I love looking after numbers, but not doing maths
Post-apocalyptic survival is an enduring theme incity building games.
InOxygenEarth has, once again, experienced an environmental disaster with the help of human beings.
This is the destiny of a city builder lover.
The weather is my biggest enemy in Oxygen.
Overall I think Oxygen is a decent game.
The profession menu is also the labour control board where I arrange their jobs.
In short, the game can be simplified to a formula balancing energy production, consumption, and storage.
I quickly realised that the major issue I needed to manage was the oxygen shortage during windy days.
However, these buildings also consume oxygen during windy days, which in turn consumes energy.
Oxygen also simulates births and deaths, although they have a small effect with a tiny base number.
The game also constantly presents new quests, urging me to develop new technologies.
It leads to a chain reaction where other buildings also need unnecessary multiples just to increase efficiency.
Allocating people to buildings is also challenging, as you could only manage one person with each mouse click.
It’s a victory for enumeration and a nightmare for players.
I also enjoy the music, even though this genre will never appear on my Spotify playlist.
I feel relief: I’ve survived once again.
Normally survival is not the only theme of a survival game.
Once a city becomes developed enough, what should players do next?
When my patience ran out, I quit the game, and I may never open it again.
Another thing that tried my patience were the tutorials.
There are four, all separate from the main adventure, which took me nearly 20 minutes to complete.
A great city builder makes me feel like I’m using advanced strategies to manage a complex system.
A not so good one feels like high school maths.
But I don’t really enjoy high school maths.
