Just recently, in an editorial article about ‘Games We Abandoned,’ I recalled Oxygen Not Included and its steep learning curve. Feeling sorry for me, readers quickly suggested more beginner-friendly colony simulators in the comments and urged me not to give up on the genre. Among the suggested games was Ratopia, which left early access back in May, received a lot of positive reviews, and then… was refunded by Jan Gribovich. And that was a big mistake!
This time, I wasn’t restricted by the usual two-hour limit for the column, so I skipped the small details and dove straight in, spending several sleepless nights exploring the game. I experimented with every new technology, built a sprawling metropolis, founded a sect, flirted with a totalitarian regime complete with executions and unbearable taxes, turned an ordinary rat into the Joker, abandoned a besieged city to its fate, and successfully quelled a riot. After 30 hours of wild adventures, I can say with confidence that we’ve been missing out on Ratopia! With a bit of imagination, this charming rat colony simulator becomes not just an engaging adventure, but a generator of hilarious, unpredictable moments that you simply can’t tear yourself away from — a bit like trying your luck at Hidden Jack Casino no deposit bonus, where every spin or bet could lead to surprising chaos or unexpected rewards.
Queen in exile
When the assassins of the rat queen fail, she is forced to flee her home and establish a new settlement. To do this, she must work her way up from scratch, handling every task herself — digging for resources, gathering food, chopping down trees, and preparing everything for the influx of refugees from all over the area. At the same time, the player controls not only the colony but also the queen herself, who can give orders, engage in reconnaissance, help with construction, and even lead her subjects into battle.
In the early stages, running errands and helping to build the city is quite fun, especially when nothing is happening in the colony. This is also a chance to learn the mechanics, take a leisurely look around, see all the processes firsthand, and explore the technology tree.
The most important building available right away is the city gate, where settlers arrive every day. Since the inhabitants are not only the heart of the city but also the labour force, the queen must choose carefully. Rat dwellers are very different: some like to spend money, introverts need less entertainment, and pacifists avoid fighting. Others dislike the leader or hate paying taxes (they should be sent away immediately), and sometimes there are slobs or opponents of beds. In addition to their character traits, each rat has unique attributes that make them better suited for particular professions. Strong settlers can work in the smithy, agile ones in the theatre, and smart ones in the science lab.
Finding the perfect settler is rare, so you’ll have to make do with what you get, at least at first. After inviting each rat to the city, you can rename them. I did this and named the settlers after my friends and acquaintances based on their personalities. I immediately felt a sense of responsibility — they were no longer just future taxpayers, but almost like family! And just think of all the funny stories I’ll be able to tell later. After all, rat dwellers aren’t just puppets at work. Each has their own schedule, tasks, personal conflicts, satisfaction levels, and quests. Of course, they won’t want to try excrement like in Cult of the Lamb, but there are plenty of other requests.
Rat residents’ quests often hint at upcoming challenges. Without these hints, I wouldn’t have thought to build beds and a farm for the winter or set up a warrior camp in advance.
At a low difficulty level — ideal for beginners to master the mechanics, survive the first year, and understand the technology tree — Ratopia is quite forgiving. You can explore, build optional structures, spend time on decor and symmetry, travel, and not worry too much about a strict sequence of actions. This is already more relaxed than Oxygen Not Included, where even on the first difficulty level, you face problems almost immediately. Over time, challenges will arise in Ratopia: zombie rat raids, locusts, floods, or frosts, but at least the game warns you in advance.
Even without hints, you’ll want to explore new technologies yourself, because there’s so much to discover: prisons, hospitals, schools, police stations, and even banks! It’s hard not to set a course for a bright future.
The road to Ratopia
The first inhabitants don’t need much: they can sleep on the floor, eat wheat or raw meat for dinner, and their only entertainment is a sad rat in a circus. But the leader’s curiosity drives progress, so over time, the colony will be filled with innovations. A sawmill and other resource-processing machines will appear in Ratopia, and soon after, new workers will be needed. The colony will grow gradually, along with the demands of its inhabitants. You’ll have to take care of comfort, hygiene, tasty food, and new forms of entertainment.
At the same time, you’ll need to dig tunnels in all directions and search for new resources, much like in Terraria. It’s not just curiosity or thirst for knowledge — each discovery adds technology points, which are invaluable in the early stages of the game.
