Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles was already my most-anticipated city-builder, but now that I've seen one early player push it to its limits, I'm even more excited to test it out.
Earlier this month, I took a run at the limited demo for Bulwark. Set in the same world as fantasy aerial combat game The Falconeer, it's a brooding city-builder in which your settlement clings to any jagged escarpment, towering cliff, or simple scrap of rock that you can find. The demo put a pretty hard cap on the number of buildings you could create, but that didn't stop me falling in love with its chunky, almost LEGO-style systems.
My efforts in that demo, however, have now been entirely put to shame. In a video shared exclusively with 12DOVE, Bulwark Discord user Crushius has created a teeming metropolis over the crashing waves of the Ursee - whereas my demo efforts featured a mere handful of constructions, Crushius' effort is made up of more than 20,000, all woven together with Bulwark's delightful resource system.
It took Crushius 32 hours to create their city, as well as some top-end hardware to keep it running smoothly, but the results are astounding. Almost every surface seems covered, buildings hanging limpet-like wherever they could lay their foundations. Normally, Bulwark and its predecessor give off an industrial, almost oily aesthetic, but in creating this sprawling city, Crushius seems to have subverted that, pivoting Bulwark into something out of high fantasy, more reminiscent of something out of the art deco movement or a Gustav Klimt painting than the industrialist vibes of this world.
I've resigned myself to never creating anything this impressive in pretty much any city-builder, but that certainly hasn't dampened my excitement about Bulwark. So many aspects of its existence are fascinating, from its developer's start making one of the most iconic Skyrim mods of all time to the philosophy that led to the pivot from combat sim to city-builder. Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles launches on March 26 on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and PC via GOG, the Epic Games Store, and Steam - where you can still check out that demo for yourself.
I think we're in for a new entry in our list of the best city-builders.
