Management games have often been misunderstood and overlooked by the general gaming audience, largely due to their perceived complexity. However, this misconception fails to acknowledge the true essence of these games. Nova Lands strikes the perfect balance between keeping your mind occupied and allowing you to multitask effortlessly. In fact, it is perhaps the most accessible management game I have ever played, breaking the barriers that have hindered the genre's popularity.
The mechanics of Nova Lands are quite simple, but they gradually become more complex in a way that is easy to understand. In the game, your personalized astronaut arrives on a unfamiliar planet with limited resources and an oxygen converter, and is dropped onto a small island without much guidance. My main issue with this management simulation is the lack of a proper tutorial. Instead, you are expected to experiment with different elements until you grasp their functions and then begin constructing. As someone who has played similar games before, it only took me a few minutes to figure it out, but I am concerned that newcomers to management games might feel completely lost when starting out.
Surprisingly, once you overcome the initial challenge, Nova Lands becomes very accessible for newcomers. Similar to how experienced players of Minecraft know that the first task upon entering a new world is to gather resources by punching trees, in Nova Lands, you must also collect various resources like water, stone, wood, and berries from the starting island. Eventually, you will have a stone furnace to produce charcoal, which can be used to fuel a bigger furnace that melts ore into bricks. These bricks can then be used to construct an even larger furnace, and so on.
Nova Lands is a game that takes the concept of Factorio and enhances it to create a more user-friendly and enjoyable experience. The objective was not just to survive, but to figure out how to make Task X run independently so that I could move on to Task Y. It was a satisfying challenge to plan the automation for Task Y while still performing Task Z. The gameplay progression in Nova Lands felt natural and seamless, keeping me engaged and entertained for hours on end.
In order to advance our capabilities in Nova Lands, we must harness the power of science. One way to do this is by setting up bots on the outer islands to harvest the unique resources found in their biomes. With the assistance of moving cranes, these bots will autonomously transport the resources back to our home base. This automation allows us to focus on other tasks, knowing that the resource gathering process is efficiently taken care of. However, to continue progressing in Nova Lands, we must explore the possibilities of scientific research and development. By utilizing scientific knowledge, we can unlock new technologies and expand our capabilities in this vast and exciting world.
In this thrilling adventure, a research station becomes the key to enhancing your capabilities and expanding your possibilities. With the ability to upgrade both your construction options and materials processing, you can unlock a whole new range of possibilities. As you progress and automate tasks more efficiently, you level up and gain access to a skill tree. Each level brings new enhancements to buff your character, making you even more formidable in this challenging environment. But the excitement doesn't end there. As you journey further, you stumble upon an island inhabited by a group of survivors who have established their own settlement. These survivors can provide valuable assistance, increasing your speed, fortifying your armor, and even equipping you with powerful guns. With your newfound arsenal and the support of these survivors, you are ready to face any obstacle that comes your way.
When venturing further from the starting island in Nova Lands, players will come across challenging boss fights that may not initially be enjoyable. However, by upgrading their guns and armor, these encounters become more manageable, and players are rewarded with rare materials upon defeating the bosses. It becomes evident that there is a wealth of content in Nova Lands that may not be immediately apparent. While it took me approximately 10 hours to complete the game, I can see how a single campaign could easily last over 20 hours, especially if one is determined to fully explore and exploit the alien factory.
In addition to all the other features of the game, there is also a museum that adds a nice touch. Taking inspiration from the popular game Animal Crossing, players can bring their excess materials to the museum to store them. It's a small, but enjoyable extra activity to engage in while waiting for enough plastic discs to print. As a player, you can embark on a quest to hunt down five crabs and bring them to the museum, where you will be rewarded with a little trophy. Personally, my museum is almost filled up, but for those who are completionists, it will be a goal to strive for maximum completion.
If you're looking for a management game that will keep you engaged for hours on end, then Nova Lands is the perfect choice for you. While there are a myriad of mechanics that I haven't even touched on, such as space travel, interplanetary trade routes, and meteor harvesting, it's best to experience these late game features on your own. Whether you're a fan of automation-driven games like Factorio or simply looking for a game to play while listening to an audiobook, Nova Lands is sure to satisfy your gaming needs. Although the beginning of the game may stumble a bit with its lack of explanation, it only takes about thirty minutes to fully grasp how everything works. While Nova Lands doesn't necessarily introduce anything groundbreaking, it excels at perfecting the mechanics that management games have utilized in the past. So don't wait any longer, grab your harvesting rifle, and get ready to dive into the world of Nova Lands!
