It might not have a particularly subtle name, but as someone who writes with discoverability in mind, I don’t begrudge the folks at Crux Games for calling their newly released strategy roguelike something as brash as Combolands: Roguelike Citybuilder. Having said that, I hope that they don’t begrudge me dropping the subtitle from now on.
What is Combolands?
Apart from being a game with a name honed for search engines and findability, Combolands is a fantastic pixel art strategy roguelite about growing your little village into a thriving city. You do this by evolving your town over time, finding synergies between the buildings you construct, and taking advantage of the nuances of every map.
At times, Combolands feels like a board game come to life. There is a real engine-building feel to the gameplay loop, as you assemble your city using a selection of building types, picked from a draw pool at regular intervals. Except the computer can crunch all those numbers super quickly, making this much more involving than any board game I’ve ever played, as the game is constantly throwing small but consequential decisions at you.
There’s never a dull moment, but somehow it also never feels rushed, and Combolands feels borderline cosy at times thanks to this expertly balanced pacing. In fact, the whole onboarding process is one of the most enjoyable I’ve come across in recent years, and that’s from someone who has to learn an awful lot of video games. Despite its inherent complexity, Crux Games has somehow managed to make it feel effortless to learn, and that is no easy thing to do.
The overall depth of the game also impresses, because there are so many new tools to unlock as you progress through things. The slow but steady introduction of new elements keeps both the early game and the later stages feeling fresh each time.
At the heart of things, Combolands is all about synergies and multipliers. If you’re a Balatro fan, you’ll find a similar energy bubbling under the surface here, as expanded understanding only deepens your ability to make interesting builds out of the tools you’re given.
What next for Combolands?
The only thing that isn’t bringing me joy is the lack of full Steam Deck support, but it sounds like the devs at Crux Games are on the case and are looking to have a Deck imported so they can make sure the game works as well on the handheld as possible. The dev duo also explained on Steam that they’re looking to translate the game into more languages, so stay tuned for that.
All that is to say that Combolands: Roguelike Citybuilder is a fantastic little video game and one of my favourites of the year so far, and with a bit more spit and polish, it’s only going to get better.
Combolands is out now on PC (Win), and I played the game via access kindly provided by the developer and their PR buddies.
