Walking through the streets of Berlin, visiting the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag and Checkpoint Charlie, it is very easy to notice even today the deep scars that the Second World War left on the face of the German capital, practically razed to the ground. during the final Allied assault on the last Nazi enclave. The city, like many others, went through a process of total reconstruction in the years after the war, but unlike metropolises such as London, Warsaw or Hamburg, Berlin irremediably lost its charm as a European capital, at least from the point of view purely architectural. view.
The Russians were largely responsible for putting Berlin back on its feet, but what would have happened if instead of the USSR it had been you who rebuilt Germany's former capital from the ground up? The great promise of the developers of WW2 Rebuilder is precisely this, to put us at the forefront of the long reconstruction process that allowed the largest European metropolises to return to life, after the devastation produced during the conflict. Fruit of the efforts of a small Polish team, Crazy games, the game is available today on Steam and follows the same line as all those independent simulation experiences like House Flipper, although here the goal is much more noble and you don't work for money.
Are you a simulator lover and are you excited by the idea of rebuilding Europe? here in ours World War II Reconstructor Review, if the Madnetic game deserves your curiosity, your money, but above all your time.
A truly original idea
As we said at the beginning, WW2 Rebuilder does not deviate much from the path set by other simulation experiences that have appeared on Steam in recent years, although it must be admitted that theidea The basis of the title developed by the Polish team is as interesting as it is original, especially if we think that most video games set during World War II usually see us destroying things, instead of rebuilding them. To tell the truth, the game is not even configured as a classic "work simulator", because unlike all the experiences that fall within the definition, this time we will not aim to accumulate money and strengthen a business activity.
Instead, WW2 Rebuilder chooses to propose a kind of campaign, composed of 9 consistent scenarios, all inspired by places that have really been affected by the devastation of war. From the heart of the City of London to the beaches of Dunkirk, passing through Hamburg, Essen and Belfast, the task will always be to clear the level of all types of rubble and rubble caused by bombing, demolish all buildings that are damaged and unsafe , transform everything collected into useful resources for reconstruction, and finally restore and renew the area with new structures, buildings and decorations. Unfortunately, unlike what happens in sandbox video games of the caliber of House Flipper, we will never really have total creative freedom when it comes to rebuilding Europe, since each level involves a series of completely predetermined primary and secondary objectives, which do not leave much space of maneuver for the player.
Choosing to make these objectives mandatory to unlock the next scenario ends up making the building process very uninspiring, as you constantly feel like you're faced with a simple to-do list in which, only in very rare cases, really have a say. One of them is represented by level decoration phase, an absolutely non-mandatory bonus objective upon completing the campaign. After you have arranged the rooms, it is possible to beautify the area by choosing from a small catalog of decorative objects that may include lampposts, benches, trees and statues, and although the list offers a good degree of variety, spend an hour painstakingly decorating one level which will no longer be accessible made the practice almost immediately indigestible to us.
All the limitations of superficial play.
The little freedom granted to the player would not even be a problem if WW2 Rebuilder were not a simulator and, therefore, if it were not focused on a game formula which makes repetitiveness a mantra. In other similar experiences, the constant reiteration of mechanics and playful elements is somewhat attenuated by the possibility of giving a direction to one's own creations or by the serial accumulation of improvements and improvements, but in the Madnetic Games title there is only one interesting little skill tree. as well as a gameplay even less deep than that of his most illustrious colleagues.
Basically, everything revolves around a small number of instruments dedicated to the different tasks that we will be called upon to perform during the reconstruction. There's the hammer, useful for destroying larger debris and furniture, and the shovel, which allows you to quickly pick up a large amount of debris with a single mouse click. The torch can be used to precisely cut all types of scrap and the brush is rarely needed to clean a surface of soot from fires. In addition to these tools, the player also has access to a trowel for plastering walls and a roller with which to paint buildings, but during the entire campaign, which lasted about 6 hours, we only used them twice. In reality, there are many playable features included in the game that are barely mentioned, such as the numerous banal mini-games that appear on the screen from time to time to slow us down in the reconstruction work.
The only two elements of variety are represented by the flashbacks, brief animated interludes that make the player relive the most dramatic moments of the war, and the Heavy vehicles, two vehicles that help us demolish larger buildings. In some scenarios we will have access to a crane with a wrecking ball and a bulldozer, two vehicles that are especially effective in removing debris, but which are related to various errors and failures that often make them almost impossible to use. The Madnetic Games simulator, despite its surprisingly inspired visual impact, shows all the limitations due to the limited resources available to the development team and, although we are fully aware of the deep indie nature of the work, we must admit that we expected a lot less. gaps in a product that is about to be launched on Steam in its entirety and not in early access.
Conclusions
Tested version PC with Windows digital delivery Steam Holygamerz.com 5.5 Readers (11) 7.8 your voteWW2 Rebuilder was born under the star of a very good idea, that of offering the player the possibility of rebuilding the cities of the Old Continent devastated by bombings, in an industry that has always made environmental destructibility an effective marketing slogan. Despite the excellent concept and an unexpectedly avant-garde visual impact, what is missing from the equation is the gameplay, which is too banal and without many layers to be truly interesting. If we add to this the numerous technical problems, the balance of WW2 Rebuilder outlines the traits of a simulator that has tried to imitate its fortunate colleagues, but that does not have all the cards on the table to emerge in a genre that is today enormously populated.
PRO
- The idea behind this is very original.
- The choice to include historical references and flashbacks of the war ennobles the developers' work.
AGAINST
- The gameplay has very few layers.
- Many features of the game have just been mentioned and left alone.
- Too many errors and glitches for a finished product
