Embark

About

Embark is a single-player strategy game with a focus on colony management and complex simulation in a 3D world. Oversee colonists' needs, relationships, and daily activities, while managing water, food, and combat systems. Experience procedurally generated maps with various biomes and resources, but be prepared for numerous bugs and a learning curve during this Early Access title's 77-hour playtime.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

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

62%

Audience ScoreBased on 514 reviews

gameplay18 positive mentions

stability33 negative mentions

The game has a lot of potential and shows promise as a 3D colony sim similar to Dwarf Fortress and Rimworld.
Active developer engagement with frequent updates and responsiveness to community feedback.
The game features a complex crafting system and character relationships, adding depth to gameplay.

The game is plagued by bugs, including pathfinding issues and unresponsive AI, making it frustrating to play.
Combat mechanics are poorly implemented, often resulting in colonists being unable to defend themselves effectively.
The user interface is clunky and lacks clarity, making it difficult to manage colonists and resources efficiently.

gameplay
79 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
23%
65%
13%
The gameplay of this early access title is engaging and offers potential for deep colony management, reminiscent of games like RimWorld and Dwarf Fortress. However, many players report significant issues with broken mechanics, repetitive tasks, and a lack of quality-of-life features, which detract from the overall experience. While the game shows promise and has active development, it currently requires substantial improvements to its mechanics and tutorials to enhance player enjoyment.
- “After you take your time to learn the mechanics and needs of your colony (probably on your third try), you will find out that this game has much to offer, especially in colony management and building.”
- “It will offer hundreds of hours of uninterrupted gameplay in its current state, and it's more accessible than other more complex similar games.”
- “Amazing game overall with fairly complex game mechanics for those who like management-type strategy games.”
- “The graphics were also underwhelming, and the gameplay felt repetitive and uninspired.”
- “The squad and battle mechanic feels very clunky, with just small floating numbers signaling the damage done by all parties involved.”
- “No real explanation of game mechanics, no tutorials to help you understand the controls or commands.”
graphics
60 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
23%
60%
17%
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with some players praising the overall aesthetic and consistency, while others criticize the textures as ugly and buggy, leading to performance issues. Many feel that the graphics do not live up to the standards set by similar titles like Dwarf Fortress and RimWorld, with calls for significant improvements. Overall, while some find the graphics serviceable, a substantial number of players express disappointment and frustration with their quality.
- “For the good: the graphics are well done.”
- “There is a theme and consistency to the graphics and the music that are well blended.”
- “I also found that embark is a lot more newbie friendly, as its tutorial is enough to get started without being lost before even starting the game (like in df), and its graphics are a lot more polished which makes it more attractive.”
- “Buggy, crashy, horrible graphics that also set your GPU on fire.”
- “The graphics are just... bad.”
- “Aesthetically, it looks like it was made by a blind person or maybe someone slowly going blind.”
stability
33 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game is currently plagued by numerous bugs and stability issues, making it frustrating to play despite its potential. Many users report that it is still in an unfinished state, with problems such as crashes, poor graphics, and unresponsive controls. While some find it playable, the overall consensus is that it requires significant improvements before it can be recommended.
- “Let me start this review by saying that this game is buggy, incomplete, and in early access.”
- “The game is great and definitely on the right path, and I can't wait to see where it goes, but as it stands now it is sadly far too buggy to play, so I can't recommend it to anyone in its current state but hopefully in the future.”
- “Buggy, crashy, horrible graphics that also set your GPU on fire.”
optimization
26 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
15%
69%
15%
Overall, the game's optimization is a significant concern among users, with many reporting performance issues as the complexity increases, particularly with higher colonist counts. While some players have managed to run the game smoothly at lower settings, others have experienced severe lag and instability, leading to a diminished enjoyment of the gameplay. Despite these challenges, there is hope for future optimizations, especially given the game's early access status.
- “Thus far at 50 colonists, it's continued to run smoothly with the lower settings.”
- “It's an early access title, so your performance could be smoother, but there's plenty of content currently to be well worth the asking price & the future potential is amazing.”