A simple dugout begins to transform into a sprawling metropolis. When working hours are over, residents can go to school or the arena, drink beer, buy clothes, or acquire other items that were once considered luxuries and had to be brought from neighbouring cities. Meanwhile, the queen issues construction blueprints, oversees the treasury and collects taxes, sends out scouts, communicates with other settlements, and admires the self-sufficient colony. This relaxed gameplay, while not particularly challenging, is perfect for getting acquainted with the mechanics and provides a reason to try a higher difficulty later.
The queen should only venture into dungeons with mini-bosses when accompanied by guards, healers, and advanced weapons.
At all difficulty levels above the first, you won’t be able to relax and build your utopia at your own pace, because every few days zombie rats attack through the tunnels. In training mode, it’s easy to fend off these raids on your own, but higher difficulty levels bring more frequent attacks. I once faced assaults from three sides of a huge base simultaneously, with buildings burning and rat dwellers dying — I had to rethink my priorities and urgently build barracks.
In a special building, you can assemble your guards into a single squad and order them to escort the monarch. Then you can lead raids to destroy zombies at their spawn points before they reach the base.
The only major drawback for me is the inability to zoom out far enough to oversee the settlement during these expeditions (camera mode aside). When there’s too much to do and winter is approaching, it would be great to issue orders remotely without being at the base. Of course, over time, a railway, an elevator for quick map traversal, police stations to catch criminals, and workers to repair machines become available — but until then, you’ll juggle responsibilities and micromanagement constantly.
During one of my trips, the only available butcher got stuck for some reason, dooming the entire colony to starvation. When I finally returned to fix the situation and restore my health, the city was attacked from all sides…
Sudden dystopia
As the settlement grows, the bright, naive desire to give your rats a utopia melts away before your eyes. Firstly, the starting funds gradually dwindle — you have to invent stone tablets and start taxing your inhabitants. They immediately protest: “How can this be? We were living well, and now we have to pay too?!” — and their happiness begins to plummet.
This is probably due to my very competent approach to taxation. A humanitarian queen is a disaster for the state.
Even after introducing taxes, you still have to collect coins manually. To avoid constantly micromanaging this, you can build a Rat sanctuary — or hire a tax collector, though that’s an extra mouth to feed in an already struggling settlement! In short, it takes a long time to find the ideal taxation formula: one that keeps the rat dwellers from falling into depression while preventing them from hoarding wealth and hiding money from the crown.
Fortunately, there are plenty of options. You can charge fees for the use of facilities like toilets or circuses. Or you can further stratify society by raising the prices of bread and meat so that only wealthy rats can afford them. Create areas for the middle and upper classes, leaving the poor to rot in underground ghettos. The key is not to irritate the rats too often — they can tolerate a lot before rebelling, but eventually, their patience runs out.
In my version of Les Misérables, all the poor lived at the very bottom of the tunnels, constantly terrorised by zombie rats. Of course, I settled the warrior caste and elite on the upper floors.
Ratopia offers plenty of other challenges — locusts, frosts, food shortages, floods, diseases, deaths, wars with other settlements, arson, theft, constant raids by zombies, weasels, or lizards… But nothing compares to the social experiments and failed decisions of His Royal Majesty, which can either lead the colony to absolute utopia (you even get an achievement for that) or plunge it into chaos and lawlessness. That outcome is far more interesting!
Once, my city produced a real Joker. The rat performed in the circus, fell into depression, and soon became a repeat offender who set fire to toilets for fun.
I never reached the final victory in Ratopia — I got too carried away with these experiments and didn’t even attempt one of the official win conditions. After all, it’s much more interesting to study technology, explore the map, establish trade relations with other settlements, find new resources, automate production, test laws, build facilities for punishing repeat offenders, manage a hundred rat dwellers, and create dozens of unique stories.
Conclusion
Pros: cute visual style; engaging gameplay with lots of activities; low entry threshold — the game allows time to get used to it; the ability to create unique settlements with each new attempt; the ability to not only oversee the colony but also play as a character, like in Terraria; the presence of a rat pleasure house.
Cons: limited delegation of responsibilities and heavy micromanagement, especially during invasions.