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Gnomoria is a wonderful management game that revolves around your kingdom value which brings in more gnomes to manage as well as more difficult enemies. As of the time I wrote this review the game is still in Alpha phase, and it is already wonderfully fleshed out and has plenty of potential and room to grow. This review may change based on future updates Gameplay: You start the game by naming your kingdom and selecting the size of land you will play your game in. After that you begin the game with a small band of gnomes in an empty wilderness full of resources and possible mountains. You not have to make the choice of if you want to try and make a settlement above ground, or dig into the mountain side and expand outward. The main key in your choice is how you are going to defend the future of the base once the enemies start showing up. Time in the game revolves around years. Each year is composed of four season of twelve days. Spring of the first year is the only peaceful time you are going to get in this game. After which goblins and worse will start arriving based on the value of your kingdom score. The kingdom score is based on the value of resources in your storage room and the value of constructed objects places in the kingdom. So you will come to a cross roads with expansion. Do you gain more resource of improve your base and bring in more gnomes, or keep things simple to avoid having to fight off more difficult monster hordes? One of the main driving resources in the game are the metals (copper, tin, silver, etc…) so you can build fancy weapons, tools, and decorations. Of course you must dig deeper down to find the more complex minerals, and the deeper you dig the more complex enemies become. So once again you must manage the risk versus the reward. In the first season you must fight against time to set up workshops to build up your base, and set up the agriculture to provide nourishment for your gnomes. Growing fruits to provide food and drinks, and pastures with yaks in it to provide milk, and meat when slaughters. I could go on with mechanics of the game forever, this is just a brief overview. If you want to know more I would highly recommend going to the Gnomoria wiki to see more. Graphics: The graphics in this game are very basic and have an 8-bit feel to them, but they work very well, and the developer has updated the artwork on a few occasions. So it defiantly works and is being improved. Audio: I love the music in the game. You can switch between 8-bit style or classical in the options and fit wonderfully with the game. Review: I love honestly love this game, and have spent many hours of my life playing it. It has great complex mechanics, and is very challenging. I’ve started many kingdoms and none of them have made it past year two, but I still keep going back for more. The game is not free of problems though. There are still quite a few glitches left to be kinked out, but the developer updates weekly, unless he is planning a huge content update. So I feel confident that these will all be worked out in time. The only thing that worries me at this point is the game seems to have some load balancing issues that cause the game to slow down at later stages of the game. For a game that is still in its Alpha stages though it is very playable and very well fleshed out. I see amazing potential for this games. This game can be purchased on steam for $10 and is a very excellent price for the amount of content found in this game, and to come I’m sure. This is not a game for the type of people that expect a mindless playing experience. It requires planning and thought, and even then random events can destroy your kingdom. You just have to pick up and start again. Score breakdown/Summary: Gameplay: 9/10 Very challenging and complex. Still has some glitches and slows down in later years. I’m sure these problems will be worked out in coming updates though. Graphics: 8/10 They’re extremely simple, but they still get the job done and artwork is being updated, so there is only room to improve. Audio: 10/10 I love it, the 8-bit music fits the game amazingly well and even after over 20 hours of play I still listen to it with a smile on my face. Reviewer’s critique: 8/10 This game is a steal at its price for the content you get, not to mention the possibilities of the content to come. This score could easily move up or down depending on future updates. Final Score: 8.75

Since this game wants to classify itself as a god game, I’m going to judge it by the standards of previous god games I’ve played. I’ve seen a lot of people try saying it is not a god game, but a puzzle game. Every game is a puzzle of sorts if you think about it. You’re always trying to figure out the best combination to maximize completing the end goal. The fact of the matter you play as a god controlling giants, so it’s a god game. Enough of my rant though, onto the review! Graphics: I won’t lie to you I’m a **** for simple graphics. There is beauty in simplicity and this game does what it sets out to do very well. They are easy on the eyes and very well done. I don’t feel every game needs HD life like graphics to be amazing. It boils down to personal preference, and you can easily see screen shots on Steam, and judge for yourself. Audio: Well there’s not much there really, I honestly can’t even recall if there was music so it must not be there or be very lacking. The effects audio is nice but extremely basic. Gameplay: I found the gameplay very nice. Your goal is terraforming the earth into four different biomes (ocean, swamp, desert, and forests). You then place resources (plants, animals, and minerals) down onto the land which provide food, money, or technology points attracting settlers to the land. The giants have abilities to replace or morph existing tiles to change up the amount or type of resource given. As you progress the villagers will start to build projects, that upon completion they will provide you with an ambassador that will allow you to unlock a new ability for one of the giants depending upon the village type (the type of village is determined from the three biomes). If you overload the village with too much resources of a single type at once they will become greedy going to war with neighboring villages, and even eventually becoming bold enough to attack the giants. You can distract the villages from become violent with certain resource types adding danger to the village. At which point you must beat down or totally destroy the village. The true challenge of the game comes from the time limits referred to as eras. When you first start you have a time limit of thirty minutes to complete the challenges (they stack from game to game). After you complete so many of the challenges you unlock the next era expanding the time to an hour per game. There are three eras with a max time of an hour and half. As you unlock more challenges they even unlock new resource types. Review: I really enjoy this game it is challenging and yet still pretty relaxing. It isn’t free of any problems though. I found when trying to complete specific challenges that the game play kind of got slow and turned into a waiting game of the villages expanding their border so they could get new resources. I also am not a very big fan of the fact that the giants powers reset after every era. It increases the challenge aspect, but its aggravating at the same time because it slows and hinders advancing the villages when starting a new era. Also the game itself in the god game genre is very simplistic. When I hear god game I automatically expect a very complex and deep game, such a Black & White. While not perfect by any means that game was complex. So if you’re looking for complexity you may find it lacking. The game itself is great if you want a short time limit challenge. I find it a nice break from my other games to try and knock out another era. It is not a game I could find myself getting lost in which is something I look for in my god games. For ten dollars though it is an easy purchase and you get what you pay for. Score breakdown/summary: Graphics: 10/10 There is beautify in simplicity and its executed very well. Audio: 6/10 The audio is very simplistic and there is no music. Good music would have really increased the value. Gameplay: 9/10 smooth no noticeable glitches. Simple with an appropriate level of complexity for what is presented. Review’s Critique: 6/10 It’s a nice game for the price, but it is not what I’d imagine as an ideal god game, and completing some of the challenges is sort of tedious and slow going. Final Score: 7.75

The mechanics of the game have improved 100%. The way you evolve makes a lot more since than the first game. My only complaints are that the story line was kind of short, and the RADNET is being released on a weekly basis. Kinda lame I have to wait a month to get the Mecer skin.