{"id":58162,"date":"2023-12-01T12:16:51","date_gmt":"2023-12-01T12:16:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/steamworld-build-review"},"modified":"2024-07-19T19:24:27","modified_gmt":"2024-07-19T19:24:27","slug":"steamworld-build-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/video-games\/steamworld-build-review","title":{"rendered":"Steamworld Build Review: A Charming City Builder and Great Entry Point to the Genre"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steamworld Build is an interesting game. It’s as likeable as it is bonkers. It throws the rulebook out the window and asks ‘why don’t we just add another game into our game?’.<\/p>\n

As a city builder, it’s got character. It borrows heavily from the Anno<\/a> formula with its production chains and evolving population – but it puts its own spin on things. The art and animations make it stand out in a crowd, and they are stellar. Every building has its own loop and your citizens will stumble around the town playing out their daily lives. It’s cathartic, inviting, and incredibly likeable.<\/p>\n

But Steamworld Build isn’t just a settlement game – and there’s only so far you can go by opening saloons and throwing down cactus farms. To progress, you have to go underground. While your citizens toil away in the moonshine distillery, your legion of miners and prospectors will carve out a subterranean labyrinth.<\/p>\n

\"Steamworld
Steamworld Build is a combination of Anno and Dungeon Keeper.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The materials you find down there will fuel industry on the surface, and you’ll uncover secrets, items, and passages to go ever deeper. There are three biomes in total. They all feel unique, offer different rewards, and prove new challenges.<\/p>\n

It’s not all fun and games down there either. Dig in the wrong place and you’ll uncover enemies burrowed away in the dirt. You can counter this by building and equipping a unit of enforcers, and littering your domain with traps and turrets.<\/p>\n

\"Steamworld
Dig in the wrong place and you’ll uncover enemies burrowed away in the dirt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So there are two halves to the game that function well in isolation – but they bounce off each other succinctly too. It’s a well-maintained balancing act that makes such an oddball combination not just work – but feel completely natural.<\/p>\n

I have to commend the developers The Station<\/em> on that one. Anno and Dungeon Keeper are two of my favourite games – so when I heard about their plans to combine them, I thought it too good to be true. But they’ve pulled it off.<\/p>\n

\"Steamworld
A few random events now and again would have really kept things interesting.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That being said, there were a few flaws that became quickly apparent. Veterans of the genre might be put off by the inability to change and optimise hotkeys. Beauty builders should also be wary, as town decorations are all mostly the same tile size, and the lack of variation means these items just don’t blend into the town around them. <\/p>\n

