Lethis: Path of Progress Review

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Lethis: Path of Progress is a 2D city builder set in a Victorian steampunk world. It tasks you with building a city, complete with roads, a host of distributors that will dish out anything from alcohol to building maintenance, that will steadily upgrade itself as you provide your townspeople with their needs/wants. Lethis: Path of Progress is vibrantly coloured and offers a full campaign over three difficulty levels or, if you’ve already mastered that, several map customizations in order to suit your sandbox city building tastes.

Lethis: Path of Progress walks you through the basics of gameplay via a tutorial, after which you’re able to tackle the campaign. The campaign consists of 26 stages of increasing challenge, requiring you to fulfil conditions before being able to continue to the next stage. I found that even on “normal” difficulty, I still had to be careful lest my coffers run dry and my townsfolk vacate their homes, leaving my businesses unable to run. One simple thing going wrong can cause things to snowball, but fortunately you can save whenever you feel necessary–which should be often.

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The core of any city is infrastructure. Accordingly, buildings won’t work if they aren’t connected by roads, nor will new faces pitch settler tents on land designated for housing if they can’t access them. Roads also allow distributors, who walk a predetermined range from their places of employment, to deliver necessary goods to your burgeoning population. Another important tool are the roadblocks, which allow you to control how far a distributor can roam and therefore ensure their effectiveness.

Once you’ve got roads and homes, you’ll need to feed and provide water to your unwashed masses. Speaking of unwashed masses, you’ll also need to construct facilities like bathhouses so that your citizens can take care of their needs. As their needs are met, your citizens will upgrade their homes. They require the ideal conditions, including decorations which come in a variety of types and sizes. It’s a joy to see housing structures go from shanties to manses and, as your citizens crave more high class diversions like theatre, your bustling town will become a full-blown city in no time.

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Unfortunately, the number of building types in Lethis: Path of Progress are limited when compared to modern day city builders. The controls also didn’t translate all that well from the PC version; the touch controls are hit or miss and the controller input isn’t as accurate or versatile as a mouse. On the plus side, the game looks great on the Switch and it performs well, some load screens aside. Still, these small inconveniences don’t detract from the experience as a whole.

Lethis: Path of Progress offers a classic city building experience without any frills or pretensions. This may or may not appeal to the modern day gamer, but it’s a solid experience nonetheless. Lethis: Path of Progress is not without flaws, but the core gameplay–whether you’re in it for the campaign or sandbox–is solid enough to justify the asking price.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary Nintendo Switch code was provided to Bonus Stage for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to press@4gn.co.uk.

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Lethis: Path of Progress Review
  • Gameplay - 6/10
    6/10
  • Graphics - 6/10
    6/10
  • Sound - 6/10
    6/10
  • Replay Value - 6/10
    6/10
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User Review
0/10 (0 votes)
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Comments Rating 0/10 (0 reviews)
Overall
6/10

Summary

Lethis: Path of Progress allows you to create the steampunk city of your dreams–from rags to riches.

Pros

  • Clean, accessible UI.
  • Three difficulty levels.
  • Classic city builder gameplay.

Cons

  • Touch controls, though available, are hit or miss.
  • Limited number of structures to build.
  • Steep learning curve.

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