City-builders often ask us to spread out, to conquer vast lands and paint the map in our color. STARIO: Haven Tower, from developer Stargate Games, asks us to look up. It’s a game that trades sprawling continents for a single, impossibly tall spire — a vertical kingdom stretching from a sand-blasted earth to the celestial unknown. This isn’t just a city-builder; it’s a logistical ballet, a serene and surprisingly deep puzzle box that stands as one of the most unique and polished Early Access titles of 2025.
This is a game that feels less like managing a city and more like nurturing a single, living organism. It breathes with the rhythmic pulse of production chains and the quiet faith of its people. We played the Early Access version on PC, and it’s clear that STARIO isn’t just building a tower; it’s building a new standard for the genre.
A Kingdom in the Clouds
Your journey begins in the Sand Zone, a harsh and desolate landscape where survival is the only goal. But you aren’t destined to remain grounded. Your purpose is to ascend, to build a sanctuary layer by layer, piercing through six distinct atmospheric zones: from the hazy Mist and cleansing Rain to the biting Frost, the pristine Clear Skies, and finally, the realm of the Stars.
This climb is the heart of STARIO‘s narrative and structure. Each new layer presents not just a change of scenery but a new set of challenges and resources. The tower becomes a cross-section of an entire ecosystem, a testament to your ability to adapt and overcome. The core concept is wonderfully simple to grasp but offers a profound sense of progression. Watching your humble settlement evolve into a sky-piercing metropolis, bustling with life at every altitude, is a uniquely satisfying experience.
The Art of Vertical Logistics
Where STARIO truly finds its genius is in its complex, three-dimensional supply chains. In a typical city-builder, resources move horizontally. Here, they must flow up and down a constantly growing structure. Each layer of your tower is a self-contained unit with its own storage, and connecting them is a logistical puzzle that will delight any fan of optimization and efficiency.
Initially, your “Towertizens” will carry goods by hand, a slow and laborious process. But soon, you unlock a fascinating arsenal of vertical transport: pipelines to ferry liquids, chutes to drop goods, hot-air balloons for bulk transport, and even specialized ports to trade with majestic sky-whales. It’s a system one player aptly described as “logistical min-max porn,” and the description is perfect. There is immense satisfaction in designing a seamless network, watching resources glide effortlessly up to the highest levels while finished products parachute back down. It turns the entire tower into a massive, intricate, and beautiful machine of your own design.
The Soul of the Celestial City
Visually, STARIO: Haven Tower is a delight. It boasts a unique, soulful art style that feels handcrafted and distinct. The 3D models are charming, and the overall aesthetic gives the game a strong identity that sets it apart from the often-generic look of other simulators. It feels like you’re playing an artist’s vision, not just another piece of software.
Watching your tower operate is the main attraction. The vibrant activity—citizens scurrying, balloons rising, cargo being hurled skyward—makes your creation feel alive. The design philosophy encourages creativity, allowing you to reinforce layers with braces to build outwards, creating suspended sky gardens and lattice-like platforms that defy gravity. While some more variety in building models for different production types would be welcome, what’s present is beautiful and effective. This is a world you want to spend time in, simply observing the fruits of your labor.
Whispers, Rituals, and Calamities
Your tower is nothing without its inhabitants, the Towertizens. Their management is a crucial, if somewhat shallow, part of the game. Their Faith is your most important currency, generated by fulfilling their needs for various foods, goods, and mood-boosting buildings. Happy citizens are productive citizens, consuming less and working more efficiently.
This Faith is then channeled into Ritual Platforms, where collective belief can be shaped into miracles—summoning rain to water crops or wind to power turbines. This god-game element adds a wonderful thematic layer to the experience. However, the heavens are not always friendly. As you ascend, you’ll face disasters that test your tower’s resilience. In the current Early Access build, these calamities can feel somewhat toothless, their impact lessening as your tower becomes more robust. It’s a minor imbalance in an otherwise well-tuned system, but one that could use a bit more bite to maintain the late-game challenge.
Performance Under Pressure
For a game so polished in its mechanics and art, STARIO has one significant growing pain: performance. Several players, ourselves included, have noted an unusually high load on the GPU. On a powerful card like an RTX 4060, the game can push GPU usage to 99% at 2K resolution, causing fans to spin at maximum speed and creating significant noise. While the experience remains smooth, this level of resource consumption is a clear area for optimization. It’s the most prominent sign that this is, indeed, an Early Access title, and we hope the developers at Stargate Games address it to ensure the serene experience they’ve crafted isn’t interrupted by the sound of a struggling graphics card.
An Early Access Titan
It cannot be overstated how impressive STARIO: Haven Tower is for a game still in development. It feels more complete and thoughtfully designed than many full releases. The core loop is addictive, the presentation is charming, and the depth of its logistical systems is immensely rewarding. This is what an Early Access launch should look like: a solid, playable, and feature-rich foundation with a clear path to becoming a masterpiece. It shares DNA with giants like Anno and cozy builders like Townscaper, but carves out a niche that is entirely its own.
A Masterpiece in the Making
STARIO: Haven Tower is a triumph of design. It takes the familiar core of a city-builder and turns it on its head—or rather, points it toward the sky. It’s a relaxing, challenging, and beautiful game that respects the player’s intelligence with its deep, interconnected systems. Despite some needed performance optimization and minor balancing, it’s already an essential purchase for any fan of strategy, simulation, or puzzle games. Stargate Games has given us a glimpse of the heavens, and it is a marvel to behold.
Pros:
- Deeply satisfying and unique vertical logistics gameplay.
- Beautiful, soulful art style with a strong identity.
- Surprisingly complex and addictive for a casual sim.
- Incredibly polished and feature-rich for an Early Access title.
- Relaxing, peaceful atmosphere that is a joy to play.
Cons:
- Significant GPU usage and performance issues need optimization.
- Disasters can feel underwhelming and lack impact.
- There are some minor quality-of-life annoyances with the building UI.
- Could benefit from more variety in building models.
In the EA version, we have redesigned the beginner’s guide to help you start your adventure more smoothly. For now, we recommend that you slow down and follow the instructions to complete your goals step by step, enjoying the fun of exploration and growth. We have recorded the issues you pointed out and will optimize them in subsequent updates. Thank you for your patience and suggestions. – A helpful message from the Dev team
STARIO: Haven Tower: STARIO: Haven Tower is a celestial wonder. It blends intricate logistical puzzles with serene city-building to create an experience that is both intellectually stimulating and deeply relaxing. It’s a testament to the power of a unique idea executed with care and vision, proving that sometimes the best way to expand is not outward, but upward. – ColdMoon