There is a big difference between having a good idea and landing it successfully. The first is difficult, but the second is sand from another coast. The case of Snowtopia (Steam) is the perfect example of how something that is most promising can see how smiles begin to fade as the hours go by.
With the intention of taking the Tycoon genre towards a more relaxed and relaxing experience , the particularity of this management game is that it does not require any management. Well, at least not in the terms we’re used to.
Without money you live better
Do not expect balances at the end of the month or limits when building because you have run out of money. Don’t even think about the employees, who are all volunteers here. The only limit is your imagination and the game’s pejiguero construction system. In Snowtopia you can ride the craziest ski resort that comes to mind without worrying about whether the game’s income allows it.
In its short collection of levels with different difficulties – more on that later – the first step is to create a builders’ cabin that begins to shape your ideas. From here the game sets a certain pace in the form of a tutorial .
First there are the basic cable-chairlifts or chairlifts that move skiers to a more or less nearby area, then it’s time to shape your first slopes by choosing which path they will follow, after that create slopes cleaning and first aid cabins, and finally give shape to the network of restaurants that the toothpick makers can visit at the foot of the slopes or on the highest peaks.
In the middle of that path of shaping tracks and placing endearing low poly houses, a technology tree that will allow you to unlock new options aimed at improving the perception of your resort.
You can improve the gears to cause less wear and tear and avoid having to repair the chairlifts every two by three, get cable cars that can transport more skiers further afield, new restaurants … Additions that are unlocked like hotcakes without any challenge and that, at least for now, they don’t seem to have much of an impact on the game either.
The idea is undeniably good, but there isn’t much more to scratch in a world where people keep coming to your park even if it’s a mess and they have to eat long queues. In fact, they seem more focused on the quality of the slopes than anything else, and that’s where Snowtopia finds some of its redemption.
Good idea, but shallow
Because yes, it really lives up to its promise, and when it comes to creating slopes that go down the slope to the nerve center of the resort, and have no limits to shape them, there is a certain relaxing vibe .
A situation that would be even more comfortable if the end of the chairlifts that goes high in the mountains did not give so many problems to allow its placement – you have to find the exact point where the building turns yellow to be able to place it – but which in any case ends up being entertaining.
The key is that the park grows based on how happy each group of skiers is . To more happiness, more skiers of that type and more volunteers to continue building buildings.
There are the beginners who demand green slopes, those with blue, orange and black. For all of them, you must build tracks that take into account their experience by playing with the unevenness of the terrain.
Thus, a straight that falls vertically can be a claim for fans of risk, but you can also avoid that altitude by creating different terraces through which beginner stick players can calmly descend by wedging. It all depends on how you want to take advantage of the game’s space limitations.
It is precisely there that Snowtopia plays with a certain feeling of difficulty, in the gap that some mountains give way that you cannot terraform in view of the need for the slopes to reach the central area so that skiers can go back up or go to another area. from the park.
Starting from the basics, the game expands the scenarios with mountains with more or less rocks, or with different distant centers between mountains that you can end up connecting, but it never goes much further and in no case is it a challenge.
It remains to be seen how they continue to shape the idea after the launch in Early Access and if at some point they find the click that allows a little more depth. Right now it doesn’t take long for the initial excitement to start to deflate, and by the time you’ve completed a tech tree once, the urge to keep going begins to wane.
Until that happens, you should approach him with no pretensions other than having a good time. Either as relaxing therapy, to survive the nostalgia of the snow season , or simply to have fun creating tracks in which to see how virtual dolls enjoy your tracks.