Against the Storm review: The perfect blend of genres

Against the Storm is arguably one of the most unique gaming experiences I've had this entire year, and that's saying a lot, considering the amount of different games and genres I've got to try out in 2023. I never thought that a game that blends two wildly different genres, like roguelikes and city-builders, would end up being something genuinely remarkable, but here we are.

I'm not someone who shares only a passing interest in city-building games, mostly due to having spent unhealthy amounts of time perfecting my camp in Clash of Clans back during my college days. As such, I wasn't expecting much going into Against the Storm. But boy, did I come out surprised and impressed after spending just an hour playing the game!

Against the Storm isn't your run-of-the-mill city-builder either. It incorporates light roguelike elements in its gameplay, which caught my interest. As someone who loves his roguelikes, having spent hundreds of hours playing titles like Returnal, Hades, Dead Cells, and Inscryption, Against the Storm immediately gripped me within just a few hours of gameplay.

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Against the Storm: Dark fantasy city-builder with a roguelike twist

Visuals and presentation

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As much as I like the next-gen photorealistic graphics in modern AAA titles, I always prefer games to have a visually distinct art style. Against the Storm, being an indie offering, features a unique cell-shaded art style reminiscent of the early 2000s-era games. The visuals here are quite similar to titles like Dota or even the earlier versions of League of Legends.

What makes Against the Storm's art style even more captivating is how clean everything looks despite the amount of stuff that's going on in the game at any instant. I played the game on my 4K monitor with the graphics settings cranked to their absolute maximum, and Against the Storm's visuals really shine on such a setup.

The game's art style is also very much inspired by games like the classic World of Warcraft, which, apart from hitting the nostalgia strings, also helps make the game very immersive. Also, did I mention there's a dynamic day and night cycle? The game's visuals change depending on the time of day, with daytime being vibrant and nights being dark and dimly illuminated.

The cell-shaded art style really pops during night-time (Image via Eremite Games)

Lastly, it would be a disservice not to mention Against the Storm's rather fantastic soundtrack. Although the soundtrack here is relegated to mostly ambient background music, it's something that always lingers on the back of your head when playing the game. The soundtrack might not be something that I'd call memorable, but it still adds a lot to the game's immersion factor.

Gameplay and progression

Moment-to-moment gameplay revolves around building new settlements. (Image via Eremite Games)

The gameplay premise is fairly straightforward and will feel very familiar to you if you have played any city-building games before this. Essentially, you're tasked by your Queen with building and evolving settlements out in the forest wilderness. However, building a settlement amidst the wilderness comes at the cost of having to constantly keep an eye out for danger.

The settlements and buildings you build for your fellow inhabitants are in constant danger of getting demolished or attacked by wild creatures or even enemy forces. As such, you will also be tasked with ensuring your settlements are equipped with defensive measures to tackle such threats. Additionally, you will also need to defend your base against recurring storms.

The opening few hours of Against the Storm is fairly easy, which isn't anything new for a city-builder. However, once you create a big enough settlement, the game gets significantly more challenging, especially when expanding your settlements. The settlement expansion part is where the roguelike elements of the game kick in.

Building more settlements allows you to expand your territory. (Image via Eremite Games)

Each settlement you build is different, and so are the inhabitant species, which are randomized. Even the resources that you will be able to cultivate, as well as donate to the settlement, are randomized, depending on the settlers that you have for that particular region. There are also exclusive building blueprints for each new settlement that you build.

The progression here mostly revolves around expanding your territories and covering regions while ensuring your previous settlements are well taken care of. I found the gameplay loop here to be extremely addictive. The gameplay systems and controls here are very intuitive, making the game easy to pick up, even for newcomers like me.

PC performance and a few shortcomings

Your settlements are in constant danger of getting attacked by monsters and natural calamities. (Image via Eremite Games)

Against the Storm, despite its simplistic art style, does require a rather powerful enough PC for you to run the game properly. I played the game on my main PC with a Ryzen 5 5600 CPU, 16GB RAM, and RX 6600XT GPU, with the game being installed on a SATA3 SSD. This setup more than surpasses the game's recommended specifications.

And to its credit, the first few hours of gameplay were relatively smooth at 1440p, with all graphics settings cranked to their absolute limits. I also tried playing the game at 4K but had to turn down a few settings to maintain a stable framerate. However, once I started expanding my settlement, I found the game struggling to maintain a locked framerate.

I then moved the game to my m.2 gen3 SSD, which eased things a bit, but it never stabilized enough for me not to notice the performance issues. The biggest issue was the unstable frametime, i.e., microstuttering. While the framerate jitter I faced wasn't anything too severe or even game-breaking, they were enough to break my immersion at times.

Despite the few minor issues, Against the Storm still holds its own as one of the most visually impressive strategy games out there. (Image via Eremite Games)

Apart from this one minor nitpicky issue related to the game's PC performance, Against the Storm is a fairly solid and well-built title, one that I cannot recommend enough. The way the game blends these two wildly different gaming genres is very creative and something that I applaud developer Eremite Games for pulling off with such excellence.

In conclusion

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Against the Storm is an excellent city-builder that also happens to include some mild roguelike elements within its moment-to-moment gameplay loop. While the game's PC performance leaves a bit to be desired, that's a very minor nitpick against the otherwise flawless experience it delivers. If you're a fan of the city-building or roguelike genre, you should definitely give this a shot.