Manor Lords wasn't the only popular civilization builder that publisher Hooded Horse released in 2024. Along with the medieval-era game that took the sim community by storm, Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic also made a big splash with its focus on building a socialist utopia from the ground up — and now developer 3Division has a new DLC set for December 13.
Just announced, Workers & Resources' next DLC, World Maps, will add eight new settings inspired by European countries, the British Isles, North Korea, and the East Coast of the United States. The game's concept focuses on players building up a Soviet Republic based on the principles of socialist societies, potentially expanding the nation of a workers first society across the rest of the world.
In a press release, the developers stated that "every map will differ in terms of overall size and the challenges the local topography brings," which will pair with the game's focus on managing infrastructure and life within the procedurally generated locales.
While it was in early access for several years, Workers & Resources made its debut in June, and it earned considerable buzz from the sim community. Set in an alternate history during the Warsaw Pact of the 1950s, the game lets players expand the influence of the Soviet Union throughout Europe. As your nation grows, you'll see it prosper or crumble throughout different decades from the 1960s to the '90s.
On the surface, Workers & Resources seems like a tycoon game that tries to parody the Soviet Union and communism as an ideology. Still, as it turns out, the game is a fairly faithful look at what it takes to run a society and infrastructure of a civilization based on the principles of a workers-first nation. This plays out by making decisions that will cater to workers' needs, which means hiring specialists in key areas to handle certain goods and ensuring the population has access to proper healthcare, transportation, and education at all times during your expansion. Of course, with conflicts in and outside of your republics, inevitable decisions have to be made that could bend your principles.
It's a compelling take on a civilization game and one that's incredibly timely now in the current and tumultuous state of the counter-economic/social system capitalism is now. That's why many of these civ games are engrossing - players get to decide how civilizations can grow and evolve with different ideologies and try to make the right choices along the way. And hopefully, things will work out well enough to prosper, that is, if other nations don't meddle too much in your affairs.
If you're in the mood for more games like this, check out our round-up of the 15 best city-builder games you can play right now.
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