Out 13th December

Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic, the Warsaw Pact-era city-building sim from 3DIVISION and Hooded Horse, is getting eight new maps scattered across the globe. These include a map set in the Eastern United States, from approximately New York State down to North Carolina, and another one set in Rock Paper Shotgun’s very own United Kingdom, where Karl Marx wrote most of his best stuff.

“Nowhere is safe from having its economy meticulously managed in minute detail by discerning comrades,” explains the announcement release. I for one welcome our new socialist overlords. It’s high time we sceptre-kissing Brits learned the importance of a properly joined-up sewage system. Looking at you, Thames Water. Here’s a trailer.

Aside from the USA and the British Isles, the DLC includes maps based on Austria, the Czech Republic, East Germany, France, Estonia and North Korea. “Every map will differ in terms of overall size and the challenges the local topography brings, and they will also come with pre-generated towns, cities, and infrastructure,” the announcement release explains. “This will require players to mold and shape their nations over time in order to create a new wave of top-notch Soviet Republics.”

“I could recite a litany of frustrations and wishes, but it would be dwarfed by the novella about how absorbing and fascinating Workers & Resources is,” Sin wrote. “I love its conceptual commitment to a planned economy that its genremates observe de facto but don’t examine. Its complex models and processes built for the joy and satisfaction of watching them come together. Its foundations in Slovak history and experience, and its refusal to be like anything else.”

Sin also has a piece from a couple years backexploring how Workers & Resources deviates from the liberal American idea of town-building epitomised by SimCity. I imagine she’d be keen to see how the game stacks up when you actually transport it to North America, though I suspect there are mods that do this already. Sort of feels like the logical endgame here is togo to space. There are probably mods for that too.

The Worlds Map DLC is out on 13th December via Steam, GOG and the Epic Games Store, and will be localised into the same languages as the base game.