Bulwark Evolution: Falconeer Chronicles

I found the controls a little confusing initially, but eventually adapted. Being able to use a controller vs. keyboard and mouse is a huge plus for me.

IMO the beautiful graphics, engaging soundtrack, and weirdly interesting units create an immersive game world. The building mechanics are especially fun for me, providing opportunities to create architecturally imposing fortress cities across a fantastic map.

One of the more challenging aspects for me is deciding when/if I should re-assign transport and escort ships. Eventually, players will have more outposts needing supply routes than there are available captains.

For my DLC wish list, airborne supply/trade ships would be a cool addition, maybe with tower-top docking ports...

Was really enjoying this game but you hit a hard wall about 4 hours into a map where the game just stops generating ships to take over for moving resources. This just ruins it it for me. You have to scrap and start micro managing no matter how well youve played. That makes the game boring and tedious.

I randomly came across this game after reading a google article on my phone about ten different city builders. Went to wish list it, and just so happens it was one sale for $10.

Since I use my phones hotspot to download stuff then unplug it, the playtime isn't accurate since i was offline a majority of the time.. However, that's kind of a good thing ... because the amount of time I've played in the past three days would make some people cringe.

It isn't too often I find something binge worthy. This game is actually amazing. I'm shocked I didn't know about it sooner. Definitely a diamond in the rough.

A perfect blend of city building with RTS mechanics and an emphasis on exploration. The visuals are beautiful and I love that I was able to play on my xbox controller the whole time. Different factions with their own flavors..

I'm a hard guy to impress, and this definitely impressed me. Props to the developer on making a unique, flavorful, well polished game.
I hope there is more in the works for this game, because it is solid.

The only negative I have is that it leaves me wishing for more. The map is static, and the mechanics aren't too in depth, so replay ability is limited. This is understandable for being made by one man. You have to maintain a certain scope for developing games, and this was well exercised. All of the elements and functions come together cohesively.

Won't keep you busy forever, but definitely worth the price of a ticket to the movies if you like city building/rts games. I've gotten close to 30 hours out of it.

Can't speak on the tutorial, I don't ever do those...

This game is awesome. Really hope to see more content. The map has room to grow. I would love to see some dlc that adds to it.

Anyways,
TLDR: Two thumbs up.

Casual tinkering, building megacities - that look pretty awesome and organic - and optimizing trade-routes in a sandbox.

So...I really enjoy this game. I haven't played a long time as of yet, but I know I've lost track of time playing it a number of times already. It's different, and has a unique feel to the play.

But it comes off a bit flat as well, and there's some hiccups I've found. Not enough to stop playing, but impacting overall enjoyment. I've been struggling getting enough ships to run the trade routes necessary, and even less ships to protect them. There's also a struggle in getting enough workers to support expanding resource extraction.

A few other things I'd love to see changed:
-In game messages pop up and disappear quicker than they can be fully read.
-Combat is not well addressed during the tutorial. I have a grasp on it now after playing enough, but it's been a trial and error process that shouldn't be necessary.
-The whole thing of connecting towers and getting additional output from resource sites doesn't seem consistent, but it could be something I missed the explanation for and can't find again. I know as you add towers and expand, you're supposed to be able to have those resources go further, but it doesn't seem to happen consistently.

Definitely not giving up on this game, it's way too fun, but there's some quality of life changes that could make it even better.

this is a strange but very intriguing game. build and explore. it's a rare find. and i love the concept.
i only played for a short time but it grabs you. i'll update my review as soon as i have played it more.

Unique, beautiful and relaxing. Perfect for a rainy Sunday afternoon

So this is clearly unfinished.

But it's a lot of fun. Hoping the dev sticks with it and keeps adding content.

AntiAlias isn't good enough for such intricated graphics.
Then, the idea is great, but the whole concept is like confusing.. what you have to do, in which way, and how.
Tutorial confusing too.
I usually like chill games, yet on this one I immediately felt bored... seems very repetitve, building towers, making them higher, adding plateforms/blaconies. Looks like it. Then fly with your baloon, boring, looks like it's the only way to go find more guys, of stuffs.. not great.
Just doesn't work for me, I expected something so much better :-/

Awesome game! Now all we need is another game in this universe alongside Falconeer, (also in this universe), that focuses on open world sailing and combat and it'll be nice and rounded lol

unbelievable game for a single dev! great job!

Love the building progression, and ease of doing so.
It doesn't get bogged down in micromanagement, and is a blast to play!
Oh, and the style and the art of it is just beautiful.

sometimes wish there was a way to go back to a save point
(like declaring war and screwing up my whole 20k pop game LOL).
alas, lesson learned!

Hopefully we will be seeing more map expansion in the future, or maybe more scaled random encounters?
Just seems like, as soon as I can muster a decent army, there's nothing left to fight, unless I burn down my
peacefully built conglomerate.

Overall, it is a great game for the price, and I am having a blast playing.

Absolutely recommend.

"Just one more building.... wait no just one more I swear.... and now it's 3am."

