I’ve always been a big fan of the Anno series, pretty much played all of them!
Recently tried the Steamworld Build demo, and it was great. Looking for something to scratch the itch until release though. I’ve heard Farthest Frontier is good, any opinions on that, or other recommendation?
I’ve been a big fan of cities: skylines, but, big but here, it’s kinda janky. That being said there’s great mods out there for it. The biggest issue I always run into is managing traffic, but I have also gotten better at managing the stock traffic, it’s kind of a fun challenge. Cities: Skylines 2 is supposed to be coming out at some point, but I don’t know an exact date. I’ll also say I got the game free from epic so fee is always the right price.
The problem I have with this game is there’s no challenge. I like games where losing happens frequently. I can’t be entertained without challenge. This, to me, falls under the class of sandbox games which just don’t engage me. Too many of these games focus on graphics and flavor without really nailing down the core simulation. I’d rather manage a tiny town with deep simulation and high difficulty than paint a metropolis that feels empty to me.
I would love a city builder that was truly challenging. I don’t care to spend hours painting my beautiful city for screenshots.
It would be great if there was a middle ground between city skylines and mini motorways. Something where the city you build is the result of the constraints imposed on you.
Mini motorways offers a challenge, but is too simple (and too easy to cheese). City skylines is complex, but rather pointless. You could self impose challenges, but what’s the fun with that?
Maybe there’s a mod, but I haven’t looked into it.
Workers and Resources is a great city builder/industry builder with a different focus to most. You’re in charge of a socialist republic in the eastern bloc. The economy works differently and there is a lot more focus on… workers… and resources. There are also wildly varying difficulty levels so it can be as simple or complex as you want it to be.
Not sure exactly what you’re looking for, but Captain of Industry has a bit of city builder mixed with production chain stuff. Cities Skylines is pretty good as a builder/management game. Banished is one I had a lot of fun with. Timberborn has come a long way, though it’s still in Early Access. Could even look at something like Surviving the Aftermath or Endzone: A world Apart for something with a more survival/post apocalyptic feel.
I’m still a big fan of the OG SimCity 4.
What subgenre, if any? What kind of difficulty/complexity? Do you want it to have military elements or is none okay?
Not sure what subgenre it would be, but something like the Anno series, where the main focus is on building city / supply lines. Less difficult / complex would be good, and military is fine, as long as not the main focus (e.g. more RTS than city builder).
Anno is very genre-crossy, that’s part of its strength. It’s pretty one-of-a-kind afaik. Tropico is probably going to get the closest.
If you want to branch out a little bit, I’d def look into Cities: Skylines as the real heavyweight in the entire city genre, and Going Medieval as a slimmer, smaller scale colony-builder type, in the Rimworld vein.
