Reus 2 - Ice Age Review

God Games and Colony Sims have come a long way, becoming somewhat of a staple of the city-building genre. However, they might be considered an offshoot because of their very different style of management and building. The genre itself is also very expansive, with incredibly complex and, at the same time, incredulously simple ideas incorporated with some of the best game designs one can find.

Reus 2 was one such game, incorporating some of the greatest gameplay elements with very adorable graphics and art style mixed in with repeatable and almost roguelike gameplay. This perfect combination made it very fun and very popular among many out there. Developed by Abbey Games and published by Firesquid, Reus 2 had its roadmap give way to a free major update and a paid DLC. Now, nearing the third leg of January, the Ice Age DLC is released, and it sure is a fun one.

Before we get into the meat of the DLC, some initiation might be in order. See, in Reus, you play as an omnipotent deity who commands three different titans from a list of many who help you by terraforming the planet, adding Bioticum, and a few other things. These titans are essentially what you use to guide your people, aside from actually giving them inspiration to do things. The people inhabiting the world roam as nomads until you let them establish cities. These cities will slowly expand their territory and grow.

To get things started, in Reus 2 Ice Age, you'll first pick your titans; the creatures, as mentioned earlier, are basically what you use to do most of your interactions in the game. There are quite a few of them, each with their niche, abilities, biomes, and Bioticum they come with. Biomes are basically different terrain types where you'll have your people expand into and inhabit. The first city you get to place lets you start building Bioticum.

To help them grow, you'll need to place these Biotica, which is basically what the game calls its structures. These are created by your titans and give different bonuses and resources. They are also restricted to certain one of the three biome types. So, you'll have specific Biotica for specific terrain. Each titan is usually restricted to a certain type, with one focusing on minerals, one focusing on plants, and so on.

These Biotica provide certain bonuses to your cities and have certain synergies. For example, one plant might benefit from having more plants nearby. Or an animal gives bonus resources if placed next to a mineral. To this end, each slot for Biotica is connected to a maximum of four other slots, giving you ways to create some insane synergies.

These synergies are paramount, as with the resources generated from these Biotica, your cities grow, and you complete objectives. These might be the main objectives or min-quests given by the leaders of cities. Speaking of the resources generated, the cities increase in value and strength, giving you three resources; Population, Technology, and Wealth. You spend these in the Planet Shop for various power-ups or just to extend the Eon limit.

Eons pass as you place Biotica, and when enough Eons have passed, you will get to the next Era. So, extending the Eon limit basically gives you more time to finish the main quest. There is also a myriad of minor mechanics like inspirations and, naturally, a tech tree.

Inspirations are what the humans of your world come up with. They present ideas that you can pick from; they build on the idea and create a new structure or building. These will give you bonuses based on realized goals, building on the game's themes of synergy.

Finally, the tech tree comes in the form of draft changes, where each inspiration fills up a meter that lets you create new Biotica in a specific biome. Of course, unlocking certain Biotica will also unlock others, sometimes in different biomes.

Reus 2 Ice Age leans heavily into the titular Ice Age, adding a new biome, the Ice Age Tundra, a new variation of one of the Titans, and many new Biotica and its related goodies. Among other things, it also brings with it new Eras and new Leaders. All of these additions make the game more fun, and the new leaders are very interesting, making things worth it.

Overall, Reus 2 Ice Age is an extremely fun game that acts like a puzzle game in disguise, and you need increasingly smart synergy to solve these puzzles. The game's systems all work together really well, and it also has a sort of progression system. Each world you build is permanent and stays there; with each successful world, you gain more tools and more options to work with. It also makes Reus 2 Ice Age get more complicated and, thereby, harder as things progress.

Building more on the puzzle theme, a lot of games basically involve dealing with different kinds of cards or puzzle pieces, and you have the ultimate decision in putting them together, making sure they fit perfectly. The better the Biotica synergies are, the more population and wealth your towns will have. As you get more of each town and city, you will interact with each other, and you will also get plenty of opportunities to interact with them.

This makes Reus 2 Ice Age a great strategy game where you interact with your followers and people a lot. The update that the DLC ships with, 'Cataclysm,' adds new features to the game, including disasters that can be caused by the Titans.

The update adds surprising amounts of content that fleshes out the cities themselves to interact with each other, develop friendships or rivalries, and ultimately forge alliances or go to war. This interaction also extends to titans, where people might worship them, or if a certain titan is destructive and brings about disasters, they may even try to hunt them down.

All of these mechanics have different rewards behind them, so they aren't just there to look pretty but actually offer incentives of varying degrees. All of these come together to make Reus 2 Ice Age feel very refreshing and have an aura of 'open-ended strategy.' They also synergize extremely well with the base game and do a great job of mixing will with existing mechanics. They are also made to be balanced with pre-existing content, making things feel very well-mixed.

Overall, the new leaders, eras, and general content make the game much more open and expansive, with tons of options and avenues of approach. They aren't super strong either, but they are balanced and have too much DLC power creep. Aside from that, Reus 2 Ice Age also offers distinct alternatives.

Aside from that, the game has a few bugs that need to be ironed out, and some of the interactions between the giants and towns feel irrelevant. Yet, none of it is too bad to make it a point of contention and border on being nitpicky.

Although the game is definitely more complex now, and you have a lot to deal with and do, this makes it horrible for those who don't like this level of complexity but great for those who do. That being said, the game does a remarkable job of still being super accessible and straightforward to learn.

The art style and graphics of Reus 2 Ice Age continue the theme of good-looking cartoony designs. They're very adorable and go well with the overall vibe of the game. The same can be said with the UI, in that it's not overdone and complicated, despite the game itself being somewhat complicated.

The music Reus 2 Ice Age, on the other hand, feels a bit more generic, yet again, that does not detract from the game or make it look bad or anything along those lines. It is just not noteworthy. The DLC itself does not seem to add anything new in this regard, either.

Overall, Reus 2 Ice Age is a great addition to the base game and does wonders in expanding the game to be more complex and open-ended. It adds incredible value, and the price tag is more than fair, giving you a far greater experience in your journey as a god. Reus 2 Ice Age DLC has been out for a while now, so it's definitely a worthy grab if you have the base game, and if not, it's still worth a check.