One of the best, and most unique city builders I've played and I love it.

As a fan of sandbox games made by obscure developers, I'd say Bulwark is well worth the price tag. Although the game has yet to meet its own potential, the solo developer is highly active on social media and is genuinely passionate about his own product. It's cheap, it's a lot of fun, and it's an easy recommend on my end.

Amazing and chill city building game with some pve. 10/10

The game is good and easy to understand and its fun no matter what you do it is intersting.

tl;dr: Playing Bulwark Evolution is an introspective game, moreso akin to Death Stranding than a simple sandbox.
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Bulwark Evolution... It can best be described as an experience. When i purchased it, the dev's avatar greeted me and let me know that the game is about chaotic creativity. I didn't understand what that meant.

9 hours later, by floating above the waves, thinking about what i want to do and how i want to do it, who i want to be friends with, enemies with, where to build and what to get in my army, i now understand why.

I hate sandboxes, as i'd rather be told a story than make one up myself. Bulwark Evolution has a story. You're just not the main character of it (arguably). The game is hard to pin down to fit in a specific niche as it's so interactable, so i'll just list its features as i see them:

- No penalty in city organization: Cities can grow and be aesthetically pleasing, while you're not penalized for misplacing or organizing your buildings
- Lore exists: It's there! You can reflect and act upon it as you please!
- The developer is VERY interactive and listens to the community on these very steam forums! Franly, that's astonishing in itself
- Tactical options exist: When gearing up for combat, it's not vaccuous. Building an optimal army is the cornerstone of successful warfare
- The game is introspective. It's a highly personal opinion, but i like games that hold a mirror up to me and my actions
- DLC is fairly priced and no specific DLC feels compulsory to buy

I suggest you try it out, and know that no songbirds sing in the palace of the king. You might understand this differently than i did

Can't believe I haven't heard of this before. This is awesome so far! One of the most unique colony sim/city builders out there. The world reminds me of Fallen London / Sunless Sea a bit.

It's a cool little builder. It's very simple and has a lot of dead-time. It's still doughy in the center.

Honestly, assuming this game is made by one guy, this game is insanely well made. I'm still getting the hang of it, but the scale of the team to quality ratio is great. Good voice acting, unique gameplay mechanics, seamless and simple building, and a cool fictional world with a great art style and soundtrack. I think this game needs more attention because it's truly a gem. Excited to see the refinement and additions in the future!

I love this game, Its great as it is, and worth the price tag easily. This game has so much more potential I hope the dev makes updates for it for ever and ever. Every update adds really cool stuff and I really hope that this game becomes like a water starsector.

Played on PC and controls were annoying, would be great to have a master scrolling function to move my cursor around without clicking on anything else.

Tutorials were confusing as there's no highlight on where I am supposed to go or what I am supposed to do, no set goal to do as well.

I really liked the style and overall theme of Bulwark. The ability to build cities and manage resources in a simple way allows for a pretty good flow of game play. Plus it's pretty fun to build cities across a large ocean from an airship.

That said, I do have some issues with the game as well. The population being controlled by randomly building was annoying. The buildings being generated randomly along my pathways was cool but got annoying pretty fast. The number of captains is pretty limiting after awhile.
Lastly, the story drops off pretty quickly. I learned more about the world from Google.

Game is decent..
the world can be stunning and the building is cool..
the story is ehhh not really there though what is at least makes sense..
For me the mid game is a bit too much of a repetitive grind and so far i dont know if theres really an end game to it since getting from the mid game to anything beyond what feels like mid game doesnt seem to be happening for me...
Even tho my city is bigger than the maw and i have more splinters than i know what to do with?
Thats just my experience though .. its still a good game and i hope to see it grow and become even better.

THE GOOD:
Simple controls.
Unique building style.
Cool World/Map.
Visually can be stunning.
Well Voiced.

THE BAD:
Some minor bugs.
Mid game slump.
Not much story/ Goals making it a tad grindy and repetitive.

This being said its still a unique game and worth a positive review

Ambient chill game that makes really pretty cities. Like, they're super pretty. Just look at them.

Bulwark is the one of the most unique city builders I have ever played. It is a massive open world with very unique building mechanics and factions. I have had a great time and I haven't even started a second play through, the best part for me is the just trading mechanics because you can have trade routes across the entire world.

We've won the day!

Brilliant solo dev game. Dev listens, produces fixes all the time, he's very active, always replies to discussions and bad reviews and provides new content quite often.
The ONLY drawback regarding the game is that ppl who don't read info or listen to the helpful man in the corner of the screen are gonna have a bad time. Maybe make the player do a locked tutorial?
I 100%'d this game in 26 hours. but it took the first 10 hours to understand most things. All because I rushed ahead. My own mistake.
Game mechanics are NOT what you're expecting.

Awesome game, worth £/$15 and dev is a top man

Very simple yet so engaging game.
I bought the game on sale for about 9.- Euro. Worth every penny.
I really appreciate the voiced ingame tips from the developer.
Game feels bug free.
The only downside i see is the lack of detailed explanations to the game mechanics. Somethings you have to find out by trial and error but that is a minor thing.
I am addicted to building sky high towers.

