The usual parts are there.
But Syx isn’t interested in testing you or manufacturing drama.
It’s not about surviving, not about building a happy little colony.
It’s about how growth changes not just the scale, but the nature of a settlement.
And it’s one that even playing it my own awkward way hasn’t broken.
A fair few building games start out too limited.
Too often, the opening segments feel like a toll to be paid before the real game.
Considering scale is a defining feature of Syx, you might think it’d be one of those.
But the empire and city state phases are a culmination, not a baseline.
But stability comes quickly thanks to the control you get over population.
Syx is not combative, either.
It’s about expansion and macromanagement, but you might get there at your own pace.
The only direct pressure is raids.
In Syx, bandit attacks aren’t fated, but a possibility.
That threat can be prevented, too.
This means that you could remain small, although admittedly that’s still a pretty limited way to play.
A bit likeEmperor Of The Fading Suns, unlocked research must be maintained, necessitating more ongoing researchers.
But your ambitions can sit in the middle too.
There’s no rush towards an endgame or ideal form.
Colonists come from one of seven species.
My favourite are the Tilapi, forest-loving herders whose culture demands a little cannibalism, as a treat.
Species with some animosity can get along fine if they all feel provided for and nothing too objectionable happens.
All this has conceptual consequences.
Syxs less antagonistic attitude produces goals beyond survival and stability, to really defining and leading your settlement.
But they matter collectively.
you might absolutely have a monoculture town, excluding specific people or even enslaving or genociding them.
Each culture has its own attitude to freeing slaves, who don’thaveto be racially targeted.
Bigger settlements become more complex, and so do their needs.
The pressure on you changes, and that monoculture you planned becomes a different commitment.
Would it really hurt to have a few Garthimis working the fisheries and mines?
They’re better at it than my guys.
It goes well, and they’re happy, so more of them want to join.
They’re eating different foods to everyone else, so this works!
Let’s have some not-halflings too, they can forage that wheat so we have a use for it.
Alright, we’ll take ‘em.
Congratulations, your insular woodland village with a handful of ghettoised immigrants is now a bustling mixed town.
The wide open space you planned to leave alone became three distinct districts in your mind.
Syx isn’t specifically about how settlements reflect and generate ideology, history and culture.
Its focus is somewhat mechanical even if you don’t build a city as a huge and efficient machine.
The buildup of a typical fort is there to preface the story of its destruction.
Syx is about the growth.
Resources are to be used, not hoarded.
Songs Of Syx is a marvel.
It delivers the satisfaction of running an effective machine, and the warmth of a living place.
It offers escalation and shifting ambitions without wrenching away the parts you were enjoying.
