The Universim Review
In 2024, the city-building simulator The Universim left early access, where it had been for several years. We decided to try on the role of a god in managing a funny little people, and are now ready to share our impressions of this difficult mission.
- Developer: Crytivo
- Publisher: Crytivo
- Platforms: PC
- Release date: January 22, 2024
The Universim puts a small tribe living on a tiny planet under your leadership. The people are not very smart, but they are quite independent, so you don’t need to lead them by the hand – just gently guide and push them, setting the vector of development.
This process involves upgrading buildings, gradually expanding the territory controlled by the people, and solving critical problems, which may include a devastating climate phenomenon such as a firestorm, an alien invasion , or the appearance of ancient monsters . The player, in turn, has divine powers at his disposal, such as lightning strikes, healing, calling down rain, and much more.
It is interesting that the game allows you to actively participate in the lives of your charges, as well as to let the development of civilization take its course. However, in the second case, the little people will most likely wither away, left to their own devices. In addition, the already slow pace of the game will become even slower and more boring if you do not take active actions.
This is the game’s main problem: even with the time rewind feature, it remains terribly slow, especially in the later stages of development. Research and development of technologies seems very logical in the context of advancing through the eras, but it takes up extra minutes and hours, offering the player to spend time waiting for the long-awaited improvement to be studied. At the same time, it is very interesting to watch how primitive buildings are replaced by more advanced ones, and the inhabitants of the planet move from gathering to production and eventually get out into space .
The Universim also captivates with its pleasant low-poly graphics. At first, the game world looks nondescript, but gradually, as civilization develops, the territory becomes overgrown with cities, skyscrapers rush to the clouds , and megalopolises shine brighter than the stars at night. You can bring the camera close to the ground to observe the lives of characters, or move it as far as possible to take in the entire empire with a glance. There are beautiful sunrises and frighteningly fascinating natural disasters, such as tornadoes or meteor showers .
If you’ve played Spore to death and are looking for something new in the same style, The Universim has something to offer. It’s a pleasant city-building god simulator that lets you watch civilization develop on a planetary scale. Although the game gets boring pretty quickly, it leaves a pleasant aftertaste and doesn’t make you regret the time spent.