If you deep dive into this game its worth 20.-
If you are incredibly bored and jumping from game to game till the next "big thing" is here then buy it on sale for about 10.- because we all know you just need some filler.

Recommended game!

Very stylish.
There isn't much strategy, story or management here, mostly just creative building. You can really make impressive cities/fortresses, especially at the edge of the world. That aspect is great. You only control part of the process, you make the foundations and paths, the game generates housing on its own. No strict detection of walls/collision so stuff can be superimposed. It's good and bad.
There is attention to detail, with a day and night cycle and buildings getting snowy in the northern part of the map.
The main interest to me is to bring all the factions together and try to balance them so none has the majority, so everybody is satisfied and you get access to all their ship captains and tower commanders.
The performance is good but that's because there is no animated population in settlements.
The game is missing some QoL, the management of trade routes is tedious, especially with frequent attacks. There isn't enough fighting ships to protect them all, they are limited in number. Same goes with the airship fleet but it's more minor.
Now the developper is very caring about this game and has been providing regular updates improving it since release. He also takes the time to give detailed replies to everyone. Well worth supporting.

loving the game. as for the other reviewers concerning clipping when building and inability to select other structures i agree with them nevertheless this is still an enjoyable game plus the price when its on sale is very generous

Loved the style and aesthetic, but the interface with controller is a nightmare. I takes me out of the game constantly as i try to fumble around to navigate the world or try to select something specific. It's not innovative, its annoying.

Nice little Sandbox Builder. Dont expect too deep of a simulation. Just enjoy the nice artstyle and have fun!

A delightful creative builder game with simple and intuitive mechanics. The setting is a great iteration on post cataclysm fantasy steam punk. Its a well made game with intuitive mechanics put together by a single dev who is always involved with the community. Airships, pirates, and kraken, what's not to love?

Most enjoyable, free build and adventure... sail or fly around, gaining more and more ships and settlements, great visuals and music

Great game to chill and build with some interesting new mecanics

My early impressions of Bulwark is that it is a game with a singular vision. It does not play like a traditional city builder or strategy game, and you have to leave your preconceptions of the genre at the door. This is not a criticism though - it is always enjoyable to play a game that breaks the mould, especially when it is clearly the work of a single developer making exactly what they want to make. I am eager to play more.

Really fun chill game to play on and off, feels great on controller once you get used to it. Great steam deck game.

its a great game, chill but also surprisingly in depth and can absolutely chew up hours of time.

plenty of free content updates too.

Big fan of this game!
10/10 very fun

Love the art style, the music and the gameplay.
Really fills that spot for a casual city builder while still having action and story if you want.

The developer is also super responsive when it comes to bugs if you find any.

Well worth 20 bucks.

I approve this message.

Absolutely gorgeous visuals. The controller implementation also works astonishingly well. Perfect for a chill time on the couch.

I remember I played the demo when it first came out and I didn't think much of it at the time, even though I gave it less than 20 minutes for trial and error. I just got this last week when it was on sale and it has become my go to for quick play relaxation between duties taking care of my children. It doesn't feel like it at first, but there is a lot going on behind the scenes and it is fun unlocking the different options. just laying out grand cities is fun too. I would say this game is worth it at full price if you want a fun game for the steam deck or that you can get a quick game in between family duties. If it is on sale, then you have no excuse not to get it. Enjoy!

Wish I had more time to play this atm. One of the most unique city builders / RTS games I've ever played. The controls and resource management are taking a little to get my head around but its a good change up imo. Will update this review once I've put more time into it, but if this is truly one developer working on this then I'm impressed to say the least.

Honestly, its one of the chillest experiences I've had in a while. I really enjoy the fluid building and movement mechanics. its so easy to play and the art style is fantastic. Wonderful job

For a simple builder, it's full of charm and complex mechanics. Really can see the love put into this one.

Looked interesting but it's just spam buildings until you blindly figure out what was holding you back. Pretty frustrating.

Unique and beautiful! For the price, this is an easy no-brainer! As other reviews have said, the systems are easily accessible, but engaging. Expansion feels quite rewarding. I don't feel like this has quite the session depth of other city builders, but I find my self coming back regularly due to the style and unique gameplay.

Really fun game and totally worth the money!

Always finding myself playing this between large games, just kinda comfortable being able to build a beautiful city with such little effort. Worth the price tag for me, but if not for you its on sale semi-regularly.

Truly unique with a stunning atmosphere. We need more developers like this.

you will see the entirety of the game's content rather quickly, but it is not the kind of game meant to constantly surprise you with new things. If you are here for chill citybuilding, it's an absolutely lovely experience

i smashed this game out the first day it launched and was worth the money its improved and improved

I love cityskylines/city building games but it could be over complicated sometimes. This game is the casual chill version of those games. It has a lot of potential both lorewise and gameplay. So excited for future content the dev has to offer.