Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic

If you bought Cities Skylines 2 and were incredibly disappointed, I encourage you to read this review, as someone who has 2k+ hours on CS1, and plenty of hours on other various sim titles.

Let's get a few things out of the way, firstly, no, this is not a standard city building game. No beautiful modern skyscrapers, or fancy road network construction, but that's okay, because those are about the only two features CS would have over this game other than a better UI which isn't really a dealbreaker.

Now, this is, without a doubt, the most complex, and in-depth city building game I have ever seen. I was downright impressed at the level of detail the simulation goes into, things that Colossal Order barely implemented in CS are fully realized here. Things that I never considered being something to manage, you are challenged with here. A few highlight reel points that would entice any seasoned CS player.

-You want a transit focused city? Literally, do not allow people to buy cars. That's a thing here. There's car dealerships, and in order to fill your cities up with traffic, you CHOOSE how many cars to sell to your people. And because this is all about communism, you can even control who gets to park where, or who gets to own a car at all, you can literally decide if only the elderly or only the young should drive, if only the educated or uneducated get to drive. The control you have over transportation in this game is second only to the late great Transport Tycoon.

-And that being a mention, those familiar with TTD will feel right at home, much of the vehicle mechanics work the same, having a vehicle depot to deploy vehicles, and various "load/unload" stations that act as connection points for your logistics. But to have that level of complexity, tied into a real city builder. Is what makes it so impressive in this game.

-Those unfamiliar with TTD. Annoyed that garbage trucks seem to only work sometimes? Make your own routes to a T, if one building produces more garbage, you can dedicate specific vehicles to perform specific routes. If certain routes are light, you can put a lower upkeep vehicle on that route. All traffic on the road is controlled ENTIRELY by you, not a single vehicle drives without your command. And that means no more "0/25 vehicles working" in a city that is requesting all 25 vehicles.

-You can completely edit intersections like in TM:PE mod for CS, edit timing of traffic lights, road restrictions, etc. It's a shame the road construction in this game is so clunky because the tools they give you for the roads are incredible.

-You wanna talk about a game feeling alive? Like each "cim" has a real existence? This game gives each citizen a stat page, which includes the usual stuff, name, home, workplace, but you can see their commute, how long it takes, you can see how long their work shift is, and track their quitting time. You can also see their health stats and how they feel.

-The industry part of this game is overwhelming, it's basically a mini factorio but people are required to work the smelters and assemblers. No you aren't battling out a hierarchy of item crafting, but trying to think out how this factory will work with your city is an incredible task to consider, and very cool as well. Blows CS "industry" out of the water.

-Map size is incredible, random map gen with control over how its generated as well as some handcrafted maps

-Workshop mods

I could go on and on, but really, I cannot stress this enough. I was practically speechless while going through some of the menus and aspects of this game. The level of complex detail the developer has put into this game, shows this product is an absolute labor of love. No, it's not a fancy AAA title, with a sleek and clean UI. But that's okay, because through the clunkiness you can sense it, the game has a soul. The simulation in this game is simply, the best in the business. No other city builder comes close, not a single one. You can crank up the challenge and difficulty so high, that you need to build a construction office, and purchase asphalt rollers and various construction vehicles, and then you need to import the materials, or if you are making them at one of your factories, you truck them to the construction site, and what's all this for? Oh yeah, IT'S HOW YOU BUILD A ROAD!!! On "realistic" difficulty!! Or you can ignore all of that, turn the difficulty down, and just build a nice city and focus on traffic management and happiness. In this game, the choice is actually yours to how complex you want it, from not managing any resources or utilites, all the way up to, every single structure requiring materials, construction offices, and man labor hours to build it, from buildings to roads to conveyor belts.

Incredible. 10/10 sim game, a real 10/10
I will easily put thousands of hours on this game over the next coming years, will easily surpass CS:2

Does it have flaws? Yes. Does it REALLY need to be re-built from the ground up because it's reaching its technical limit. Absolutely yes. Is it still probably the best city-builder / country-manager game I've ever played. Absolutely.

A lot of people come here from something like Cities Skylines and while that's the most obvious comparison, I think it's worth noting that there are STRONG elements of games like Factorio, or even Rimworld in here. It's not a city-builder, it's a logistics simulator. An extremely granular one.
At its heart, the aim of the game is to make a self-sufficient republic. You have to manage 2 main aspects, the workers, and, you guessed it, the resources. Even something comparatively simple like an iron mine requires a huge logistics network and failure to manage one small element (food, water, heating) can lead to a huge death spiral where everyone dies or flees to the decadent West. At which point you start up again and try to learn from your mistakes.

The Dark Souls of city builders.

Every conceivable detail of how to properly plan and build a city, then the services and other paraphernalia to keep it running. Oh, and then building industries to become self-sufficient and not have to import everything plus the added fun of keeping all of THAT running. And you will fail. A lot. At some point that little detail you forgot about because it wasn't all that important at the time will snag up a vital supply chain and your republic will start falling apart. Maybe you'll catch the snag in time to salvage the situation, maybe you won't.

I can't think of very many games where failing is as much fun and, of course, frustrating. But you dust yourself off and start over again. And again. And again.

Best part is that you can customize just about every difficulty setting to your liking. That mechanic that you're still struggling to wrap your head around? Disable it. You can always enable it again later if you decide you want a bit of extra challenge.

Wholeheartedly recommend.

Tropico meets Satisfactory meets SimCity, with a dash of Railroad Tycoon. Just sublime! Careful, though... this is one of those games where, before you know it, you hear the birds chirping outside your window and wonder where all the time went! It's got a learning curve, especially the rail system, but very addictive once you get into it. One of the few modern games that truly trap me the way old games used to.

This game showed me exactly why planned economies in socialist countries failed.
Because there was an idiot like me doing the planning.
People were waiting in a line in front of the grocery store because I couldnt manage my food supply chain
10/10 for realism

My steam profile says I bought the game in December 2020 and while I was fascinated by the game at the time I was also quite overwhelmed and couldn't get deep enough to really enjoy it, so I dropped it quickly.
After deciding to give it another go after the 1.0 release, I've dedicated more time in understanding all the intertwined systems and have been SLOWLY getting the hang of it. Bottom line is - I'm enjoying every step of the way (although there have been a few times when I was pretty furious with some game events, lol).
The reason why I wanted to post this review is simple - to recommend to ALL players (yes, even inexperienced ones) to play in REALISTIC mode. It is, for me, the way it's meant to be played - yes, it is hard AND slow, yes, you will make mistakes, yes, you have to think everything through and plan a TON... but hell the feel of accomplishment it gives you once you have a simple industry (or a train) running is AMAZING and there are very few games or other free-time activities that can give you that.

- I want to start on Soviet Workers and Resources Realistic! I have plenty of experience on City: Skylines, how hard can it be?
- Oh, my sweet summer child...
- What?
- Nothing, let's go.
- Ok... so, better to start at the centre of the map, right?
- You do you.
- ...What's that grim on your face? You know what? I'll stay close to the borders, since I want to sell them stuff.
- Good call.
- Right, so... where is the residential zone tool?
- There is none. You need to plan buildings individually.
- Really? Ok, no problem. So... here.
- ...
- ...
- ...
- Nothing is happening. Why nothing is happening?
- How do you think they will be built?
- What do y... right. So, I need *someone* to build them... right?
- Correct.
- Ok. So... here, construction - ah, and it's free! That wasn't that difficult!
- ...
- Again with the grim? What the... Still nothing?
- How do you think your construct depot will build the building?
- Riiight. So, I need...
- Trucks.
- Trucks! I had it, Jeez... Ok, let's go to the construct depot menu and... why are there two currencies?
- Well, you are between the Soviets and the West after all...
- Yeah, I know but!... ok, let's see... I have more Rubles, so it makes sense to spend this currency. Soon I will be swimming in it being this close to the border anyway.
- Uhum...
- ... Ok. So, to build it I will need a... well, that's complex.
- Remember building sites in real life.
- Ok, so a Dumper, to carry around sand and stuff. Ah... flat one to bring metal, an excavator and... Well, that's all the space. It should be enough.
- Never enough... never, never... Oh sorry, I'm just realizing how that "Greatest Show Man" music fits here so well.
- Ok, the vehicles are here.
- ...
- ... nothing? C'mon people!
- What people?
- People! Peo... right. No people.
- No people.
- But I'm building this so people can come here! How can I need people if I don't have people??
- Is your country the only place where there are people?
- Of course not but!... ok, so I get I need to import labor.
- Attaboy.
- My construct depot is full, but luckily I have another one for free. And... here, a bus.
- Nice.
- Ok, so the bus is here, but nothing is happening... again.
- How do you plan on building the building?
- With people and trucks!
- And...?
- Materials... but I have none.
- Right, and where can you get them?
- With my comrades...
- Yep. You *are* learning! You need to define what you want to get from the...
- EVERYTHING! Ok?? Get everything from them!
- Good call.
- Shut it. Ok. Ah! The trucks are finally moving! They are going to the border and picking up stuff!
- Good job.
- Thanks! And... wait, what's happening?
- ...
- Why did they stop??
- Do they have everything they need?
- Of course they do! I... what is this?
- ...
- Now they need another type of truck?
- Yep.
- Jeez... so, they need a covered truck now? What more do they need, a puppy?
- That'd be nice...
- Shut it! Ok, covered truck here, and already going to the border... Now it's back and... done! My first building is done!
- Good job!
- Thanks! Now, all I need to do is... ah, invite some people over! Easy peasy!
- Uhum...
- Ok, they are here! Now I can... what? Why do they have so many demands so soon? Why are they starving?? Kindergarden, what??? WHY ARE THEY LEAVING????
- :)
*stands up. Walks away.

I believe Soviet Workers & Resources is missing a tag on its description: "Soul's Like". The game is brutal. You need to think about each and every element of your country's life from how you will maintain your economy afloat to if you have enough gravel to build. Every decision has consequences, some - most - of them can destabilize your economy into oblivion.

And then there's winter.

One time my one city had just surpassed 3.000 ppl. It was October, Health was 80% and Happiness 85%. All was well. Beginning of November and everything is stable. Then, Happiness drops to 75%, health begins declining to 70%. Something is very wrong. I check the population. Steady, both small heaters working. People reaching the heaters - What's going on??. "Temperature too low". What?? Both heaters are working and... coal. I run to the storage and it's empty, save from a sporadic drip from one truck. I run to the route to see a line of trucks near the border with the road full of snow. I had created a new service depot and the snowplow trucks were not going all the way to the border. Worse still, there were a couple of trucks with 100% wear and tear. Before winter the service was working fine since I didn't need as much heat and consequentially, not as much coal, but now? Now I'm in trouble. Health falls further, then happiness, then people start leaving, so now the heating plants don't have enough people. In less than two months my city is deserted. All was fine in November, all is destroyed by the beginning of January.

I had to load that game back a couple of times to prevent total annihilation that year. The only other construction sim that forced me to do that was Ixion - and not nearly as many times.

That being said, I love the game and it kinda ruined me for most of the other construction sims.

10/10