Against the Storm looks charming and cosy, but it's actually the best and most fiendish city builder I've played in years

GamesStrategyAgainst the StormAgainst the Storm looks charming and cosy, but it’s actually the best and most fiendish city builder I’ve played in yearsWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Hooded Horse)

Personal Pick: Against the Storm

Personal Pick(Image credit: Future)In addition to our mainGame of the Year Awards 2024, each member of the PC Gamer team is shining a spotlight on a game they loved this year. We’ll post new personal picks, alongside our main awards, throughout the rest of the month.

Personal Pick

(Image credit: Future)In addition to our mainGame of the Year Awards 2024, each member of the PC Gamer team is shining a spotlight on a game they loved this year. We’ll post new personal picks, alongside our main awards, throughout the rest of the month.

(Image credit: Future)

GOTY 2024 Personal Picks

In addition to our mainGame of the Year Awards 2024, each member of the PC Gamer team is shining a spotlight on a game they loved this year. We’ll post new personal picks, alongside our main awards, throughout the rest of the month.

The purpose of a personal pick is to give some extra love to a game of 2024 that didn’t make it into our main Game of the Year awards—a game that, despite it all, we feel deserves some more attention. And yet, I’ve decided to cheat. Against the Storm did not release this year. Rather, it released December of last year—after we’d already locked in our GOTY picks for 2023. And that’s a shame, because—if it had come out a few months earlier—it would almost certainly have been a lock for one of our main awards. Simply, it is one of the best city builders I’ve played.

When I first started playing, I didn’t really know what the game was. I expected something cute and cosy—you get animal folk as your citizens after all. A chill time, maybe a little darkness and foreboding for flavour. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Against the Storm is devilish in its details, its structure finely honed to do away with the downtime usually typical of the genre. It doesn’t look like it at first, but there is an amazing amount of depth and complexity here.

(Image credit: Eremite Games)

A fantasy city in a rainy world in 3D style from videogame Against the Storm

The magic lies in its roguelike structure. You set out into the forest with a small caravan of civilians, and try to carve out a homely little settlement—keeping your people fed and entertained while creating goods for building and trade. So far, so standard. But wait: the forest doesn’t want you here. Each year is divided into three seasons, and while the first two are pretty chill, the third—storm—is where the forest exacts its revenge. As your town grows, so does the hostility of the forest, and thus the number of bad things that can happen during the storm. These modifiers are randomly rolled, and range from inconvenient, like villagers moving slower, to downright dangerous, like villagers dropping dead if they don’t have access to housing or complex food or leisure and services.

The forest hurts, but it isn’t what kills you. The real threat is your benefactor, the queen—the mysterious figure tasking you to go out, reclaim the forest, and reforge the ancient seals. As you complete tasks and make your citizens happy, your reputation grows. Gain enough reputation and, good job, you win. Conversely, as time passes or your citizens leave from harsh conditions or even die, the queen’s impatience grows. Gain enough impatience and, oh no, you’re done.

This balance—this struggle between reputation and impatience—is more than just an extra layer of flavour on top of existing mechanics. It sets the whole tone for what you need to do. Stability? Sustainability? Sensibility? No, not here. You’re in a race for the queen’s approval, and nothing else matters. Nothing is permanent—the resource nodes you find are limited—and so the onus is on you to reach your goaljustbefore everything goes wrong. A good run of Against the Storm feels like you’re just about on top of everything you need to do—just enough workers to process just enough resources to create just enough goods to make your people happy enough to earn the final few reputation points needed to win. Usually when I see the end screen on any particular settlement, it’s with the surefire knowledge that, had it taken even one more in-game year, everything would have fallen apart.

(Image credit: Eremite Games)

A fantasy city near a mountain

Rather than feel frustrating, though, that randomness instead systematises the need for adaptability. Each citizen type has multiple needs—meaning there are always multiple routes to happiness. And, if you getreallyunlucky, and your blueprint draws won’t satisfy any of your people, there are still some options you can take. Traders regularly visit your settlement, selling both goods and passive bonuses. As you cut through the forest you open new glades, each containing new events with rewards if you complete them—and harsh penalties if you fail. There are multiple ways around every problem, even if some require more work than others.

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