Quickie little announcement here that I'm wanting to let my blog-only audience in on.
The YouTube channel hit the 100 subscriber milestone last week!
As a special thank you, I'll be doing a Q&A over on the channel. Starting from when this is posted, there'll be a two-week window for you to post questions, which I will compile and answer in video form.
This is an ask-me-anything style Q&A - within reason, of course. Doesn't strictly have to be gaming related, or even entirely serious.
I'll be posting the video link at the end of this update, where you can post your comments. You all are also welcome to post your questions in the comments of this article, or email them to me. I would, however, ask that you keep it to no more than two questions per person for now. Not knowing exactly how many I'll get, I don't want to get overloaded and not be able to answer everyone. If there's not enough by the first week, I'll up the limit to three.
Thanks for sticking with me during all the changes this year.
Here's the video:
Commenting on this video does require a subscription to the channel. I don't want to get random troll questions from random non-subscribers.
Part 2 of the run through The Sumerian Game sees us taking the reign of Lagash once again. This time, the game gives us a name! The reign we are stepping into is that of Luduga I - a fictional king made up for this game, from what I gather from brief research online. No documented kings of Lagash go by that name. The royal steward is also given a name here - Urbaba.
The gods have seen fit to give you another chance after your previous failure. Do try not to kill everyone this time.
I do find it rather amusing that the in-game notes describe this as the "more advanced" version of The Sumerian Game in comparison to Sum9rx. On paper, it certainly is - and more ambitious, to boot - but it doesn't play out that way in reality. Chiefly because Suilxr is unfinished. Those same notes detail that, when this version of The Sumerian Game was developed, it was both a three-stage game, and included various multimedia elements. These included projector slides and audio samples, which were integrated into the gameplay. However, the multimedia elements, and the last two stages of the game are sadly lost to us now. I'll reserve further comment on this for now, as HareSoft recreated what this version of the game looked like in Suilxr Advanced.
Hey, they're doing my job for me!
Now, onto the game itself. In its unfinished state, it's more streamlined and user-friendly in comparison to Sum9rx. The gameplay loop itself is near-identical, although the decision to place grain in storage is removed. Instead, any leftover grain from food and farming allocations is automatically placed in storage - once you confirm your decisions. You are given the opportunity to change your choices before locking them in. Both this and the auto-storage are appreciated additions to the design.
Those helpful additions don't strictly improve the game, however. I personally found this version much easier than Sum9rx. Yes, the food-per-person formula is different, but the crop yields are extremely generous, and underfeeding the population doesn't cause mass starvation as instantaneously as it does in Sum9rx.
Disaster deaths don't occur, either, which neatly ties into the major point of difference for Suilxr - natural disasters.
Well, it would be a point of difference, if they actually worked.
It was a cardboard cutout fire.
There's an array of different disasters that were planned to affect gameplay - floods, fires, plagues. But most aren't implemented, and only appear with placeholder text in the game as it is. The locust plagues do appear to have some impact on crop yields, from a glance. So that, at least, provides something to work around.
A positive for Suilxr is that I can confirm it's winnable. It only took me one attempt to win, in which I lost not one citizen. In fact, I grew the population by 19. Apparently this meant the local deities were pleased with my performance. Evidently my reforms to bring Christianity to the city were unsuccessful.
I did such a goob job, they decided to sack me.
Time to review the reign of Luduga I in full. By that, I mean scores.
Scores
Time Played: 20 minutes
Difficulty: 2 (Very Easy)
Never lost a single civilian, even in spite of not providing enough food for a few cycles. Harvest numbers are very generous, and most of the random disasters are also not fully implemented, removing a significant amount of challenge from the game.
Gameplay: 3
I find Suilxr to be significantly worse in game design compared to its parallel edition. The fact that what we have here is an unfinished game doesn't help that. Its main point of difference to Sum9rx is meant to be the random natural disasters, but seeing as these are almost entirely non-functional, what we're left with is more-or-less a rudimentary number-crunching gameplay loop that gets monotonous very quickly. You manage the single resource of grain, balancing harvests between feeding the population enough to grow it, while having enough leftover to plant for next harvest. Anything leftover from that is then automatically put into storage - a point for this version over Sum9rx. Slight variations in harvest yield occur from either rats eating stored grain, or the odd locust plague decreasing harvest yields.
Controls: 5
Same as Sum9rx.
Sound: N/A
Visual: 1
Same as Sum9rx.
Story: N/A
Also like Sum9rx, this does technically have a story foundation. You're even given a name in this version! However, I still don't think it's enough to constitute a story.
Functionality: 2
Points have to come off, since the game is unfinished, and significantly so. It's not just about the absence of the multimedia elements, but that there are elements within the gameplay that act as if they work, but actually don't.
Accessibility: 3
Same as Sum9rx.
Fun Factor: 3
The drop in gameplay quality unsurprisingly affects my enjoyment of the game. I'd still say it's more interesting than the proto-game category. The small amount of randomness to react to keeps it interesting.
Overall: 17/80 (21.25 | E Tier) Suilxr ends up with an equal score to Nimrod. On tiebreaker rules, the former beats the latter. If the full game was functional, it'd definitely get a much higher score. I guess we'll have to wait until I try Suilxr Advanced to see what the full game might've looked like.
Video:
[I had to re-upload this due to an unintended musical jumpscare finding its way in.]
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