other modes have not been created with a lot of thought, and game stops to make much sense at mid levels of difficult, or becomes something a bit too easy to make the goals feel meaningful.
I think the gameplay can be much more resolved with a bit of thought, without taking away from the complexity of the set up that the game is trying to create, and I penalize it for not being a better version, a better thought out version of it. It's as if the game developers were too tired with just the complexity they have created in itself, to focus on translating it to a more satisfying gameplay. The UI feels clunky, and dated, and makes everything have a bit more friction. The research trees, and selection menus for building types can be much more clear, and resolved with better segmentation, not just granularly the way game does, but in broader terms too.
A better idea, for lower difficulty levels, would be a less complex version of the simulation, but one that still has all the parts intact, just made a little simpler, or scaled down, as opposed to the current idea of the game where, in lower settings certain parts like energy management or waste, are turned off altogether. The game is too keen on being a logistics simulator, and does not think in broader strokes of running a city. You need to go big on everything in this game or go home, one understands that everything needs effort and doesn't come by itself, but there are smaller cities and units that exist, out in the real world, with a mostly balanced interplay of community and industry, and that are no less in complexity, just a little simpler, and scaled down, and Workers, and Resources does not seem like a game that allows for that.
It's idea of a soviet republic is also a bit brute, as some have pointed out, and misses out on some of the finer aspects of it. I get that the game is focused on logistics, but it could have made an effort with better curation of music, and incorporation of artifacts, accomplishments, vis-a-vis performing arts, community, and so, cause after all, it the game of also compels you to build proper cities and not just liveable, but also a fulfilling neighbourhood. I'd have appreciated a narrative alongside the gameplay, that'll have enrich it, made it more satisfying, but as is clear, the developer, or the project leads didn't have that bent of mind.
Overall, my experience with the game is rather mixed, it has some things going for it, but I'd rather avoid getting caught up in it's whirlwind, it'll save me a lot of time, and energy. It's just not worth that, I can see where it would lead towards the late game, but it's just too much of an investment to get there. And that's not exactly cause of the complexity, that it has, but the UI, and the organization of concepts, tools, and paths in the game. Lack of a mode that is smaller in scale, but with similar complexity is also unpleasant.
