Synergy – Prekrasan city-builder sa svježim pristupom

• DEVELOPER: Leikir Studio
• IZDAVAČ: Goblinz Publishing, H2 Interactive Co., Ltd.
• PLATFORME: PC
• ŽANR: City-builder / Survival
• DATUM IZLASKA: 16. travnja 2025.
• POČETNA CIJENA: 24,99€
• RECENZIRANA VERZIJA: PC

Now fully released after nearly a year in Early Access, Synergy offers a fresh twist on city-building and survival genres. Set on a harsh alien planet with a solarpunk aesthetic, you guide a settlement of stranded settlers. Your task is to balance resource management, environmental harmony, and the well-being of your citizens. Despite its cozy vibe, the game introduces challenges like health management, weather cycles, and seasonal shifts, though these never feel overwhelming.

Engaging gameplay loop

Gameplay revolves around building nine unique districts around central squares, with structures like homes, infirmary, and forges to support your settlers’ needs. You gather essential resources such as food, water, and materials like sticks or rocky amalgam through two approaches: sustainable harvesting, where workers prune plants for future yields, or destructive ripping, like uprooting plants for quick gains. A recurring challenge is the the dry season, which drastically reduces resources, requiring you to careful stockpile during milder seasons. Overharvesting can also harm the ecosystem by depleting flora, but sustainable practices, such as seed farms or composters, help restore it.

While Synergy’s gameplay loop is engaging, some aspects can feel frustrating. Early on, progression is slow and tedious due to the small population growth. With so few settlers, it’s hard to assign workers to all tasks while keeping some free for transportation. You’ll speed up the game constantly. Technology advances quickly, but finding survivors is so rare that it becomes annoying. Exploration events are quite repetitive, either you’ll find some resources or trade options. However, once you push past this initial hurdle, the game picks up, and things flow more smoothly.

That said, the heavy focus on micromanagement, requiring you to manually assign or remove workers for every building, might turn off players who prefer less hands-on control. Additionally, meeting your citizens’ needs in Synergy can also be a tricky task. To keep them happy, you’ll find yourself placing countless benches, decorations, and cultural buildings, but these all feel repetitive and look too similar. This “spammable” and uniform approach to satisfying needs can detract from the fun, making the process feel like a chore.

“Heavy focus on micromanagement might turn off players who prefer less hands-on control.”

The technology in Synergy steals the show

The “studying” mechanic is Synergy’s best thing, setting it apart from traditional tech trees. By assigning citizens to research centers or halls of wisdom, you analyze plants and minerals to expand your Knowledge Book. This unlocks new buildings, irrigation methods, or cultural practices. For instance, studying a plant might reveal safer harvesting techniques or new crop types, reducing risks like poisoning. With a research tree spanning 60 branches, the system adds depth, but its poor explanations can leave you confused, especially when stuck on vague objectives like raising Well-Being from 12/20 to 14/20.

Campaign scenarios deliver unique challenges, like surviving specific disasters, while sandbox mode allows free building. Without combat or direct enemies, the game leans on environmental challenges, as mentioned, for tension, such as extreme weather like heatstrokes during dry seasons, which threaten settlers’ health and demand strategic planning. Also, the emphasis on cooperation and ecosystem harmony, such as restoring wildlife through composters, is rewarding, but it’s hard to feel truly connected to your citizens.

While it has some frustrating aspects, its technology progression feels amazing. The system offers multiple tiers, and you don’t need to grind endlessly to move forward, as small upgrades unlock even more minor features. However, the cluttered UI can be overwhelming, making navigation tricky. Grinding is mainly needed for food and water to establish proper farms, but with steady gathering huts that continuously collect from replenishing resources, it’s relatively easy to manage.

“The game leans on environmental challenges for tension.”

Solid city-builder

In my playthroughs, I encountered no bugs, but Synergy’s graphics truly stand out. The pastel colors, organic shapes, and intricate details in buildings, plants, and landscapes give everything a sci-fi illustration vibe with a lived-in, otherworldly charm. Citizens’ dynamic animations, whether working or exploring, also breathe life into the settlement. However, the locked camera perspective, tied to the 2D art’s fixed angles, prevents rotation, preserving the aesthetic but making navigation tricky. Taller structures too sometimes obscure smaller ones, which can complicate planning.

As you reach Synergy’s later stages, the game runs smoothly without lag or performance drops, and the late game is just as engaging as the mid-game, unlocking a wealth of possibilities. Honestly, this game is solid, really solid, but its frustrating elements are hard to ignore. The early game feels like a slog, and the lack of meaningful events, mostly tied to exploration that doesn’t feel rewarding, holds it back from shining in the city-building genre. Still, its eco-conscious studying mechanic, deep research tree, sustainable gameplay, and solarpunk aesthetic create immersive world that’s perfect for fans of these types of games.

“Visually gorgeous game.”

Recenzentski primjerak ustupio izdavač

3.8