Crux Games’ Combolands pairs turn-based citybuilding with the one-more-run pull of a combo-building roguelite.
Combolands. Credit: Crux Games
Combolands from two-person team Crux Games is an addictive turn-based citybuilder roguelite. You draw buildings from a pool as you would cards from a deck, then puzzle out where to place them for the most points. There’s enough depth and variety here to give the game real legs.
Each run follows the growth of a settlement from an undeveloped island into a compact town. The two guilds you choose at the start determine which buildings you can draw. Every building you place advances the game by one turn, and you have a limited number of turns to reach each of the run’s ten population milestones. Buildings add to your population when they trigger, which might happen as soon as you build them, every few turns, when you remove an adjacent structure, or when another nearby building sets them off.
Buildings respond to what is around them when they trigger. For example, barracks score for nearby rocks. Other structures multiply the output of neighboring buildings, transform them, or trigger additional effects. In my latest game, I picked the military guild and built a bunch of ballistas next to each other. Every few turns, a ballista faces a random direction and triggers the adjacent building on that side. Because I had them packed together, they could make each other trigger early. I was able to make ridiculous scoring chains. Finding those strategies is part of what makes Combolands so much fun.
Combolands. Credit: Crux Games
Between milestones, you can spend gold on blueprints that let you place buildings for free, potions, building upgrades, other consumables, and heirlooms. Heirlooms are items you can equip for passive bonus effects, and getting the right ones can make your run. Ahead of some milestones, councillors may give you short-term goals, such as constructing a set number of buildings, earning gold, or destroying structures. Completing one can earn you a council vote, and votes for the same guild give you bonuses that stack.
Experience earned during a run levels up your guilds and unlocks more buildings. Meeting certain conditions also unlocks new guilds, greatly expanding the game’s possibilities. That roguelite meta-progression loop helped keep me hooked.
Combolands. Credit: Crux Games
The game’s chunky pixel art has charm, though the low level of detail sometimes had me forgetting what a particular building was. Mousing over it brings up a tooltip and shows its range, so it was easy enough to check. My biggest complaint is that you have to commit to a building before you can see what a particular placement would put in range. In Fire Emblem, you can mess around with where you move a unit and preview the results of an attack until the moment you lock in your command. I wanted that same freedom to try out placements here and I don’t see a reason I shouldn’t be allowed to.
Combolands is a compelling approach to the citybuilding genre thanks to its successful fusion with roguelite mechanics. At around 45 minutes, each run gives me just enough time to relish the payoff from my escalating strategic decisions and still leaves me eager to play again. This one will be entering my regular rotation of roguelites.
Combolands
A little friction aside, Combolands has the depth that each new town gives me something new to try, and it’s immensely satisfying when the combos I’ve been setting up finally pay off.
Crux Games’ Combolands pairs turn-based citybuilding with the one-more-run pull of a combo-building roguelite.