Starting a new strategy game, particularly of the city-building variety, is often a daunting task. You can expect to sit through extensive tutorials on a game’s unique mechanics and interface, often delivered as you flounder your way through an introductory mission or two, before being set loose to test your knowledge. But where many similar games treat their tutorials as a test to pass before you’re certified to play the real game, Reus 2 makes learning as you go part of the fun, which is just one of the things that make it so appealing.
Reus 2, which comes to Nintendo Switch and Xbox today after launching on PC last year, isn’t technically a city builder at all, though in its focus on distributing resources and placing settlements, it feels a lot like one. Instead, it’s a god game, part of the lineage of games like Lionhead Studio’s Black & White. Rather than just building a city, you’re building a world, using your divine influence to shape the planet into something more hospitable for its hapless human inhabitants.
