Against the Storm review: It’s damn hard to survive this storm

I already told you about Against the Storm’s potential in our gameplay impressions. Already at that time it was a very interesting work, capable of attracting people with the help of individual game mechanisms. However, it had its ups and downs. Now we have the final version. The following lines of our review will tell you how much the game has changed since Early Access.

Platform: PC (tested version)
Publication date: 08/12/2023
Developer: Hermit Games
Publisher: Hood’s Horse
Genre: Roguelike strategy
Czech localization: Yes
Multiplayer: No
Download data: 4.78 GB
Game time: 90 – 180 hours
Price: 710 CZK (Steam)

In Against the Storm, an impatient queen stands over you.

The ends of the world take different forms in different universes. In the Against the Storm universe, the main apocalyptic phenomenon is Morbura, which always appears after a certain time and erases everything in its path from the surface of the earth. It doesn’t matter how beautiful your settlement series was. After a certain period of time, everything that you managed to build will simply disappear along with them. Therefore, your task in this work is to find the answer to how to stop the entire process and provide your people with a chance to live better and never be forced to return to the bowels of the indestructible but gloomy Smoldering City.

Here is the headquarters of an entire civilization, ruled by an uncompromising queen who wants not justifications, but results, which she will show you more than once. In the story, you set out to build settlements that will serve as a demonstration of your ability to fulfill the wishes of the local queen. That’s exactly what you do. You try to complete tasks and gradually expand not only the village you control, but also the range of buildings to which you have access.

At the very beginning of your journey in Against the Storm, you will have to build a clearly defined number of buildings. And often these are not actually structures, but mobile carts and simple stands from which the inhabitants of the new colony set off to conquer the surrounding forest. Each of the colonies here practically benefits from what the previous one did. But not because someone handed over all your resources to you or actively supplied them. The main thing here is the experience and new plans that you will gain during construction.

However, here you are not completely sure of anything. Indeed, Against the Storm is not only a strategy game, but also a roguelike game, which in practice means that little is guaranteed while playing. After starting a new village, a map will always be generated for you, and the set of buildings you will have access to will also not be the same as in the previous attempt. So the basic spectrum, yes, but not the more advanced structures. You unlock them by winning the queen’s favor, which gives you access to a certain number of buildings during the mission.

Chance will not always be on your side

The palette of what can be built is incredibly diverse by the standards of the genre. Some buildings here have several forms that require slightly different conditions to operate. However, by completing them, you will be able to produce some types of raw materials much more efficiently than if you relied on production in basic structures, which, for the same resource costs, will generate significantly less than advanced structures. Most games take you to new buildings while making your way through the forest and completing the aforementioned challenges for your dear queen. You have to be lucky though. If he does not wish you well, it may well happen that instead of the production chains you need, you will receive ones that you do not need.

It may seem like a small thing at first, but in Against the Storm every detail is often important. For example, I once bet that I would create a farming community. It was a good idea, but the forest didn’t want me. Instead of multiple spots where I could grow crops, all I had at my fingertips was impenetrable forest with almost zero potential for growing anything in it. What will we talk about? What followed next was not very pleasant. Fortunately, luck smiled on me when choosing messages from the queen, which give the city certain bonuses. In one of them I was offered cannibalism.

Although I didn’t win, the colony lasted a little longer in Against the Storm, which also counted since I was given a decent amount of experience points for running the city. I subsequently converted them into various permanent bonuses in the capital. While you can always count on them once activated, you can’t count on the cities that your work helped bring into being. The game world is “always” reset after a certain time through Morbur, and the only thing that remains on the map as before is the Smoldering City. I must admit that the pace at which destruction is approaching is inexorable.

However, she is no less a gracious queen. While you’ll often have a relatively functioning settlement, if you don’t grant its wishes quickly enough, your journey will quickly end and you’ll be forced to build it from scratch. The enemy here is not only the queen, but also the tree itself. Although there are no spectacular battles there, its population will have to be pacified with the help of workers. Overall, I’ve found that survival here can be quite hit-or-miss at times. All it took was getting a few bad cards or encountering areas with greater threats for things to go awry. However, optimization and general gameplay have undergone decent development, for which I praise the authors.

Against the Storm is a surprisingly challenging strategy game

Already in Early Access, roguelike strategy Against the Storm has done well. During development, the creators managed to get rid of the technical shortcomings, thanks to which they now have an excellent construction strategy that puts the player in an ever-changing world full of construction challenges combined with the ability to adapt. . The set is excellent in all respects.

However, in most cases one has to accept the fact that even the best-laid settlement can fall apart if luck is not on its side. However, if you’re lucky, some nice construction awaits you. I would recommend Against the Storm primarily to those who are not afraid of challenges, because you will almost always find them here. Personally, I might welcome less randomness, but we can never have everything.