Tras siete años en desarrollo, por fin sale At the gates el 23 de este mes, lo nuevo de Jon Shafer, diseñador principal de Civilization V.
Es un 4X con algunos elementos roguelike y cambios respecto a la tendencia actual del género.
- El juego está ambientado durante el declive del Imperio Romano y el jugador estará a cargo de una tribu bárbara.
- El mapa se va modificando con las estaciones, de manera que terrenos pueden perder fertilidad, o los ríos y lagos se pueden congelar abriendo nuevas rutas.
- Los recursos se van agotando con el tiempo. Hay que estar buscando nuevas fuentes, robárselas a los vecinos o directamente emigrar a otras áreas.
- Intenta centrarse en el late game, de manera que el juego no esté ganado a mitad de partida y pierda todo el aliciente.
- La idea es que los turnos sean largos, con muchas decisiones que tomar en cada uno.
- El juego es asimétrico y cada partida será diferente.
- No es una carrera por conseguir los objetivos de victoria, las demás facciones no compiten contigo.
Individual playthroughs of AtG will be quite different from one another, mainly due to the variety of geography, resources, and clans the game throws at you. This gives AtG an immense amount of replayability, but don't expect to be able to stick with the same strategy every time!
From day 1 AtG's design has been infused with roguelike elements, and it embraces difficulty, procedural randomness, and even a bit of unfairness. While possible to dial down, expect to confront many a tough decision and swallow many a bitter pill!
In AtG the Settlement is the nexus of your tribe. All new clans show up here, and it serves as your single production queue for the entire game. This greatly reduces micromanagement compared with other 4X games and makes each production decision a tough one.
Another unique element AtG adds to the basic 4X formula is the ability to move your "city" around. And doing so is important, as structures can only be built in your borders. Resources run out eventually, too, so be ready to find a new home - until you Found a Kingdom, anyways.
Founding a kingdom is an important step in At the Gates and represents the official transition to the mid-game. Once you've built up your tribe a bit and found a place you want to stay long-term this action provides several bonuses, but permanently fixes your settlement in-place.
Clans and resources are the 2 fundamental components of your economy, and in many ways AtG is very much a character management game - getting something done usually means training a clan in a profession.