Best recent city builders?

[Arryosha]

What are the best city builders of the last few years (post-skylines)? There's been such a proliferation, recently, that it's hard to know which are worth putting time into.

 

[Marat]

Foundation has aroused my interest. Rather chilled out medieval city builder with a focus on organic growth and gridless construction. Has been in EA for a few years now, the full release must be drawing near.

 

[JarlFrank]

Foundation has aroused my interest. Rather chilled out medieval city builder with a focus on organic growth and gridless construction. Has been in EA for a few years now, the full release must be drawing near.

It's pretty good. Got that Settlers style production chains and tje gridless building makes for a lot of freedom in how to layout your city.

I also really like Workers & Resources, a really complex city builder set in your own Soviet republic. Simulates everything a city during Soviet times would have needed, and has a shitton of historic vehicles to buy for your production buildings.
You have to deal with electricity, road and railroad construction, exports and imports, etc etc. Highly complex and highly satisfying.

 

[Catacombs]

I enjoy Banished.

 

[Arryosha]

Workers & Resources, a really complex city builder

Good to hear. I had written that game off as just a gimmick.

 

[HeroMarine]

Sim City 4

 

[axx]

Ostriv is pretty good (Banished-style)

 

[Aemar]

I also really like Workers & Resources, a really complex city builder set in your own Soviet republic. Simulates everything a city during Soviet times would have needed, and has a shitton of historic vehicles to buy for your production buildings.
You have to deal with electricity, road and railroad construction, exports and imports, etc etc. Highly complex and highly satisfying.

Is this like a Soviet Tropico minus the politics stuff?

 

[JarlFrank]

I also really like Workers & Resources, a really complex city builder set in your own Soviet republic. Simulates everything a city during Soviet times would have needed, and has a shitton of historic vehicles to buy for your production buildings.
You have to deal with electricity, road and railroad construction, exports and imports, etc etc. Highly complex and highly satisfying.

Is this like a Soviet Tropico minus the politics stuff?

It's way more complex than Tropico because of all the stuff you need to manage. It's the most simulationist city builder I played yet.

 

[Catacombs]

Drop Bear: What did you not like about Banished?

 

[Drop Duck]

Drop Bear: What did you not like about Banished?

It's bland and basic. If you have played good city builders like the ones by Impressions Games, Maxis, even Firefly Studios, and all those other classic studios it has nothing to offer you.

 

[oscar]

Drop Bear: What did you not like about Banished?

Much, much too easy. But the basic recipe, UI, graphics, music, 'feel' is all very solid. There's some excellent mods that add all sorts of building chains but fundamentally the game needs more challenge and threat as even ignoring them it's pretty hard for your citizens to ever dip below max happiness and health. Still a pretty fun and relaxing intro into the genre. Ostriv, as mentioned, is of a similar spirit but seems harder to amass the huge food surpluses of Banished (an erosion mechanic here would have been fantastic as well as colonists needing a balance of carbs, proteins and vegetables to stay healthy) and has financial management aspects as well as being more demanding in general. The Ukraine War has stalled their development entirely though.

Always baffled the creator never made a sequel given he was a one-man team and it sold very well. With a bit more depth, punch and maybe some Rimworld-esque threats and challenges it could have become the perfect city builder. Ah well, guess he's enjoying the big profit he must have made.

 

[3 others]

Haven't played yet, but heard some good things about Timberborn (dam builder with beavers). Seems to have elements from Factorio, Banished & Frostpunk & Oxygen Not Included.

 

[Comte_II]

Sim City 4

Been playing this alot with the NAM mod.

(Not vietnam no gook shit)

 

[Rephyrnomicon]

SimCity 4 is probably the last good one. Cities Skylines is kind of shit.

 

[Catacombs]

It's bland and basic ... it has nothing to offer you

The game's simplicity works for what it accomplishes: Give the player a city-building game that's perfect to throw on after a hard day's work. The vanilla game gets old after a while, yes, but there are enough mods (thankfully) to give it some extra miles, as oscar mentioned.

The game is a great introduction to the genre. Your biggest concern is the health and happiness of your citizens. For some players, that's all they want; no need to stress about traffic patterns, power grids, trade routes. The loop is simple: shelter your citizens, feed them, and make sure they're working (with enough tools; otherwise, everyone will die in a tool shortage apocalypse).

I agree with you that one can get more bang and danger with other classic and modern games: Cities: Skylines, Pharaoh, SimCity 3000 (I've played all three and enjoyed them). While Banished is not for everyone, it does its job well to fill a necessary role: a chill, entry-level city builder.

 

[Drop Duck]

I agree with you that one can get more bang and danger with other classic and modern games: Cities: Skylines, Pharaoh, SimCity 3000 (I've played all three and enjoyed them). While Banished is not for everyone, it does its job well to fill a necessary role: a chill, entry-level city builder.

If you started out with Banished you might think the entire genre is boring. There's nothing wrong with starting out with SimCity, I did. The barrier of entry is knee high.

 

[Kruno]

SimCity 4 is still the reigning king. I have played almost all of the modern city builders and they all lack depth. Cities Skylines is a city painter and everything else is trying to mimick SimCity and failing hard. A lot of these sims also have performance issues with their simulations which leads to long wait times for things to happen.

I am experimenting with my own sims, but I have yet to hit the fun factor the earlier SimCity games had.

SimCity 4 with patches and mods is still king.

 

[HeroMarine]

SimCity 4 is still the reigning king. I have played almost all of the modern city builders and they all lack depth. Cities Skylines is a city painter and everything else is trying to mimick SimCity and failing hard. A lot of these sims also have performance issues with their simulations which leads to long wait times for things to happen.

I am experimenting with my own sims, but I have yet to hit the fun factor the earlier SimCity games had.

SimCity 4 with patches and mods is still king.

It's so fucking weird to read a normal post from you.

 

[Jonathan "Zee Nekomimi]

how much recent we talking here? I would suggest patrician 3/4 for city building/trade sim.

 

[Retardo]

Foundation has aroused my interest. Rather chilled out medieval city builder with a focus on organic growth and gridless construction. Has been in EA for a few years now, the full release must be drawing near.

Did they add more content since the last year?
I've tried it then, and ran out of things to do in, like, 10 hours.

 

[Joggerino]

I wrote down two new citybuilders that I plan to try out.
1. Northgard
2. Timberborn

 

[luj1]

none recent tbh

caesar 3

/thread

 

[Stavrophore]

 

[Jonathan "Zee Nekomimi]

none recent tbh

caesar 3

/thread

Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom for superior improvement gameplay