0 
0 A God sandbox, meets micromanagement simulator? Sign me up! Think Black & White meets Theme Hospital, and when you add in the cartoonish humour of Worms you might just find yourself in a gaming Utopia Sintopia. Developed by Piraknights Games, a Sintopia demo can be downloaded from Steam right now. Early Access is planned for 4th September 2025.
I Write Sins
This is my first contribution to the Thumb Culture community, so I wanted to have a go with something that really stood out for me. And what stood out the most was the prominent character of Lili, advertising the PC game Sintopia. My initial reaction was “What in the mobile gaming ad hell?” but my concern was immediately laid to rest when I found that this game was published by Team 17. The company that gave us the excellent Worms franchise has, to my mind, garnered enough good will that even if this game was a click-baity bejewelled clone using a suggestive female character to just push ads to you every other click, I’d still pay my respects and give it a chance. It was quickly apparent that my initial misgivings were dead wrong.
Gameplay
Sintopia puts you in the position of administrator of Hell. It is your responsibility to remove sins from the souls of the Humus that occupy the overworld. Sin-free Humus can be resurrected and have another cycle of life. Your tasks include generating Purgadollars to buy buildings that punish sin, hiring different professions of imps to torment your new guests, and placing pathways to enable the souls to navigate the many corners of your Hell. You’ll also need a queuing system to manage the influx of the recently deceased. Let’s face it, just because it’s Hell, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t queue in an orderly fashion.
A cool addition to this type of simulator is the soul dispatcher. It is a gateway to direct souls to different parts of your Hell based on logic you can set in a kind of “if this, then that” fashion, giving you more control as you work to make Hell a well oiled machine.
Humus in the Overworld
The Humus are sentient, humanoid chickpeas. Having the characters you interact with not actually be human is a great idea in my opinion, as it keeps the game in the cartoonishly silly feel without making me ask myself too many difficult questions.
Humus will go about their lives, working to build up their civilisation, while their current leader’s personality traits will dictate the societies priorities. As they work and play, they will naturally develop sin. These are, of course, the 7 deadly sins — Sloth, Wrath, Pride, Envy, Lust, Greed, and Gluttony. Types of sin will become important when we get to Hell.
While not having full control of the overworld, you can definitely impose your will in different ways. With or without your involvement, the Humus will follow their assigned life plan and naturally develop certain types of sin along the way. Humus who become warriors will develop more Wrath, whereas builders will develop more Pride. Whilst you cannot directly change a Humu’s occupation from warrior to builder in order to affect their sin type, there are ways to influence proceedings. For example, if the current leader is more prone to develop an army, you could use your god like powers to have the leader inexplicably struck by lightning, then hope that their successor is more architecturally inclined.
What in the Hell
Hell is where you will have full control. Once a Humu dies — either by their natural progression in life, or by the player wielding their godlike abilities, just because they can — the souls will gather in the graveyard. There they will await the most 80s-heavy-metal-inspired mode of public transport ever to ferry them to the afterlife. This is where you will create your own bureaucracy of Hell.
For every soul that passes through the gates of Hell, you’ll receive Purgadollars. This in-game currency is used to buy the many types of buildings available, such as Soul Punishment and Soul Processing. You can also build staff Facilities. This is really important, because are you going to tell the imps you’ve hired that you’re not building them a staff break room? I didn’t think so.
Some buildings will be general purpose, taking a set amount of random sins off a soul. Others will be specific to a particular sin type. This is why changing the Humu’s leader might be something you want to consider. If you can’t keep up with processing a particular sin, maybe it’s time for a leader who will result in a different primary sin.
Once you’re happy a soul has served their time in Hell, you can choose to allow them to resurrect, giving them another cycle of life. If you have removed a suitable amount of sin, you will receive a Hearo point. These can be used to research better buildings, which generate more Purgadollars and improve the efficiency of Hell.
Graphics & Audio
Sintopia features a very cartoony, stylised approach to the graphics. The buildings are full of fun and quirky props, making each addition to your set-up a treat to look at. Additionally, it can be enjoyable to watch the imps at work removing sins from the souls. Even with this approach, the game doesn’t let your graphics card take it easy when you crank the settings to max. With full 360 degrees control of the camera and a zoom scroll which let me go from being too far away to see anything, to filling the entire screen with a single Humu’s face, it’s a superb level of quality.
The background audio provides a nice upbeat feeling without feeling repetitive. Combining many sound effects, and voices overs for your staff. The sound design is impressive in the way it sets the feeling for Hell as a quirky and bustling office-esk environment.
Final Thoughts
There is so much more I could get into with this game, but it’s really worth checking out for yourself. Even though the demo is pre-Early Access, and a lot of content is yet to be released, it’s well worth a play. With tutorial and challenges sections, there will be plenty to put you on while you wait for the full release.
Sintopia is currently on track to launch into Early Access on September 4th on Steam. Add it to your Wishlist’s now!
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this preview.
YouTube | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Discord | Podcast
About Author
