Stormworks Build and Rescue

There’s always an element of danger to even the calmest of oceans, but in Stormworks Build and Rescue, you’ll be sailing out into some of the world’s most dangerous waters. In this game, the player builds rescue vessels that can stand up to everything mother nature has to offer, in order to rescue. Imagine Ship Simulator Maritime Search and Rescue but with the ability to create your own vessels, and you’ll have Stormworks Build and Rescue.

You start off on a single, unlocked island. The island comes with a prebuilt boat and a house. Missions for this island are relatively tame, and mainly involve delivering cargo to other places. Once you unlock your second island however, the real rescue missions begin.

You need to build appropriate rescue vessels to send help to ailing vessels in time. This is easier said than done. You build things by sticking blocks together and using pre-fab items such as engines. Unfortunately unless you make them correctly they won’t work properly. They may spin oddly, fail to move, or sink entirely. It’s up to you to figure out how to make a good vessel, and rescue those who are in trouble.

In it for the long haul

This game takes 25-30 hours to complete, an extraordinary amount of time for this type of game. It’s played on a vast map, and figuring out how to build boats is challenging. You can spend even more time in “Creative Mode” figuring out how to make your own personal copy of the titanic, and other favorite vessels. To top it all off, this game has a multiplayer function that allows you to build and rescue with your friends. This way, if you’re not so great at building vehicles, you can get the help you need, as well as speeding up large projects.

Detailed Building Options

For those who take building seriously, there is no end to the level of detail you can take your vessels. Imagine building a fully flight capable 757, with every single switch and button in the cockpit. This is the detail possible with Stormworks Build and Rescue. While you don’t need to get into exhaustive detail to create a working vessel, it’s nice to know that you have the freedom to do so.

Safe for Everyone

While this game has not officially been rated, its expected to be rated E for everyone. Play it yourself, and you will see that the game is good healthy fun. If you’re bored of Minecraft and looking for something fresh and new to do with your kids, this new building game is it.

Pros:

• Hours of gameplay
• Multiplayer Options
• Open world

Cons:

• Can be frustrating to figure out new builds

In this world, you can design, build and command your own rescue service. By air, sea or land, whatever it takes for you to save a life is what you’ll do. Stormworks: Build and Rescue by Sunfire Software lets you unleash that inner designer/hero that we all know we can be.

Gameplay

This game comes with a learning curve so intense you’ll come out the other side with a degree in engineering. That was a little joke but for real, there is a lot to learn here. You create your programmable vehicles with block-based construction, plan your incredibly daring rescue and then get it all underway.

Challenged by a variety of crisis scenarios, there is an incredible amount of gameplay here that shocked me at first but once I got into it, I was blown away by just how creative it let me be.

There are a few game modes available:

• Career Survival Mode – This one focuses on progression. There is a plot to it as well; you start your own rescue business and build it from the ground up. You cover the map, manage finances, build space and finance larger missions with more and more vehicles of greater scale. You can also choose how difficult you want the game to be with modifiers with varying mechanics that can make the game more or less realistic with more variables you have to consider upon your attempts.

• Custom Creative Mode – This mode lets you go hog wild and play the game however you want. Unlimited funds and letting your creativity go crazy. Build whatever you want to build; there are no limits from realism or logical choice. This is where I had my most fun as I was able to create some wacky inventions and see how they stack up against the harsh world.

Physics

There is so much to this game, I was impressed just from its water physics but it extends so much farther than that. There are a lot of different things you need to keep an eye on:

• Fall damage – If you take a tumble off a cliff or fall from a helicopter then that could be it for you. Splat.
• Fire damage and spread – A vehicle, or the landscape, may catch fire through any number of ways. Once it does, you need to mitigate its spread somehow.
• Mechanical damage – Your rotor blades of your helicopter could get damaged, your ship could spring an underwater leak causing pressure damage. It’s up to you to solve the problems as they come up and complete the missions.
• Sharks – Not much more needs to be said about these.

And then there’s the day night cycles and weather to think about.

Design

This block game is designed like you’re going to be building the most complex Lego set that ever existed; it game reminds me a lot of Teardown but in reverse. This game looks incredible and behaves beautifully, the textures and visuals are stunning and colours pop properly. I was very impressed.

Pros

• Incredible physics
• Huge amounts of replayability

Con

• There is a lot to learn
• A simplified user interface would have been appreciated