Its greatest problem though is more encompassing. The game keeps you in tow with a story mode, and provides objectives to keep you progressing towards a final goal. But it’s all quite short. Anyone familiar with these types of games will rattle through it in a dozen hours or less. After that, there’s not much to keep you coming back. You can create a new town, and make it more optimised – but I felt like it was lacking a feature that kept it ticking in the sandbox mode. In my opinion, all it needed was a random event here and there, or some larger long-term goals to work towards that weren’t tied into the main story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steamworld Build is an interesting game. It’s as likeable as it is bonkers. It throws the rulebook out the window and asks ‘why don’t we…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12881,"featured_media":58163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-video-games","genre-strategy-games","content_type-reviews"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSteamworld Build Review: A Charming City Builder and Great Entry Point to the Genre - GINX TV<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58162\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Steamworld Build Review: A Charming City Builder and Great Entry Point to the Genre - GINX TV\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Steamworld Build is an interesting game. It’s as likeable as it is bonkers. It throws the rulebook out the window and asks ‘why don’t we...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/video-games\/steamworld-build-review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"GINX TV\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-12-01T12:16:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-07-19T19:24:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/12\/Steam.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Willis Walker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Willis Walker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/video-games\/steamworld-build-review#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/video-games\/steamworld-build-review\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Willis Walker\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/9b1c9c4b4351a2a4738f76ff057454d3\"},\"headline\":\"Steamworld Build Review: A Charming City Builder and Great Entry Point to the Genre\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-12-01T12:16:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-19T19:24:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/video-games\/steamworld-build-review\"},\"wordCount\":586,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/video-games\/steamworld-build-review#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/12\/Steam.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Video Games\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/video-games\/steamworld-build-review#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/video-games\/steamworld-build-review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/video-games\/steamworld-build-review\",\"name\":\"Steamworld Build Review: A Charming City Builder and Great Entry Point to the Genre - GINX TV\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/video-games\/steamworld-build-review#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/video-games\/steamworld-build-review#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/12\/Steam.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-12-01T12:16:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-19T19:24:27+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/video-games\/steamworld-build-review#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/video-games\/steamworld-build-review\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/video-games\/steamworld-build-review#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/12\/Steam.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/12\/Steam.webp\",\"caption\":\"Steamworld Build Review: A Charming City Builder and Great Entry Point to the Genre\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/video-games\/steamworld-build-review#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Steamworld Build Review: A Charming City Builder and Great Entry Point to the Genre\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/\",\"name\":\"GINX TV\",\"description\":\"GINX TV\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/#organization\",\"name\":\"GINX TV\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/12\/header-new-logo1.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/12\/header-new-logo1.svg\",\"width\":200,\"height\":40,\"caption\":\"GINX TV\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/9b1c9c4b4351a2a4738f76ff057454d3\",\"name\":\"Willis Walker\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Willis-Walker-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Willis-Walker-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Willis Walker\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/willis-walker-980188150\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/author\/willis-walker\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Steamworld Build Review: A Charming City Builder and Great Entry Point to the Genre - GINX TV","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58162","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Steamworld Build Review: A Charming City Builder and Great Entry Point to the Genre - GINX TV","og_description":"Steamworld Build is an interesting game. It’s as likeable as it is bonkers. It throws the rulebook out the window and asks ‘why don’t we...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/video-games\/steamworld-build-review","og_site_name":"GINX TV","article_published_time":"2023-12-01T12:16:51+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-07-19T19:24:27+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/12\/Steam.webp","width":1,"height":1,"type":"image\/webp"}],"author":"Willis Walker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Willis Walker","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/video-games\/steamworld-build-review#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/video-games\/steamworld-build-review"},"author":{"name":"Willis Walker","@id":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/9b1c9c4b4351a2a4738f76ff057454d3"},"headline":"Steamworld Build Review: A Charming City Builder and Great Entry Point to the Genre","datePublished":"2023-12-01T12:16:51+00:00","dateModified":"2024-07-19T19:24:27+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/video-games\/steamworld-build-review"},"wordCount":586,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/video-games\/steamworld-build-review#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/12\/Steam.webp","articleSection":["Video Games"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/video-games\/steamworld-build-review#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/video-games\/steamworld-build-review","url":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/video-games\/steamworld-build-review","name":"Steamworld Build Review: A Charming City Builder and Great Entry Point to the Genre - GINX TV","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/video-games\/steamworld-build-review#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/video-games\/steamworld-build-review#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/12\/Steam.webp","datePublished":"2023-12-01T12:16:51+00:00","dateModified":"2024-07-19T19:24:27+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/video-games\/steamworld-build-review#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/video-games\/steamworld-build-review"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/video-games\/steamworld-build-review#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/12\/Steam.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/12\/Steam.webp","caption":"Steamworld Build Review: A Charming City Builder and Great Entry Point to the Genre"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/video-games\/steamworld-build-review#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Steamworld Build Review: A Charming City Builder and Great Entry Point to the Genre"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/","name":"GINX TV","description":"GINX TV","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/#organization","name":"GINX TV","url":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/12\/header-new-logo1.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/12\/header-new-logo1.svg","width":200,"height":40,"caption":"GINX TV"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/9b1c9c4b4351a2a4738f76ff057454d3","name":"Willis Walker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Willis-Walker-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Willis-Walker-96x96.png","caption":"Willis Walker"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/willis-walker-980188150\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/author\/willis-walker"}]}},"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12881"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ginx.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}