REVIEW : Illuminaria (PC)
A resource management game in which you command a horde of sentient robots on a mission to save the world.
Choose where to build and what resources to harvest, then sit back and let the robots do the tough labour. They’ll gather resources, construct and load weapons, fight, and react to their surroundings.
Instead of a sandbox globe, you’ll have to construct multiple smaller bases with limited room. Keep an eye out because all bases are operational at all times and can be attacked by the enemy.
Explore to locate hidden treasures and defeat adversaries in auto-battles. You’ll gain rare resources this way, which you can employ to your benefit.
Darkness henchmen will attack your base, seeking to damage your reactors and steal your resources. Construct turrets and arm them with ammunition to repel attackers.
There are five locations in the game, each with fresh resources and technology to find.
Liberate the world by lighting beacons and crafting your army
Darkness had taken over the realm of Illuminaria. Unravel the story of what happened on the planet by lighting beacons and sending armies of golems to assault as you clean and free the five zones.
Despite its simple aesthetics, this strategy game for casual players is surprisingly engrossing.
The main goal of Illuminaria is to conquer all five regions. Each has a predefined order and a classic theme, such as ice and fire. To reach the final battle, players must go through numerous stages spread across the biomes. There aren’t many distinctions across the locations aside from different opponents and extra resources to be concerned about.
The primary gameplay remains constant. Begin by constructing rectangles or warehouses on a tiny grid. Then you must assign these warehouses a resource that can be collected from an infinite number of sources scattered over the grid. Each warehouse allows you to choose any resource you like, but it’s always a good idea to choose the one that’s closest to you. The warehouse’s size is crucial because each resource unit takes up one slot.
On these maps, your goal is to create a path to the end. This appears to be straightforward, and it typically is. However, there are times when you must pay a particular number of resources to open a closed door. Even though you can race to the end, you risk becoming stranded at the next level due to a lack of resources. Worse, when they fly across the screen, opportunistic bandits will try to pillage your warehouses.
To stop them, you must construct defence turrets in predefined spots. Turrets exist in a variety of shapes and sizes, and runes can boost their effectiveness by up to thrice. Furthermore, opponents attacking your main reactor are preventing you from progressing swiftly. Fortunately, this does not need much effort. Simply construct each tower along the way and establish a nearby ammunition supply line.
The harvesting stages are distinct in that they are all interconnected. Because resources travel between them, the better your preparation in the early stages, the easier your job is in the latter stages. You can also swiftly exchange resources and transition between stages with a single mouse click.
You’ll need to embark on adventures in addition to building and managing resources if you want to travel very far. You begin the game with three robots, each of which can use a sword, bow, or staff as a weapon. Expeditions typically follow straight lines with pre-exposed icons or question marks that could represent an opponent, a hidden prize, or a brief event. The difficulty level chosen impacts how long an expedition will last.
