Reus News

Today marks the 12th Birthday of Reus!
It sure has been a long journey, made extra special by the release of Reus 2! We'd like to share some thoughts on Reus here!

Reus has over a million players! They hail from all over the world and have played on different platforms. Sadly, the most requested platform—mobile—has never been reached. Reus was simply too heavy for mobile at the time, and now the tech is deprecated. We're aiming to have Reus 2 playable on more platforms, though. Keep an eye out for that!

Reus 2 was tough to make, but we're super proud of the result! It's hard to nail the right formula for a sequel (ask Civilization...), but it seems that we did really well with Reus 2! We're still overwhelmingly positive: people who liked Reus like it, and people for whom Reus just didn't cut it also seem to like it a lot better! The playtime also doesn't lie: Reus 2 is on average played twice as long as Reus—while being 10 years the junior!

We all have different favorite giants. Manuel favors the Forest Giant, I'm more of a Giant Crab kind of guy. The Swamp Giant has a "pug" factor that some people seem to love, and the Rock Giant was liked by our artist for looking so tough.

To celebrate, you can pick up Reus for a discounted price. If you're interested, keep an eye on Reus 2—it has its birthday and new DLC coming soon!

Greetings from the Abbey,
-Adriaan and the monks

Besides the best deal on Reus yet, we're also launching a massive update and DLC to Reus 2!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1875060/Reus_2/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3333960/Reus_2__Ice_Age/

Create a planet with mammoths, where the General fights with your giants and a nuclear war destroys your planet!

Curious how it plays? Watch Ripsnort break it down for you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x99kqOgD2a4&t=1362s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0XqCuVr4iI

Greetings from the Abbey

Last week, we showed the most important gameplay differences between Reus and Reus 2. This week, we would like to highlight the differences in content and nature, as Reus 2 will be releasing next week on May 28th!

[h3]Reus owners will have a 10% extra discount on Reus 2 by completing the bundle! Don't miss out on it![/h3]

These are the biomes you can find in Reus and Reus 2:



We’ll highlight a few key differences.

[h2]Biome Mechanics[/h2]
The biggest difference between Reus and Reus 2 biomes is what place they take in the game. In Reus, the Forest and Ocean yielded more food, the Desert more Gold, and the Swamp more Science. The villages settling there always gave projects that fit with where they settled.

Reus 2 takes a different path. The villages have a will on their own, and you will decide where they’d fit best. Because of that, we wanted the differences between biomes to also be highlighted by biome mechanics. You’ll see what I mean as we go through some examples.

Another big difference is that the Biome itself is now something referenceable. Many biotica will check whether something is available in this specific biome. This means there is a real difference between making a huge biome, or multiple small biomes! Your planet layout is also saved in space!

Lastly, there are just much more Biotica per biome, and the minerals are also more unique. The number of unique biotica per full Biome went from roughly 25 in Reus, to 45 in Reus 2.


[h2]Ocean[/h2]
Biome mechanic: Mystery, Shallows and Deep.
Resources: balanced
Maybe one of the most requested features of Reus was to add more diversity to the Ocean, since the Oceans only had animals in them. In Reus 2, be ready to make corals and minerals in the ocean too!

Their biome mechanics are Mystery and the Shallows/Deeps. With the Shallow and Deep, you have to keep in mind where in the biome you place biotica. The patches close to land have more shallow waters, while those faraway are deep. An anglerfish will only live in the deep waters, while most coral prefers being in the shallows.
Be thoughtful of the layout you create!

Mystery you will have to demystify by yourself!



[h2]Rainforest[/h2]
Biome mechanic: Biodiversity
Resources: science
There is one victim biome in Reus 2: The swamp has been replaced by the rainforest. While the swamp was a personal favorite, it made less sense than the rainforest biome as a part of the world. You’ll find many of the Swamp biotica in the Rainforest, like the Tapir or Coffea.

Their biome mechanic is that unlike other biomes, they reward having a surplus of biodiversity quite often. The more diverse your rainforest, the more science it will yield!




[h2]Mountain…?[/h2]
The mountain has received a vastly different role in Reus 2. Where in Reus was a limited but real biome, a mountain is now a terrain feature which can be added in most Biomes.

