While not as mainstream as FPS or RPGs, city-builder games have been around for a long time; seriously, the genre dates back to 1964's The Sumerian Game. Cast as essentially an all-seeing god who takes control of the lives of puny humans, the appeal of city builders is not hard to understand; the games can range from epic sci-fi operas to quirky small-scale fantasy distractions. Most people know SimCity, Anno, Cities: Skylines, and Pharaoh, but a few fantastic city-builders have succumbed to the passage of time, becoming little more than footnotes in history.
The great thing about city builders is that you really don't have to be incredible at them to have a blast. Heck, sometimes doing a terrible job can be more entertaining, and you often feel like you are learning on the job. Personally, I wouldn't consider myself a master of the genre by any means, but I easily lose hours playing any of these upcoming gems.
In the late 90s, Sierra, Impressions Games, and BreakAway Games established the Walker 2D city-builder formula with titles like Caesar 3, Pharaoh, and Zeus: Master of Olympus, all of which are nowadays readily available on Steam. For one reason or another, the last entry in this run, Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom, never made the jump to Valve's platform and can only be picked up through GOG. Obviously, Good Old Games is fantastic, but if a release isn't on Steam, it might as well not exist for most players.
Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom finally fixed nearly all the issues found in its spiritual predecessors. Unlike in the older games, Emperor gives you way more microscopic control over your citizens and responders, ensuring they don't just wander off onto side roads without reason. It also features a far more expansive agriculture system that goes beyond just dropping a farm and reaping the benefits, as players have to take into account rotations and even weather patterns.
Also, the game is kind of gorgeous! Yes, the graphics are very early-2000s, but the art style and architecture are absolutely timeless and jaw-dropping. Emperor really is the full package, and it might have fared better if it hadn't been released in 2002, just as the genre shifted to 3D graphics.
Let's shift focus to a forgotten sci-fi game built by a developer with one of the weirdest resumes in video game history. Created by programmers who worked with Bullfrog Productions, the team behind classics like Theme Hospital and Dungeon Keeper, Mucky Foot Productions completed three projects: Urban Chaos, Startopia, and Blade 2. The two action games were both pretty underwhelming, but they sandwiched one of the more innovative and impressive releases of the early 2000s.
Although not exclusively a city-builder, Startopia blends the genre's tenets with management sim elements, creating a whole that fits both categories and could also qualify as something entirely new. Instead of historical roads or modern grids, your canvas is a metropolis on a space station with finite space. The station has three decks with unique rules, and you need to cater to all three in their own ways. In the meantime, you cannot ignore oxygen, waste management, and recreation.
A big part of what makes Startopia great is its alien species, as the workers aren't just faceless, interchangeable units. The game has 9 core playable species, along with a few other visitors, each with their own strengths, preferences, and baggage.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://gamerant.com/city-builders-perfect-games-nobody-remembers-today/
