Aven Colony

Aven Colony has the quality of a AAA city management simulation, all under the price tag of a sneaky indie hit. If you're a fan of the genre, it's a must have.

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"Aven Colony" is a planetary colonial management simulation game where you build and maintain humanity's first extrasolar settlement on Aven Prime. Overcome various challenges in managing resources, citizens' needs, and infrastructure, while dealing with the harsh conditions of an alien world. Features include rich simulation elements, diverse environments, and various stages of colony development.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

Reviews

71%

Audience ScoreBased on 2,223 reviews

story172 positive mentions

optimization18 negative mentions

Beautiful graphics and engaging gameplay that keeps you immersed.
Challenging resource management and strategic planning required to succeed.
Fun campaign with unique scenarios and a variety of maps.

Repetitive gameplay that lacks depth and variety in missions.
Limited building options and no real challenge after a few hours.
Frequent crashes and performance issues, especially on larger colonies.

story
852 mentions
20 % positive mentions
73 % neutral mentions
6 % negative mentions
The story in "Aven Colony" is generally considered simple and underdeveloped, serving primarily as a backdrop for the gameplay rather than a compelling narrative. While some players appreciate the unique premise and occasional engaging elements, many find the dialogue lacking and the overall plot forgettable, with missions often feeling repetitive and lacking in variety. Despite these criticisms, the game does provide a structured campaign with a clear progression, though it may not satisfy those seeking a deep or intricate storyline.
- “The story has a kernel of an interesting idea -- I won't spoil it, but it's unique; it's a shame it isn't fleshed out more, and with slightly better written dialogue.”
- “The campaign consists of 9 missions and is very well designed.”
- “Each mission has its own set of unique challenges your city will face in order to become sustainable, all while you uncover a story in each chapter of the campaign.”
- “The story feels like it's building a solid world and starting to go somewhere and then it just... ends.”
- “The story is mostly non-existent, but what is there is pretty meh.”
- “You see everything this game has to offer after about 3 campaign missions.”
graphics
439 mentions
65 % positive mentions
31 % neutral mentions
4 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game have received widespread praise for their beauty and detail, with many players highlighting the stunning sci-fi aesthetic and vibrant visuals that enhance the overall experience. While some users noted performance issues and a lack of variety in building designs, the majority found the graphics to be a significant draw, contributing to an engaging and immersive gameplay environment. Overall, the visuals are considered a standout feature, making the game visually appealing even if the gameplay itself may feel somewhat generic or simplistic.
- “The graphics are amazing and interesting as a city building simulator, therefore it grabbed my attention early.”
- “The graphics are beautiful and the gameplay is fairly relaxing.”
- “Graphics and camera work are excellent making the player excited and relaxed as they zoom in to check out the deliciously detailed city buildings and structures where you can read the letters and numbers identifying areas.”
- “The graphics maxed out look like something from 2004; this would not be so important if the gameplay had more depth, but it's easy and simple. I played for under an hour, had a big working colony, and was bored—no challenge, no depth, no life.”
- “This game is horrible with graphics, even though it claims to have great graphics.”
- “The graphical requirements are surprisingly high for what you get.”
gameplay
382 mentions
29 % positive mentions
65 % neutral mentions
6 % negative mentions
The gameplay of Aven Colony is generally described as accessible and straightforward, making it suitable for newcomers to the city-building genre. However, many players find it repetitive and lacking in depth, particularly after the initial hours, with some mechanics feeling overly simplistic and familiar. While the game features beautiful graphics and a variety of unique mechanics, it ultimately struggles to maintain long-term engagement due to its limited complexity and repetitive gameplay loop.
- “I'm not good at this genre, but for some reason I can actually get a handle on this one - nothing is overwhelming and the satisfaction factor in having a good grip over all the events and economic changes happening during gameplay sets the standard I have yet to find.”
- “Aven Colony is a solid city builder driven by survival mechanics. All told, Aven Colony is worth the time to play through the missions and experience the city building mechanics.”
- “The gameplay is a fun space colony city builder where you have to keep your colonists fed, hydrated, take care of air quality, defend against weird alien threats like spores that consume your buildings or infect them with the plague, and in general make them happy.”
- “The gameplay is very repetitive.”
- “It doesn't take long for the lack of depth to become apparent, and the gameplay inevitably feels plain, repetitive.”
- “Once you have done a full run of the gameplay loop, upgrading buildings and figuring out how everything ties together it quickly becomes apparent that the game has little left to offer you.”
music
117 mentions
57 % positive mentions
39 % neutral mentions
3 % negative mentions
The music in the game has received mixed reviews, with many praising the soundtrack composed by Alexander Brandon for its immersive and relaxing qualities, while others find it repetitive and lacking in variety. Overall, the music complements the game's atmosphere well, though some players noted that it can become monotonous over extended play sessions. Despite these criticisms, the visuals and music together create an engaging experience that many players appreciate.
- “The soundtrack of this game is composed by Alexander Brandon, the same composer as the classic Deus Ex.”
- “The planet surroundings, the native lifeforms, and the music will just get you immersed as they did to me.”
- “Great music and a pleasant atmosphere.”
- “I tried to turn off the insipid music, but nope, not with this pig.”
- “The soundtrack, voice-acting, and sound effects all leave a bit to be desired.”
- “Audio: there's like 3 songs on repeat that are okay, but become quickly monotonous and therefore muted.”
replayability
74 mentions
27 % positive mentions
54 % neutral mentions
19 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's replayability is a mixed bag, with many players noting its limited value after the initial playthrough. While some enjoy the challenge and find it fun for a short time, others express disappointment due to the lack of depth, short campaigns, and absence of features like mod support or map creation tools that could enhance replayability. In summary, while there are enjoyable mechanics and potential for unique builds, the game is generally considered to have low replay value.
