In August 2018, do you still remember where you were? This question may seem silly, but it’s actually relevant! Because on August 21, 2018, as part of its appearance at that year’s Gamescom Cologne, Ubisoft announced The Worker Story, with which the classic series will return nearly 30 years after the original launched in 1993 . Although the above announcement seems to have happened 3 1/2 years ago, now Ubisoft is finally ready to launch the title, and, before that date finally arrives (i.e. March 17, 2022), I have a chance to snag it next week (Between January 20th and 24th) Get your hands on the game before it goes into closed beta.
While we’ve known about The Worker Story for quite some time, Ubisoft has been stingy when it comes to revealing details. So we decided to help. Worker Story is a real-time strategy game where the player is tasked with commanding and leading a group of…well, workers. While at this point you might think this is a 4X strategy game, similar to a title like Civilization, Workman Story isn’t. While there are some similar elements, such as scouting new lands to develop borders and acquire new resources, the gameplay is designed from the ground up to accommodate co-op or multiplayer action. I mean, a match between opposing factions where each side competes to remove the other from an island, and the confrontation usually lasts an hour or two, depending on how quickly you can start acquiring and occupying territory.
To be clear, while the full game will include a campaign, as part of this preview I can only test Skirmish mode, which is included on two maps, as one of two factions (Elari and Maru) with other players Or the option of AI going 1v1 or 2v2 (though I’ve only played one of those). So with that in mind, everything here will revolve around this experience.
Now that you’ve figured this out, how does the game work in general, you ask. You’ll start with a cadre of people; a few soldiers defending the land, a few engineers start creating buildings, and then the general staff do the mundane tasks like felling trees and making planks for construction. From here, it’s your responsibility to start creating a population that can defend and support yourself, building farms to produce food, quarries and mines to mine important ores and minerals, and towers and other defensive structures to defend against Rival factions, for example. The concept of expansion is that you can start creating an autonomous civilization that will continuously gather resources from the land so that you can fund and create an army under your control who will defend the borders of your territory, or turn And attack to destroy your opponent’s buildings, all for the purpose of winning the battle.
As for how you’re going to win a battle, as far as I know (I say this because The Worker Story is so badly taught that it barely teaches you how to win), it requires you to destroy all of the opposing faction’s warehouses – these Warehouses are essentially base buildings that act as your stockpile of resources. These structures are usually well protected and located deep in enemy territory, which means you need a fairly strong army to attack, defeat enemy forces, smash any defensive structures, and do so much in an effort to put the usually multiple One of the warehouses was reduced to ashes.
Looking at the gameplay as a whole, there really isn’t much to focus on. Most of the base building is done by simply choosing a building type and placing it where you want to build it. Engineers will then build it, and available workers will make sure it works smoothly so that it can produce the resources you’re after. This can be fish as a food source, or iron bars made from iron ore and coal to be able to create the swords needed to create warrior units. It might seem complicated at first, but after a few matches, everything makes perfect sense.
There is more freedom in exploration and combat. The Master Engineer can be told to expand borders and survey mines to discover new resources, and also check out various points of interest on the map (such as shipwrecks or bandit camps, etc.) to find goodies to help advance your civilization a bit. On the other hand, armies and soldiers need your command. They need to be told who to attack and when, but the actual action of swinging the sword and drawing the bow is done automatically. Essentially, strategy is your job, while tiny AI soldiers handle the hard work. There’s some extra depth here, mostly around higher-level units like healers and siege units, which have special abilities (like creating damage-boosting auras) that can be issued via command, or left to automation. But all in all, it’s worth noting that combat isn’t terribly diverse or rich, it’s designed to be as simple and straightforward as possible, which makes this part easier to master, even if it does feel a little lacking in options at times.
In fact, this idea of choice-less combat can be extended to a great extent in The Worker Story’s full experience. While the game looks great, plays without too many performance issues, and is charming, I can’t help but be swayed by the notion that, after about 5 matches, I’ve seen everything in The Worker Story. everything provided. It’s also worth noting that there will be other game modes coming, but from what I’ve seen, the core experience seems rather limited and rudimentary.
The very basic nature also extends to some game design choices, as the map isn’t crammed with resources, even though it looks like that. Some trees can be felled, as I mentioned before, there are some (I really mean just some) veins and outcrops that can be harvested, but in most cases, but in most cases, you won’t do A lot awaits your workers to gather resources so you can create an army that will ultimately win the battle. For me, my biggest misgiving about The Worker Story isn’t its limited content, but the overall pace of the game. Unlike many strategy games, since this is a real-time competitive game, it doesn’t have a fast-forward button, which means you’ll have to spend a lot of time waiting, and it can be very tiring and boring to deal with.
I didn’t dislike Workman Story, and actually, I think it has a very interesting and unique concept that hasn’t really been explored a lot in the industry. However, at the same time, as of now, I don’t see anything special about this game because it doesn’t have much depth at all. The campaign might change that perception, but if Skirmish mode is the best we can hope for, then I don’t recommend expecting too much.