Project OY development continues (I'll have another update on Patreon soon), and there's an Iron Village update in the works (!), but for now, we're going to continue with my 2025 games recap.
Paradise Killer
I barely know how to describe Paradise Killer. To put it dryly, you play "Lady Love Dies", summoned from exile to investigate the murder of the island's council. You go around and gather evidence to provide in trial at the end of the game.
Describing it like that would do the game a huge injustice though. It's a completely surreal experience, from the setting (a regenerating island meant to eventually resurrect fallen deities, but gets corrupted by demons every time - except this time it was supposed to be perfect) to the characters (all with interesting stories and relationships... and possible motives). I don't know how else to explain it apart from it being a unique experience, in the true sense of the word "unique".
Cities: Skylines II
Cities: Skylines II, there's so much to say about the cursed sequel to Cities: Skylines. I don't think you can truly tell its story without telling the full story of city builder games, from the original SimCity (and the game that spawned it, Raid on Bungeling Bay). That retelling will have to wait for another day. As for where Cities: Skylines fits in, in my opinion: an existing transit-focused city builder studio was in the right place at the right time to capitalize on the failure of SimCity (2013) with a solid game, one that had none of SimCity's fundamental problems. A bunch of updates and DLC later, and although some were a bit inconsistent, it became a great game, establishing itself as the standard city builder in the genre. I've got over 1500 hours in it according to Steam, it's my most played game of all time.
Cities: Skylines II, however, does not live up to that achievement. There's a lot of speculation as to how and why that happened, but my oversimplified theory: it's the story of Icarus. Colossal Order flew too close to the sun. The list of features was incredibly ambitious, and although they might have been able to pull it off, CS2 was nowhere near ready when it released. There were some omissions that they could've gotten away with, but there were two that stand out the most to me: no map editor, and no custom assets. Despite the obscene amount of mods and assets I had for the original game (enough that I opted for 128 GB of RAM on my current PC, which apparently makes me filthy rich in today's economy), I think the biggest omission was the lack of custom maps. You were stuck with a handful of maps made by Colossal Order, each of which had different climate stats that you couldn't alter. Without a way to make or get additional maps, you were ultimately limited in the worlds you could create, limiting the longevity of the game.
The lack of custom assets for so long after release severely limited longevity as well. The biggest games in the city building genre are there because of custom content - dedicated players can expand on the platform the original game built, and if these creators are nurtured and supported, can turn it into an entirely new game. After all, SimCity 4 still has active players because of its modding scene, over 20 years after its initial release. Cities: Skylines owes its extended life to modders and "content" creators.
Cities: Skylines II shows up in my Steam Replay thanks to the release of several building packs, made by many of the building creators who were active on the previous title. The asset creation tools weren't even open to the public yet (that would happen later in 2025), this was just a curated selection. With all the new buildings (which are gorgeous, to be fair), I gave CS2 another go. Without the prior context, I think I would love playing. And maybe it'll get to a point where I play again, after some time with more custom content and a new studio working on it. But for whatever reason, it just didn't have the "magic".
The Planet Crafter
(The) Planet Crafter is really fun, it's a survival and base builder game where you land on a barren planet and have to terraform it to support humans. The backstory is that this is an alternative to capital punishment, although the story is much more of a plot justification than an active part of the story. There's something really neat about exploring a new world, building your base, and seeing how your work changes the whole environment. I've been playing it co-op with my oldest son too, which has just been a great time.
Teardown
Ostensibly you're running a "totally legit" demolition company in the municipality of Löckelle, going to different places and carrying out controlled destruction in a voxel sandbox. You get up to so many different types of activities though, including setting up elaborate heists, working for clients who are sabotaging each other in revenge, and racing cars as well! (There's even a DLC that's an entire self-contained racing game.) It's just way too much fun blowing shit up.
Dustland Delivery
I'm a little tired of post-apocalyptic zombie settings, but otherwise this was a really neat game where you drive around the wasteland, make money by trading goods, and complete quests. While you do that, you upgrade your truck to handle the different terrain and weather, plus there's a base-building mechanic for some of the towns you encounter. IMO it did a good job of making inventory limits a challenge rather than a frustration, along with an interesting aspect where money itself (represented as "scrap") has a weight - selling some goods will actually fill your inventory up rather than clear it out!
Imperator: Rome
A classic Paradox map game, except active development ended on this earlier than typical for modern Paradox games. Much like with their other titles though, modders have taken over to build on top of the game. The biggest one, Invictus, fleshes out the world and gives flavor to every corner of the world - not just the main Mediterranean powers. Is it my favorite Paradox game? No, but with continued modding it's a really solid game IMO.
Two Point Hospital
The first of the Two Point Trilogy, Two Point Hospital got the modern series rolling. Somehow they make patients dying from medical malpractice feel like a light-hearted "oops". It's still got just the right amount of complexity to make gameplay engaging and fun. There's definitely some parts where the engine has been improved in Two Point Campus (for example, the hallway areas don't have customizable walls or floors in Hospital), but the fun and creativity is all there. I'm sure this is all even better in Two Point Museum, but I haven't played that one yet.
Anoxia Station
Anoxia Station is a kind of horror strategy game, you're deep underground exploring and mining, whilst defending yourself from the creepy monsters below. The art is beautiful, in a horrific way, while being 2D. Especially early on, every single person and resource matters, so there's a lot of actually important choices to make in such a tense environment. All-in-all, a creepy, engaging experience, and it didn't take forever to finish either.
Anyway, that's all for Part 2, there'll be one more part, and then... more Iron Village release notes! I'll leave you all with a teaser image:
