The first time the spiders attacked, I wasn’t prepared. A legion of black chittering death-bringers led by the red commander that loomed over the rest had decided that my small agricultural hamlet had had it too easy for too long. With a population of only thirteen completely unarmed townspeople, I watched the army march ever closer, knowing that there was a good chance that these were the last moments of their lives. It is in this moment that Towns’ tagline of “Build, Explore, Die prematurely!” comes into shockingly clear focus.
From that first paragraph, you would probably assume that Towns was a real time strategy game, and you wouldn’t be wrong, but not necessarily right. Describing it as an isometric Dwarf Fortress would be along the right track as well, but still, no dice. In fact, any genre designation you try to give it — from city builders to dungeon crawler to god sim — helps describe the game, yet fails to completely capture the essence of it. In many ways, the genius of Towns is that it pulls from these genres without ever becoming one of them — paying reverence without pledging fealty.
In Towns, you are the omniscent mayor of …
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