Cities: Skylines meets Balatro in a frighteningly good new Steam roguelike - Polygon.com

What the report says

Polygon reported that Combolands: Roguelike Citybuilder, a new game from Crux Games, blends roguelike progression and combo-building ideas associated with Balatro with the spatial planning familiar from city builders such as Cities: Skylines. Based on the demo, the outlet described the game as a strategy-focused experience built around adjacency bonuses, procedural islands and escalating population goals.

According to Polygon, each run begins on a newly generated island with different resources and terrain. Players have eight in-game weeks to hit a population target, with each action consuming one week. Early choices involve placing basic buildings such as hunter’s huts or apiaries near useful resource tiles, but later rounds introduce structures that multiply output, reduce trigger times or depend on broader categories such as natural terrain.

The report said the challenge comes from planning layouts that can support increasingly demanding thresholds. Choices that work early may create problems later, such as removing forests needed by other buildings or leaving no room for multiplier structures. Players have some tools to recover, including limited rerolls, demolition options and a one-time chance to extend a run, but Polygon noted that failure remains common and feeds into progression.

The demo also includes guild selection after early runs, though Polygon said only two guilds were available there; Crux Games is said to be planning seven at launch. Additional systems include a shop, modifiers, chests and bonus rerolls between rounds. Polygon reported that Combolands is scheduled to launch Aug. 24 for Windows PC via Steam.