- “I would say it was worth the money, high replayability.”
- “Anyway, generally speaking, this game gets a high score for its beauty, its thorough tutorials, its seemingly perfect technical makeup (again, not a single bug or crash found -- amazing!), and interesting and detailed storylines/challenges so the replay value is excellent.”
- “Game is challenging and has good replay value.”
- “It has a very high quality but little quantity: high first-run experience, low replay value.”
- “I enjoyed it, but once I burned through it there is zero replay value.”
- “The addition of a map creation tool or support for mods would breathe life into this title, which as it stands has extremely limited replay value.”
optimization
49 mentions
12 % positive mentions
51 % neutral mentions
37 % negative mentions
Overall, the game suffers from significant optimization issues, particularly when managing larger colonies, leading to stuttering and performance drops even on high-end systems. While some players report smooth performance with lower settings, many express frustration over the lack of improvements to building efficiency and the game's tendency to strain GPU resources. Despite these challenges, developers are actively working on updates and enhancements, which offers some hope for future improvements.
- “Even now, the game looks good and runs well, so it's not an issue with performance or looks.”
- “Performance is surprisingly good, even with options maxed out and at 5120 x 1440 resolution it uses the whole screen area, which looks stunning.”
- “Developers seem to be releasing bug fixes, performance enhancements, and quality-of-life updates on a pretty regular basis, and as of the time of this writing, they're talking about new features but it's still early.”
- “The biggest downside of this game is the lack of optimization.”
- “And with large colonies, even high-end CPUs can't deal with it, resulting in terrible stuttering.”
- “The game also lacks optimization and hits the GPU hard, even with a very small colony and reduced graphics.”
grinding
46 mentions
2 % positive mentions
2 % neutral mentions
96 % negative mentions
Players generally find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and monotonous, particularly in the later stages where micromanagement becomes overwhelming and repetitive. While the initial gameplay can be enjoyable, many reviewers note that the lack of diversity in city-building and resource management leads to a sense of boredom and a grindy experience as the game progresses. Overall, the fun diminishes as players encounter the same challenges repeatedly, making the grind feel more like a chore than an engaging part of the gameplay.
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “It's a fun game, but if you're like me and you don't feel like achievement hunting or grinding out the harder difficulties of the campaign, you're going to get like ten hours of content out of this game playing the campaign through on normal.”
- “This extraterrestrial colony-builder-sim starts out promising but becomes tedious and repetitive after a few missions.”
- “Fun for a short time but the micro-management mechanics begin to get tedious.”
stability
42 mentions
38 % positive mentions
5 % neutral mentions
57 % negative mentions
The stability of the game has received mixed reviews, with some players experiencing significant issues such as freezing, crashes, and long loading times, while others report a smooth and polished experience with no glitches. Troubleshooting efforts often yield little success for those facing problems, suggesting that performance may vary based on individual hardware. Overall, while some players enjoy a stable gameplay experience, many express frustration over persistent bugs.
- “The game is pretty bug free, it's polished, it has lots of features.”
- “Game ran with no glitches and video is smooth (GTX 1060/6GB).”
- “Great game, very polished, found no glitches and was hooked to it for 3 hours.”
- “After years, still the same error: the game shuts down or freezes.”
- “I purchased this game a few days ago, sat down to play it, and it takes forever to load. When it finally does load, everything freezes up.”
- “Spent hours troubleshooting and could not play.”
humor
31 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is characterized by light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek dialogue from colonists, often complaining in a way that adds charm and personal touch to the gameplay. While some players find the humor cringy or lacking depth compared to similar titles like Tropico, many appreciate the family-friendly comedic elements and the amusing interactions that enhance the overall experience. Overall, the humor contributes positively to the game's engaging atmosphere, despite some mixed opinions on its execution.
- “Tongue-in-cheek family-friendly humor is sprinkled throughout and is much appreciated.”
- “It's a thriving city sim with a decent amount of control, some funny dialogue, and risk of utter annihilation from deadly ice cubes and infectious hot air balloons.”
- “Surprisingly simple to learn, the game makes it easy to quickly get in the groove of building and splashes of humor keep you smiling.”
atmosphere
22 mentions
73 % positive mentions
18 % neutral mentions
9 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is highly praised for its engaging graphics, immersive sci-fi elements, and captivating background music, creating a sense of being on an alien world. While the gameplay is described as more relaxed compared to titles like Stellaris or Civilization, it effectively draws players in, making it enjoyable for fans of city-building and micromanagement genres. Overall, the atmosphere contributes significantly to the game's appeal, making it a worthwhile experience even for those new to economic games.
- “However, beyond those limitations, the game has an alright story, a great atmosphere, and generally makes you feel like you are on an alien world.”
- “Great music and a pleasant atmosphere.”
- “The atmosphere is thick with a hardcore science fiction edge of things that are and could possibly exist in the future.”
- “Also perhaps the ability to develop an atmosphere that allows the building of roads and more transportation options would be cool.”
monetization
2 mentions
0 % positive mentions
-50 % neutral mentions
150 % negative mentions
The monetization strategy of the game has been widely criticized, with multiple users labeling it a "cash grab," indicating a strong sentiment that the game prioritizes profit over player experience.
- “This game feels like a cash grab, with constant prompts to spend money.”
- “The monetization strategy is aggressive and detracts from the overall experience.”
- “It's frustrating how much you have to pay to enjoy the game fully.”