Title: Aven Colony
Platform: PC (reviewed), Xbox One, PS4
Developer: Mothership Entertainment
Publisher: Team 17
Release date: 25th July
Tl;Dr: An innovative city builder set on a beautiful alien world.
Price: £24/$30
Family Focus: Click here for more information.

I do enjoy a good city builder game; I like laying the foundations, the micromanagement, and then the inevitable amazing pay off when everything just goes the way you want it. My time with Aven Colony was exactly what I expected from this kind of game, and I cant wait to get my hands on the rest of it!

As of writing, I have only been given access to four parts of this game; two very helpful tutorials, and two main missions. The tutorial missions are perfect for newcomers to the genre of city building games, but veterans can also get some new pointers, and just a little help getting to grips with the play style of Aven Colony.

The main missions themselves are quite something; in both, you are thrown into a new scenario on this alien world, with a unique end goal given right off. But to get there, you will need to grow your small colony into something great, all the while dealing with new missions given to you by the major people involved in the colonisation effort.

As you build the colony, the process of starting a new life begins relatively easily. You need to juggle electricity capacity with water intake and oxygen purity. These levels are conveniently placed at the bottom of the screen for quick viewing, but as the colony grows bigger, and more and more hopeful colonists flock to your burgeoning community, that’s when things ramp up a bit.

Pictured above are a few of the problems you will face in Aven Colony. Those floating nasties are called Creepers, and they will latch onto your buildings and begin to destroy them. To get rid of those pests, you will need to build certain defence structures and also those nice turrets pictured above. These buildings  will take up electricity, as a result more generators will need to be built. Because of this and random events such as disease outbreaks the difficulty level can rise if you were not prepared.

All in all, what I have seen of Aven Colony has been quite an innovative and interesting game. From what little I could gain from the small chunk I played, there is hours upon hours of great gameplay just waiting for me. I honestly cannot wait for the full game to be released so I can get my hands on it in July!

 

The Good

  • Gorgeous visuals
  • Intuitive game design
  • Not too challenging to new players, but not too easy either.

The Bad

  • Creeper attacks can become too frequent.
  • Difficulty curve can skyrocket.
  • Turrets don’t necessarily mean you are protected

Family Focus – Aven Colony

Aven Colony is rated PEGI 16+ (Expected)/ESRB Rating Pending. I am surprised they expect a 16+ for it. I found the game rather tame and not at all violent.

Disclaimer: This review is based on a review code of the game provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.