1 week ago
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If Hell is a machine, Earth is the "gas/break pedal"
Sintopia, the very Bullfroggy strategy management game from developers Piraknights and publishers Team 17, will release on April 16th. I compared this one to The Screwtape Letters back at announcement, but the more obvious, gamer-brain pitch is that it's Black & White sitting on top of Dungeon Keeper. That is, a god sim parked on top of a management game, albeit with a greater emphasis on automation than you might recall from Bullfrog's heyday.
In Sintopia, you are the middle manager of Hell. Above you, there is a bucolic, self-sufficient realm of weirdly plant-based humans, all going about their lives farming, building and searching for treasure. And sinning. The Humus (Humusians? Humusings?) do love to sin. Which is where you come in. When the Humus die, they are swept away to the underworld by a toothy hellbus, and must be purged of moral stains before they can be safely granted a new body.
Hell, in this game, is a glitzy empire of production lines with buildings dedicated to the shriving of particular misdemeaours. Many are operated by sorrowful balding imps, busy fulfilling such roles as poledancing (I assume this is designed to get rid of Lust) and roasting chickens (I assume this one has to do with Gluttony). It's very important not to let people accumulate too many different sins, between cycles of rebirth. If they fill out that particular loyalty card, they'll turn demon themselves and do a little Armageddoning.
You're free to ascend the layers and cause havoc yourself. While you can't order the humus around, you can smite them with thunderbolts and yeet them into outer space, which will also make the survivors more worshipful and so, fuel your spells. The Steam page notes that several ending world states are possible, with players able to be "merciful, efficient, or deliciously petty". Myself, I want to try being selective. Perhaps I shall permit the Mortals to retain one sin, as they trot through the revolving door of resurrection. Which is the least sinful sin? I feel like Sloth is the least destructive. Slothful sinners probably don't make very good murderers.
Consider this a pretty crammed summary. There are many more devils in the detail: Role Models who work like character classes, humus life paths that may result in Deviancy, Cultism or Sainthood, zombie outbreaks when your overloaded Reaper Bus can't keep up with the falling bodies, and orgies that increase the birth rate.
I like the hybrid style the devs are going for. As they summarise in one devlog: "Remember that dying Humus turn into Souls, basically customers for Hell. But you also need Humus to thrive in the Overworld if you want them to survive threats without help. You can see Hell as an automated machine running (mostly) on its own, and the Overworld as the gas/break pedal."
Sintopia will include a story mode with tutorials, a sandbox mode for laidback experimentation, and a challenge mode with randomised elements. Again, it's out in April. As is Masters Of Albion, a new hybrid god sim from OG Dungeon Keeper Peter Molyneux and several other Bullfrog and Lionhead veterans. I guess I like Sintopia partly because it's a reminder that, whatever his latter-day reputation, Molyneux once worked on many good games that have inspired a lot of people.
English (US) ·