- “The game world is huge, so you're unlikely to run out of room or resources (unless the trees are too sparse). I have no idea how performance scales with 80 villagers, as some people have apparently gotten up to already, but the basics seem to have been done right.”
- “But this game is poorly optimized.”
- “However, by the time I reached around 33 colonists and 'stuff' all over the place, performance started to decline and I had to bump the settings down.”
- “Also, this game is not at all optimized; I have stopped playing because it has gotten so laggy it's no longer enjoyable watching all my workers space walk and skip around on the screen.”
story
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
10%
60%
30%
The game currently lacks a substantial narrative, with players noting a minimal story presence compared to titles like RimWorld. However, it successfully combines classic building mechanics with strategic planning, creating engaging scenarios despite the simplistic storytelling. Players find the AI behavior of characters, such as peasants getting stuck, both frustrating and manageable within the game's design.
- “I've never found a game that so perfectly unifies the classic builder games with dramatic storylines and the necessity for planning strong strategies.”
- “One thing the game doesn't have yet is much of a story.”
- “But there's no storytelling like there is in RimWorld.”
- “Peasants are dumb and will build themselves into inescapable situations (standing on the 3rd story of buildings with no way down, etc.), which gets annoying but is easy to counter if you build with this in mind.”
grinding
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be somewhat tedious, particularly for newcomers who struggle with the complexity of crafting materials and inventory management. While the game offers automation options to help maintain inventory levels, the initial stages can feel generic and repetitive before evolving into a more intricate experience. Overall, the grinding can be a barrier to enjoyment, especially for those unfamiliar with the mechanics.
- “Crafting depth: for a rookie, it's a little tedious to try and understand the game's current crafting materials.”
- “You also have to maintain your inventory for each and every craftable item. This may seem tedious, but the game allows you to automatically maintain a level of inventory set by you as long as you have the resources to do so.”
- “At the beginning, it feels similar to a generic colony game: find shelter, get farming, build up some gear, get some workshops happening - but it quickly gets a lot more complicated than that.”
music
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
33%
33%
The music in the game is generally praised for its thematic consistency and integration with the graphics, contributing to a cohesive low-tech exploration and survival atmosphere. However, some users have reported technical issues, such as a malfunctioning music slider, which detracted from their experience. Overall, while the music is well-received, early access bugs may hinder enjoyment.
- “There is a theme and consistency to the graphics and the music that are well blended.”
- “There is a certain amount of early access jank, sure, but there's a solid game here with some interesting activities, good music, nice voxel construction stuff, and overall a good low-tech exploration and survival feel to it.”
- “I loaded up the game, but simple things like the in-game music slider not working were enough for me to close it again.”
- “I loaded up the game, but simple things like the in-game music slider not working were enough for me to close it again.”
humor
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is derived from the absurdity of player interactions, such as naming colonists after friends and observing their chaotic relationships, which can lead to amusing scenarios. However, some players express frustration with the game's overall quality, contrasting the humor with a sense of disappointment in its execution.
- “There's something funny about naming your colonists after your friends and watching them trash talk or flirt with each other.”
- “I think generational tracking would make for some pretty hilarious charts too, as the colony is basically an incest den due to the lack of genetic diversity you get from starting with 5+/-2 colonists.”
replayability
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The game shows potential for high replayability, particularly noted in its city management mechanics; however, many users feel that significant improvements are needed for overall playability before they can fully endorse it.
- “Embark is a fun city management game with a high replay value.”
monetization
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The monetization strategy of the game has been criticized for its intrusive popups, which resemble ads on low-quality websites, frequently interrupting gameplay with notifications about tools and random events.
- “Popups, yes, goddamn popups, just like ads on crappy sites. The game throws popups at you about tools and random events.”
- “Popups, yes, goddamn popups, just like ads on crappy sites. The game throws popups at you about tools and random events.”
emotional
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The emotional aspect of the game is characterized by a sense of vulnerability and disorientation, as players navigate through their environment by interacting with cardboard boxes, which symbolizes a struggle to find stability and clarity amidst chaos.