From the mind of Tomas Sala, Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles wants to rethink the way you interact with city-builders or civilization games. This genre has hard and fast rules like rigid upgrade trees, firm end-game states, and bean counting your resources. These trappings naturally create a “min-max” effect when planning your next move. Subverting these rules and expectations is what solo developer Tomas Sala aims to accomplish in his follow-up to The Falconeer, Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles.
I cannot tell you the number of times, I have rolled back turns or restarted a Civilization game because I had buyer’s remorse on a decision that I made 5 turns ago. Solving this frustration is one of the design philosophies of Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles. While the brief tutorial is a fine way to acclimate yourself to the unique control scheme, the Freeform mode is where I’d recommend you start.
What I found while haphazardly testing and learning the controls was that I had accidentally created an intricate little city. The major hook of the game is that it’s quite difficult to do anything wrong and yet, you’re continually making decisions that will ripple out into larger consequences. Where other strategy games differ is that instead of looking back on your past decisions, Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles has you always facing forward, constructing buildings and upgrading old ones. This forward momentum creates a rhythm of construction thanks to the unique and almost cathartic after having been told “no, you cannot build that” by so many 4X games. Other builder games have you focusing on your imitations while Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles wants you to see nothing but possibilities.
Simply clicking off of one of your towers creates a natural and literal bridge to a new construction. Clicking around the peripheral creates offshoots with houses and balconies. The higher the tower, the more affluent the construction. You can reinforce towers and bridges as well as upgrade them with new defenses once you have connected your town to the appropriate resources. The stroke of genius here is that while resources like wood and stone are necessary to build particular constructions, there is no limitation on the resources themselves. Once you have access to the material it’s yours. While you may require building additional offshoots to boost up the population that is mining this resource, it’s not a game of scarcity. This design decisions feels refreshing and keeps your forward momentum as a player.
The world around you is in a post-war-torn naval conflict where different nation-states are rebuilding. You’ll choose an initial faction, and you’ll quickly bump into other civilizations that you can either set up trade routes with or aggravate with your other alliances. Eventually, you’ll become large enough that other cities will have to fend for their resources by threatening yours and you’ll have conflict. Hence the name Bulwark. While there are battles, the game has no distinct win state. Similar to how real nation-states seemingly build up an endless arsenal for defense, Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles leaves this open-ended as well. I found that I moved on to a new game when I felt like my town’s story was finished, rather than I had achieved the highest rank or nuked my opponents. Design decisions like this ooze through everything from the sound design and the art style as well.
Designed and developed by a solo developer and auteur, Tomas Sala, the aesthetic and unique controls feel bespoke and handcrafted. While they may feel and look different, they’re designed for a purpose. For instance, most of the assets are created without using texture maps. This means that each asset has an almost painted visual without sacrificing fidelity. The benefit of having a one-man show is that he can control and iterate on nearly every design choice from top to bottom. While Sala partnered with long-time composer Benedict Nichols to score the forlorn and haunting soundtrack, nearly everything you see and every mechanic you interact with comes out of one man’s head and the effect is a polished and unique experience.
Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles reimagines the 4x or city-builder trappings in a way that removes the resource grind and replaces it with freeform construction. It’s more akin to painting on a canvas rather than building on a grid. The building mechanic is both technically brilliant and visually gratifying as you weave your towns together. Once, you get into a creative flow, you can stay there until you, as the player, feel satisfied to move on rather than greedily counting your ore or calculating the fastest path to victory. I found it approachable and nearly therapeutic. The construction system lets you “finger paint” with resources being important but never limiting. Likewise, the combat is present without being ominous or even altogether threatening.
This relaxing and visually stunning game is a perfect way to unwind or just let your mind play. You owe it to yourself to download the demo and see for yourself. Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles launches March 26th on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Utomik. Preview build was provided on PC, and I cannot wait to play the final build.
