Technotopia Review

It seems that as time goes on, the city-builder games get more varied. Some delve into 4X; others try to take themes from RTS. But not every city-builder is like Manor Lords or Worshippers of Cthulhu. Some go too far into their niches and come out as something else. Technotopia definitely falls into the latter category. Regardless of whether you enjoy it or not, Technotopia is not a city-building game.

Yet, that doesn't mean it's a bad game, either. Technotopia was created by Yustas and published by Alawar, the company that created some great games, like titles in the Beholder series. Technotopia is advertised as a city-builder and a card game; however, the game functions more like a deck-collecting puzzle game.

The 3D puzzle game has a large board of a grid city. Here, start off with a large central structure and build around it. They mostly have blocks that are residential districts you build over, replacing the calm quiet of urban life with the buzz of offices and other far more useful buildings. There are also some pre-built buildings that come online once you connect them with your buildings, so it's ideal to build around them, as you can't replace a building once they are placed.

There's also the occasional undercity that appears, which basically acts as glorified holes that do nothing else except provide a thematic obstacle for you to build over. Speaking of buildings, you have access to 4 types of buildings, at least at first. These buildings can come in pairs and provide resources of four types, each building corresponding to one type of resource.

These resources are correlated with the four factions of Technotopia. The blue government, the green elite, the orange business, and the red public. The colors correspond to each faction, and most buildings have the same color as the buildings, so it's easy to identify them. 

The four factions have a demand for a certain amount of resources pertaining to their faction every 10 days. So, the ultimate gameplay loop of the game starts off with you carefully building up so that you always have enough production to match the demands of the factions. Remember that you can't hold onto any surplus, so you'll always be on your toes.

Every time you place a structure, the game progresses a day, and as previously mentioned, every 10 days, your expenses increase. So you have about ten turns to raise production before it all comes crashing down. If you ever fail to do so, the game basically ends. 

Each building can also form patterns of blocks that might remind you of Tetris shapes. This isn't the last time Technotopia references Tetris, and with these blocks, you can turn your buildings into special structures. These structures provide additional resources and have the secondary effect of looking cool.

At any point, you may only have three cards in your hand and play only one. You regain one of these or some of these cards at the end of a turn. The cards that come out are randomized, so you'll also have to deal with that and plan in a manner that doesn't hamper efficiency. Sometimes, you'll also get action cards that do not cost a turn. Instead of placing buildings, they will do something with immediate effects.

These action cards are pretty useful, but you'll rarely get them, so it's not worthwhile to rely on them. When placing building cards, you'll notice that there are very specific areas where you can build, designated by a golden highlight. This creates an additional layer of difficulty and forethought required when placing your buildings.

Of course, the Tetris-like combinations you can perform are varied but limited. You can occasionally find newer ones on the map or through other means. These appear as pop-ups on tiles along with other bonuses or events.

Some of these events will require you to build around a constructed structure that will give you further bonuses or resources. Other events are story beats that are instantaneous and give you weighted effects. A lot of the events, especially the ones that come every five turns, will have consequences that are beyond your vision. Some even last for a few turns, and others come up after a few turns.

Once you are no longer able to sustain your city, the game ends, and so does all your progress in that city, but any buildings you unlock, as well as the story progression, remain. This is a part of the game, as you're not expected to survive for infinity.

The key is to keep building intelligently, getting the most connections and upgrades you can get, all the while balancing the factions through the events and data bits you can get. Every time you fail, you get stronger as the factions start off with more resources. Additionally, you get more cards to place from the onset.

Sometimes, specific characters will pop up around the tiles, and these are your main story missions. They usually make you do something related to building or carrying on for a few turns before progressing. There are mission lines, each correlating to one of the four factions.

Funnily enough, despite Technotopia's persistence on balance, it is far more preferable to focus on a single faction. The primary reason for this is to unlock newer cards that do far more than the ones you have at hand. And that's about it. The game doesn't really have anything more than that, and that's a damn shame.

Despite having great mechanics at its core, Technotopia lacks a lot of things from the city-building side, and if you're looking for a city-builder at heart, this game is not for you. Although, the game is definitely very addictive. The gameplay is also pretty simple, but it remains very challenging.

However, despite the challenge, nothing you do in the game matters. It doesn't really give you any real consequences, as losing means you just have to start again. The story starts off right where you left off, and even the loss of your city doesn't hit too hard because there's no real counter to where you were.

This really presents an issue when paired with the fact that Technotopia also lacks side objectives or even a sandbox mode. You're really focused on one thing, and that one thing can get tiring really quickly. This, combined with the story, which is pretty meh at times, makes the game have a lot of hiccups.

The story also starts to get jarring as it juggles almost five different stories at once. So, since your main goal is that the story objectives are boring, you might want to do something else, maybe test yourself against your own high score. Except the game doesn't keep a high score.

A lot of the game is randomized. Randomization is pretty much a sin for most strategy or city-building games, but in a puzzle game, that's even more of an egregious sin. Your deck gets replaced every round and changes, and you have no hand in creating or otherwise changing it. This also means your strategy has to change based on your deck as well. This, in turn, gives you the feeling that sometimes you're winning because of your deck, not because you're being good at the game.

This extends to the different events of Technotopia as well. The results of the events are pretty random. The immediate effects are understandable enough, but some of their cascading effects and the things they do feel extremely strange and out of the blue. 

To top it off, none of these really care about how good you are at the game and aren't rewarding at all. This comes to the point where you'd probably wish you could ignore the events. Unsurprisingly, the game has fewer bugs than most games of this caliber.

The game lacks a lot of the mechanics that you'd expect from a city-builder, and other modes are also missing. To add to the deck-building parts, well, you don't actually build a deck, and that's very frustrating. You can't even discard or draw them, so the 'deck-building' aspect is also pretty pointless.

For what it's worth, Technotopia is still playable and fun, although it lacks a certain amount of depth. The game's shining beacon is its art style and sound design. The art style gives you a retro vibe with technocratic cyberpunk architecture. You can zoom in pretty far and see the small cars and, sometimes, even people. The world is surprisingly active with all the buzz of city life. 

Many of the upgrades and structures you build have their own effects. The game's great art style is complemented by the sound design, but its relatively generic music and lack of voice lines are noticeable. The voice lines are not a necessity, but the music itself feels extremely generic, if a bit apt for the genre. It's not unbearable, however, as it gets the job done.

Technotopia might not be the next indie city-builder if it's a city-builder at all, but it's a fun and addictive puzzle game with small elements from deck builders. The game stands on the cusp of being a great game, and regardless of what updates it gets, it will remain fun. 

The lack of depth and other problems of Technotopia can be ignored when you play it for the challenge. It's not a recommendation for hardcore gamers, but for casual ones or those looking for a challenge, this might just be the right game to grab.