introduction

Yo what up its Leo here your SoCal game guru kickin it from 3215 Overland Ave Los Angeles California (CA) 90034.

Im stoked to drop some knowledge on this new joint Kaiserpunk. Ive been deepdivin into games for a minute bringin you the real deal with mad style.

simulation and strategy game

This game Kaiserpunk just dropped on March 21st 2025. Its from Overseer Games but Elda Entertainment also threw their hat in the ring as a publisher.

Theyre callin it a simulation and strategy game. You can only play it on Windows for now. Ive been messin with the Windows version myself for this review.

Now peep this some games are like spreadsheetin it ya know?

Think Factorio Hearts of Iron IV or even Anno 1800. My homies and I call these Sicko Games cause they got layers on layers of mechanics.

Just when you think youre gettin the hang of it youre gone lost in the sauce. And trust fam I was straightup gone with Kaiserpunk.

Overseer Games

Overseer Games these are the same cats who dropped Patron before. This time though they aint about colonizin.

Theyre switchin it up with an alternate history vibe where World War I went totally south and now citystates are poppin up from the rubble. You step into the role of the governor of one of these cities.

Dont expect a history lesson on how this messedup World War I went down. The story mostly sets the stage for the tutorial. Honestly the tutorials the only time youll see any cutscenes.

And thats cool with me cause the writing aint their strongest suit. The few times they tried to build tension in the tutorial? Totally flat no cap.

Anno style games

But listen up dont even think about skippin that tutorial. For real Kaiserpunk is one of those games where you gotta play it to even begin to get it.

Its a bit of a marathon clockin in around 3 hours if you take your time with the tooltips and try to wrap your head around the mechanics.

And Im tellin you youll only be grasping it not mastering it. Now if youve messed with any Anno style games including Overseers Patron youll have a general idea of whats good.

Your citys got four tiers of workers each with their own needs both basic and fancy. More workers mean more cash and happier citizens. That combo lets you build your city faster and better. Sounds simple right? Wrong.

Kaiserpunk seems chill

On the surface Kaiserpunk seems chill. You need a woodcutter to chop trees then a lumber camp to make lumber for buildin stuff.

Most games stop right there with the supply chain. But Overseer was like Nah lets crank this thing up to eleven!.

Lumber camps can also pump out different kinds of lumber for export. Sometimes theyre even part of a longer chain to make some specialized resource.

This is where the game starts to break away from that Anno formula and do its own thing.

The time between the big wars what Overseer calls the interwar period is both a logistics paradise and a straightup nightmare.

What makes Kaiserpunk different from other city builders is this dual layer action. On a small scale youre buildin your city and keepin the supplies flowin.

But on a big scale youre throwin down in a war between a bunch of citystates on a strategic map. And you know what wars need besides a whole lot of nothin good? Thats right supplies.

When I hit what youd call the midgame I was already rollin with a small army. A few foot soldiers some artillery and a couple of tanks.

Nothin too crazy not cause I was broke but cause I was still tryin to figure out all the different resources I needed.

Lets break down a tank for example. You gotta have at least two resources delivered to the tank factory just to build one steel and rubber.

But hold up before you send it to the front lines you gotta train a specialized crew. And those guys need rations which come from another factory.

Now youve gone through all that hustle think about this whats your tank gonna shoot? Did you forget to build shells? Too bad now you gotta truck those to the front and that takes time.

Around 20 seconds on Kaiserpunks fastest speed but thats long enough for the enemy to roll up and wreck your hard work. Am I speakin from experience? You know I am.

The whole strategy layer has its own set of rules which is kinda wild to me especially since Ive covered a grip of strategy games over the last decade.

Overseer Games aint shy about addin features like terrain that changes things up veteran levels for your units and new buildings that of course need their own supplies.

They even got naval and land blockades. The only thing thats a little simplified is the combat which is turnbased. The unit with the better initiative and more experience goes first.

So yeah mixin up your infantry tanks and artillery can help you win those battles. And yeah I learned that the hard way too.

If you think thats a lot to handle wait for the kicker Kaiserpunk has 100 regions and diplomacy. The diplomacy thing?

Most of my people were missin basic needs and factories were shuttin down left and right. Thankfully (or not) there aint no riots in Kaiserpunk otherwise that wouldve been game over for me.

Workers & Resources Soviet Republic

Youd think Id be totally over Kaiserpunk at this point. I sunk almost 40 hours into one playthrough. I almost lost it tryin to fix supply chain jams.

Plus I was constantly buildin new cribs for my workers. But nah for real this is the kind of stuff I live for. Its gettin close to my dream game status like Workers & Resources Soviet Republic.

I barely even noticed that I spent a huge chunk of two weekends playin this thing day and night. When I said I was gone at the start? Believe it I was gonegone.

With all that said I did wish diplomacy had a bigger role in Kaiserpunk. Most of my talks with other citystates were just me offerin cash for goods or tradin goods for intel or research points.

Sometimes it felt like I was the only one tryin to make alliances while everyone else was just takin over the world one region at a time.

This is one of the few little things buggin me about Overseers second game. Its also missin some basic features like a graph showin how much stuff youre makin and usin.

The devs try to make up for it with a UI you can customize a lot but with all the different materials in the game its easy to get lost tryin to handle everything at once. At least the food dont rot in the storage spots.

And even though the idea of citystates risin from the ashes of World War I is dope I wish they did somethin more with the setting.

There are no crazy experimental technologies or a different historical path you can take. The game doesnt really stall out completely.

The war machine always needs fuel so managin your city buildin new factories and meetin energy and production demands is neverendin.

But theres a limit to the tech you can get and eventually youre just movin buildings around to make sure every factory is pumpin out the max every storage spot is reachable and goods are movin on the quickest route.

Again this stuff totally hooks me cause I love messin with my city for hours. Kaiserpunk makes it easy with the option to move buildings without any penalties.

If youre not into that macromanagin life you might just wanna go for a military win ASAP or a diplomatic win.

The diplomatic win seems the easiest since the AI will agree to pretty much anything and takin over most of the regions aint a huge hassle if you got some allies.

But near the end Kaiserpunk did feel a little dull sometimes. I really wished they included random events like in Overseers previous game Patron.

Never once did I see a factory catch fire or like I said a riot. The setting is perfect for events but they barely show up after the early game. Im hopin they add more in the future.

And if all that sounded a little nitpicky its cause it is. Besides some annoying stuff with the UI and some AI moves Kaiserpunk is bold in what its tryin to do.

Other developers wouldve backed down from the idea of makin a game thats a logistics manager a city builder and a strategy game on a global scale all at the same time.

And for that it deserves mad respect. Its one of those rare games Ill feel the urge to jump back into every now and then.

Try a new strategy build a new city with specific rules or even make my own challenges to scratch that awesome never endin logistics itch.

Personal suggestion

To wrap this up I remember talkin to a friend years ago about an Anno 2205 mod that added over 50 new goods.

He was like Who would want that? Sounds like a nightmare. Well I want that and Kaiserpunk delivers that and then some a whole lot more. Just keep an eye on the clock when youre playin aight?.

Leo out.

Resource

https://www.savingcontent.com/2025/03/21/kaiserpunk-review/

https://gamerant.com/kaiserpunk-review

https://www.thegamer.com/kaiserpunk-review

https://www.polygon.com/review/546592/kaiserpunk-review-pc

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