XBOX REVIEW | Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles

Tomas Sala, a solo developer from my neighboring country The Netherlands created this city builder. Set in the same universe as his previous Xbox SeriesX|S launch game Falconeer, an aerial combat experience. A drastic genre happened for his second game, but I just think that’s a great idea. By the way, there will be a third game in the Falconeer world. I would love for that to be a different genre as well. But first, Bulwark deserves full attention. So we go over what this game has to offer in our review!

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Things I liked!

• Visuals | As in Falconeer, the visuals walk away with most of the attention. It is such a remarkably unique style that it is impossible not to find it impressive. You can endlessly build your city high in the mountains surrounded by the ocean; you feel like Picasso. Pressing a few buttons creates a beautiful vibrant world, technically it is really well put together. If you zoom in strongly, you will discover a few flaws but that is really negligible. You really should play the game with the camera as high as possible, which makes for amazing and smooth images.

• Designed for a controller | We got a few city builders on Xbox but what makes Bulwark easier to play is its clear design for gameplay with a controller. With others, you’re stuck holding eight buttons at a time, success getting back into that after not playing for two weeks. No, Bulwark is really different in that. The controls are super simple, very fitting with the relaxing gameplay.
  
  
• Gameplay | Your goal in Bulwark is not complicated. To begin with, there is no exact beginning or end, after the tutorial you have complete freedom to do whatever you want. I can understand that this will be a bit confusing for some players but if you have already played Anno you know what to expect from the freedom. Expanding your city is done with four resources that you can farm, these are workers first and then wood, metal and stone. Some are already more difficult than others to obtain. You’ll meet new factions and depending on your choices you’ll have a war to handle or have friendly friends to trade with. That fighting brings extra depth but as you’ll read in the mixed zone I wasn’t the biggest fan.

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Neither good nor bad

• Relaxed city builder & battle against factions | That lovely created city is suddenly destroyed by another dominant faction. I found it a bit annoying and an oversight that you don’t have much control over the actual fighting. It all comes down to a boardgame Risk-kinda fighting, victory all comes down with having the most units. There isn’t much you can do tacticswise or with a specific defensive approach. I learned that you have a bigger chance to win fights if you do elongated building styles. The best approach is trying to favour other factions but that doesn’t always work.

• Ursee‘s world takes some time | If you played Falconeer you’ll start to recognise the factions and the world. I’m afraid that for most players the start of Bulwark will be overwhelming and slow. It takes a heck of a long time before Ursee opens up and allows for interactions. While I completely respect the decision to give the player freedom and have limited guidance this comes with some negatives.

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Things I disliked!

• Weird camera | Navigation, building and looking around is basically all done at the same time. You can’t move around with the camera as you would expect. Your view is glued to buildings and you can move by selecting towers or pathways. You have the option to fly a blimp but once again you don’t control it as expected. You have to press a location to fly somewhere… why Tomas decided to move away from direct control isn’t really clear to me.