Homeseek is a society survival title, similar to Frostpunk, Endzone, and Floodland, where players are presented with various tasks and challenges as they work toward the overall prosperity of their colony. While the game mechanics may seem simple, it requires quite a bit of thought and planning to balance growth with resources. To add to the complexity, players immediately face environmental strife, which impacts their access to necessary resources.
The game features an exploration map similar to Frostpunk in looks and design; players must send scouts afield to locate supplies or other resources. Random events and encounters can impact your home base and traveling expeditions. And your (sometimes tricky) choices will affect the colony’s trajectory and can trigger negative consequences. I frequently deliberated between two “evils,” hoping my choice would not be detrimental in the long run.
Discovering new technology through scouting missions and research is critical to unlocking buildings or upgrades that can help players advance and prosper. The population has essential requirements- food, water, housing, medical needs, resource gathering, and production. Key gameplay elements must be mastered, including exploration, research, and the implementation of laws. Players have a little extra control of the two-phased law-making mechanic, which is nice.
The law, tech, and research trees were a little clunky. However, the development team recently posted a dev log detailing several changes to the UI, including a redesign of both the Community and Resource Center menus. This is in response to community feedback, and I appreciate that the team is working with their community to implement constructive changes based on their experiences.
It took me eight in-game days to reach the victory objective, in which I mainly played at the standard speed setting during working hours and at the fastest speed the rest of the time. Outside of expedition events, I felt a lack of things to do or manage during the colony’s downtime from work. I’m curious if this might change further along in the game as the production line extends and management becomes more advanced (keeping in mind that I did only experience a limited demo). I’m also interested in seeing if there are plans for policies that can be implemented to extend working hours and extract more productivity from the colony.
During my gameplay experience, I found the camera zoom slightly limited, as it didn't allow me to zoom far enough to see the game world in as much detail as I would have liked. This can make it challenging to plan moves effectively as the settlement grows, a crucial aspect of strategy-building games where it's nice to pan out and see the bigger picture.
TLDR; Homeseek is a society survival game that requires players to balance growth with resources while facing environmental challenges. The development team actively works with the community to implement feedback-based constructive changes. Overall, the game is engaging and provides moderate difficulty for players who enjoy constructing settlements, as it necessitates critical thinking and strategic planning while navigating a post-apocalyptic world.
I enjoyed the demo and will likely purchase it once it releases in early access.
