Table of Contents
Introduction:
Flotsam is a city-builder game where you are in control of a small group of drifters. You will need to oversee your little floating haven, manage your essential resources, and rescue other people you find along the way. One thing to bear is that Flotsam has only just entered early access and may change over the coming weeks and months.
Details of Flotsam:
On the surface, this game is much the same as any other city builder/management game. You need to collect resources from your environment, such as wood and plastic from the oceans and metal from islands, and use these materials to build more structures, such as homes for your drifters or places to process raw materials into more valuable things. The significant difference, of course, is that in Flotsam your town can move so you won’t stay in one place for too long.
Tutorial:
There isn’t much of a tutorial at the start of the game, it throws you into the deep end, but it doesn’t take too long to get to grips with the basics. Some short guidebook pages pop up to show you the ropes, so hopefully, it won’t leave you feeling too adrift.
The gameplay of Flotsam:
Flotsam’s gameplay is very well-balanced. It puts you under just the right amount of pressure, so you rarely feel like you can sit back and let the game run itself. You always have something that needs your attention, but most problems can be rectified with little stress. As you play, your ears will be treated to a beautiful score. The marimba sounds are very relaxing and build up those nautical vibes.
Flotsam has a vibrant, cell-shaded visual style that I enjoyed, and I love the haphazard, build-it-out-of-whatever-we-have fashion for the buildings in your town. It’s colorful and fun and makes me happy. The designs of the drifters themselves are also adorable. I love their bouncy run animation. Even when they’re sleepy, they’re still having a great time. Also, we’ve got another game breaching the Geneva Convention. My main issue with Flotsam is the drifters’ AI. Most of the time, it works great, but occasionally something goes wrong, and no one will use a particular structure or become stuck in action.
Currently, there is no end to the game; when you reach the end of the map, you are looped back to the start again. Hopefully, a little more story will be added with time. Some minor things I hope will be addressed are that if you place a structure in the wrong place, you have to wait for one of your drifters to start building it before you can deconstruct it. It would also be helpful to set a specific task, such as a building’s construction, to a high priority so that the established drifters to structure drop everything and deal with that. If AI issues were rectified, this would be less of a problem.
Conclusion:
Overall I found Flotsam to be a delightful game that caught my attention and reeled me in. I hope the minor bugs are worked out during the early access period because it is otherwise a fun and addictive experience. I look forward to returning to this one once it has been fully released. And so, Flotsam receives the chilled-out seal of approval.
If you’ve enjoyed this review don’t forget to comment, and I will reply to them all. See you in the next one till then take care and goodbye.