The Universim is a game with a long history, spanning 10 years. It was funded through Kickstarter back in 2014 and released on Steam in early access in 2018. Now after 10 years, we reached the stage where The Universim got its 1.0 release on January 22nd. This is a planet management game or a "God-sim" where you manage a planet as you guide your Nuggets through different stages of development through either love or fear. There are four stages of your civilization: The stone age, Medieval age, the Modern age and the Space age. Stone Age was by far the most interesting one for me because of it's simplicity and how every new research unlock really made a huge difference. Later on most of the research benefits let you upgrade a building you already have.

For example, you research a cemetery so you can bury your deceased Nuggets who either died of old age or by an animal attack, blizzard etc. It's a huge deal because now you don't have to worry about infection zones being made around your civilization infecting other Nuggets, but later on in the Modern era you basically only upgrade the building so you can bury more Nuggets before the cemetery is full. There are a lot of these upgrades that make the game drag on for longer the more you play, but honestly, that little nitpick of mine is the only bad thing I have to say about this game.

The Universim has that feeling of games I used to play as I kid, like Roller Coaster Tycoon, Populous, Zoo Tycoon etc. It really hit that nostalgia for me while being innovative enough that it feels modern and new. You have a choice of either being a gracious god and helping your civilization thrive through belief and constant good deeds - or you can make them fear you and sacrifice Nuggets, it's really up to you and you can quickly switch between the two. Want to help your people? Plant trees near them, help them out in various quests they give you, build them parks where they can relax and meet their soulmates. And if you want them to fear you, sacrifice them in the temple, strike down non-believers with lightning. There really is something really fun about just watching your civilization grow and progress from 10 people to hundreds.

The Nuggets are an interesting bunch; they’re neither overly smart nor completely dumb. Nuggets grow to adulthood, form relationships, have offspring, go to work, and eventually die. Furthermore, each Nugget has its stats, and some Nuggets are blessed with special stats. These stats define what kind of worker the Nugget is and what kind of upkeep they need to stay alive.

Some of the individual Nuggets have a trait that makes them move faster; some can be lazy, some eat too much, and some don’t eat much at all. Every Nugget in your settlement can be micromanaged, assigning the most suitable tasks to the most suitable Nugget. Alternatively, you can give them whatever jobs you choose and hope for the best. But later in the game you'll need to educate them so they can work at certain positions, like a power plant, glass factory, or even a minister of defense, energy, health etc.

The most interesting feature of this game is the Creator powers which can let you do all sorts of fun things to the planet and its inhabitants. Some of the powers that you'll most likely use the most are Telekinesis - which lets you pick up objects, Nuggets, animals etc. and drop them wherever you wish, Electrify - which makes you summon a lightning bolt at anything you want (wink), Trickle - which makes it rain in an area of your choosing, useful for putting out forest fires, and Cupid arrow - which you can use to make two Nuggets fall in love and, well, make more Nuggets. You also get some powers that summon natural disasters on the planet, like earthquakes, meteor showers and tornadoes which you can use on either the other civilizations on the planet or your own if you're a monster.

The Universim is fully narrated, and it has amazing sense of humor, the narrator can sometimes be sarcastic, cynical and even helpful. I really enjoy how the game presents itself and how the whole planet and your civilization change as your progress through the ages. When it rains, the screen looks like it has raindrops running down it, when there's a blizzard you can barely see what's happening on the screen, when there's an earthquake your whole screen is shaking, there are some really cool effects to see

The 1.0 update brings end-game content to life with more technology to unlock in the research tree, new planets to explore, and so much more. You can launch your Nuggets into the space age if you can keep them alive long enough to get there, that is. You can also unlock more technology in the research tree, expanding your reach across the cosmos.

Finally, you can unlock the space map, colonize any number of Ice or Lava planets you want, and extend your universe. One thing is clear - the developers have put their heart and soul into this game. While not everything is perfect I've really enjoyed my time with it and, with the procedurally generated worlds and a ton of pre-game sliders, no two playthroughs will be the same, so there is lots of replayability.

9/10