Pile Up!

Review

The game is in Early Access currently and new islands will be added later in the year with a third one planned for the Summer and more to be added in the Autumn. Other things planned for later in the year include Free, Chill and Flame (Hard) Modes, New Buildings, Photo Mode and Leaderboards.

On starting a new game, you have the choice of two game modes: Regular and Sandbox. You also have the chance to rename the Island and its Citizens. On a brand-new game, you only have one island available to you, Rectland. There are currently only two islands, Rectland and Farland Mountain, although you will have to complete Rectland before you are able to unlock Farland Mountain. When the game starts you will be asked if you want to learn about how the game works. If you agree to learn about the game, then you will go over a hands-on tutorial.

The object of the game is for your island to increase its population as much as possible. The more your island's population grows the more that your island will level up. Completing an island will require you to level up your island to the maximum, at which point the game will end and you will be shown how well you did (or didn’t do, if you failed to reach the max level).

Increase the population by placing buildings on a small square platform for Rectland.  You will notice that the platform has a square green centre with a border around that. You do not have to stay within the green area but can in fact hang buildings over the edge. A building will be highlighted when it is able to be placed down.  They come in various sizes, ranging from one single tile to multiple-by-multiple tiles.

Placing buildings will give you points and increase the population.  The population points earned from deploying buildings will be added to the population bar.  The population bar consists of several milestones, and your points will be added once you reach the last milestone. On the island Rectland, that milestone is five thousand population, while Farland Mountain is ten thousand. The population bar can be found along the top of the screen and is divided into milestones at various levels of populations.

There are various types of buildings, and you can unlock more at the City Blueprint through the collection and spending of Scraps, which you’ll gain as your island progresses. Along with housing, there are other buildings which will allow you to produce more buildings. Each turn you will gain several building types depending on how well you are producing them. If you run out of buildings or have no homes for your population, the game will end.  This will also happen if you don’t keep your population happy. Each time you reach a milestone you will have a choice of Special Buildings which you’ll be able to add to your city.

Any building that enters your hand each turn must be used, so you’ll need to be careful where you place some of the buildings. Although there is a building that will allow you to skip one building from your hand each turn, which can come in very handy and may save you some heartache. As your city grows, your buildings and population will require Water, Electricity and Gas. You place these down like every other building; once in place you will see the requirements for any buildings which falls into their sphere of effect.

However, you must be careful where you place these buildings as they have some effects which can cause you some serious problems. The Water building can only be placed on solid ground or platforms; if they are placed anywhere else, they will explode, taking with them the building or platform below them. The Electricity and Gas buildings, if placed too close to each other, will create an even bigger explosion and can take out a big part of your city and population. You do have an indication of when these two buildings are close to each other, so make sure you keep an eye out for them. There are other buildings with requirements, so make sure you pay attention to what you are placing and where you place them as the last thing you want is to upset or kill your population.

There is a Sandbox mode where you can select your buildings and start building a city as high as you’d like. I haven’t tried this mode yet.

PileUp is a fun game which can be challenging at times, especially when you start to gain buildings that you would rather not have and which can hinder your city's growth.

Currently it needs more islands as you only have two islands to play in Regular mode, but the game is in Early Access and there are plans in the future for new islands. There is an Early Access Roadmap which details what they plan to release from this Summer to Winter along with other things that are unscheduled.

The game seems to run well, and I haven’t had any problems. The only thing I have noticed is that some of the achievements haven’t unlocked, even though I have completed the achievement. Achievements for completing Rectland, Farland and No Moni have failed to unlock, but I’m sure they’ll get sorted sooner or later.

In the settings you will find options for Language (English, Turkish, French, German, Polish, Portugues, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Russian), Drag and Rotation Sensitivity Sliders, Resolution, Screen Mode, Quality, Input Mode and Key Binds.

Review written by Piston Smashed™ for Zeepond.com

Pile Up! Steam Store Page