When you place a mountain in Reus 2, it will add an extra layer of slots on top of 3 patches. This means these slots have more adjacent slots (5 or 6 instead of 4) and you can squeeze in some extra biotica in that biome! There are 2 other terrain features: Sanctuary and Creek. We can’t wait to show them to you!



[h2]And Much More![/h2]
As you can see, most things we haven’t even covered yet. We do hope that this post informs you as a Reus fan what to expect in Reus 2. Hopefully it interests you enough to follow, wishlist or play the sequel we worked on with so much joy!


Hope to see you there!
Adriaan and the Monks of the Abbey

Hello giants,

You might have looked at Reus 2 and thought: "What is the difference with the original Reus?" With Reus 2 releasing within weeks, it's a good moment to compare it with the original and highlight the many improvements we made!

Also, it's 11 years ago that Reus released and participated in the Berlin A MAZE festival. We're celebrating with a 60% discount and participation in the A MAZE Steam fest.

In short:

And more!

[h2]1. Play at your pace[/h2]
The first thing you'll notice is the pace of the game. Instead of having to worry about each second, Eon (representing time) only moves forward when you place Biotica (e.g. Plants, Animals, Minerals). Your goal is not to reach your goals within a timespan but with a set number of Eon. Having more cities on your planet will give you a higher Eon limit and more actions.

This means no more need to press the space bar to pause the game with each action or be afraid to take a break. Don't worry about replacing things either: Replacement only costs 1/5 of the actions that a new placement costs.

This makes the game adapt to your speed of play: You're the master of the universe and time after all!



[h2]2. Grid on the Planet[/h2]
Another immediately noticeable change is the grid on the planet. Instead of playing on a single line, there is a small hex grid. This means that most slots will have 4 neighbors instead of only 2, vastly increasing your options and strategies.

There are even ways to expand the grid. Place a Mountain to add three slots on top, or expand the planet to have more room for your Biotica.



[h2]3. Biome & Tag Symbioses[/h2]
The original Reus had symbioses based on names, for example: "next to a Chicken." Reus 2 is very different; instead, it uses tags like "bird" or "tree". This gives you much more freedom to create your ecosystem.

Another addition is the concept of Biome-wide Symbioses. These will trigger on Biotica as long as they are in the same Desert, Forest, or other Biome. There have never been so many options and combos to make!



[h2]4. Biotica Drafts[/h2]
Instead of having to memorize an arcane web where errors would mean restarts, Biotica now unlock through drafts. You will earn these drafts by helping humans as usual. But then you can use them to unlock a set of Biotica for one specific Biome. Your options will be semi-random. You can use rerolls however to search for that Tiger you want so badly.

This way, no game will be the same, but it will be much easier to make decisions on what you want next! An added benefit is that all combinations of Biotica are now also possible!


[h2]5. A peaceful Experience[/h2]
War and giant hunting were never a fan favorite of Reus players, even though the fantasy is cool. We decided to remove these features from Reus 2 altogether until we know how to add them in a way that fits well with the rest of the game. This needs a lot more work, or else we will just end up with the same nuisances as in the original.

Enjoy your peaceful time on your planets!



[h2]6. Much more content[/h2]
We more than doubled the content for Reus 2! I'm not going to spoil all there is to find, just know there are unlimited possibilities and configurations on how to create your perfect planet!



[h2]7. Human Eras[/h2]
Instead of playing games of 30 minutes to 2 hours, in Reus 2 you will go from Era to era. There are up to 3 Eras per planet. Every Era has its own vibe and goals. Will you help humans go to space, or will you support their revolution? Do well on the goals and you'll be rewarded with a little happening!

Your achievements will also be tied to which Eras you've completed. Try to get 3 stars on all of them and see all that humanity has to offer!



And we have much more! Planets in space, unique mechanics per biome, characters, and more improvements! We hope you will find all the content and mechanics the game has to offer, and enjoy your time to create a universe full of life!

We can't wait to see what you make!
Adriaan and the Monks at the Abbey

Hello Titans!

As you might have heared, we're currently working hard on a sequel to our beloved giant franchise! This week, during the Steam Strategy Fest, you will have the chance to check it yourself with our first demo!

We have many ambitions, improvements and new things to show off, but most of all we're interested in hearing about your feedback!

So grab your giants, and play the limited Reus 2 demo, available today!



- The monks of the Abbey