Best recent city builders?

[Ironmonk]

Its a Banished clone, pretty enjoyable.

 

[Arryosha]

Tried the demo for Workers and Resources. It definitely has depth, but I think I'll wait till it's out of early access.

Tried Anno 1800 and was bored within a few hours.

I ended up getting hooked on Capitalism Lab, which is an economic/trade sim but has some city building elements (expanded macroeconomics simulation from capitalism 2), especially with the City Economic Simulation DLC. It's still not a city builder, but it might scratch that itch.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

 

[kris]

Its a Banished clone, pretty enjoyable.

I tried this in the weekend and it was a pleasant surprise, they do need to rework the combat though. Basically combat can last forever as both sides can put in reinforcements and combat take forever to begin with.

I have a couple of more complaints, but overall it has been enjoyable.

 

[Perkel]

Transport Fever 2

It is not strictly city builder but transportation tycoon but as you produce new connections cities start to grow etc. So in the end it works out as city builder.

 

[Sloul]

Songs of Syx looks very promising, didn't test it yet. /not sure if you'd call it a city builder.

 

[Kruyurk]

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

Northgard is not really a city builder but a RTS à la Warcraft or Age of Empires. It is very dissapointing, as if every design choice was made to not frustrate the player, resulting in a bland experience where you have much less control compared to the average in RTS. The visual and ambiance is generic and cartoony, no risk taken to try to please everyone, which is actually consistent with the overall design of the game. I got it in a bundle and glad it didn't cost me much.

For city builders, I am looking forward to the upcoming Farthest Frontier (by the developpers of Grim Dawn).

 

[HeatEXTEND]

Anyone here tried Songs of Syx? Any good?

 

[jackofshadows]

Northgard is not really a city builder but a RTS à la Warcraft or Age of Empires. It is very dissapointing, as if every design choice was made to not frustrate the player, resulting in a bland experience where you have much less control compared to the average in RTS. The visual and ambiance is generic and cartoony, no risk taken to try to please everyone, which is actually consistent with the overall design of the game.

I agree with ^ but note that the game designed for multiplayer and there it's decent according to some.

Surviving Mars turned out really nice to my surprise.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

Niggerino Retardo What's good/bad about it? Looks like a sort of SimCity/Rimworld hybrid yes/no?

 

[Joggerino]

Niggerino Retardo What's good/bad about it? Looks like a sort of SimCity/Rimworld hybrid yes/no?

The thing is, I played the game for some time but I remember almost nothing about it. So I assumed it wasn't really worth playing and gave that rating.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

best is still simcity 4, followed by skylines with a metric ton of mods. and this is so damn sad. anything else spans from mediocre to pure shit.

 

[Retardo]

Niggerino Retardo What's good/bad about it? Looks like a sort of SimCity/Rimworld hybrid yes/no?

Its more like its own thing.
You start with a small settlement, then grow it to thousands of ppl, trade with your neighbours, recruit armies, fuck your neighbours over on the world map. There's also a wonky economy, and sort of social simulation (also wonky), and each of your citizens is sorta simulated, has race, skills etc.

I'd recommend trying the demo or "demo" version first though - this is very similar to dwarf fortress as in "a work of a single dev with crazy ambitions".

 

[Retardo]

Of all the recent shitty city builders these have attracted my attention:

Captain of Industry - mixes banished with factorio. You don't build your factory by hand, instead you do it as in city builder, placing building plans and waiting for the colonists to do the actual building. They also work in your factories, and in exchange you provide them with homes and food, akin to banished. This is EA, but rather polished, and what makes it stand out is detailed recipes and production chains - like, you have several recipes even for basic concrete.

Settlement survival - chinese clone of Banished, boasting more content and better UI/gfx/QoL. IMO has more content than other banished-wannabes like Foundation and Kingdoms reborn, and actually has a chance to release from EA.

Songs of Syx - mentioned above.

Diplomacy is not an Option - build your settlement, deal with simplified economy, draft an army, build walls, defend from invader waves. For some inexplicable reason I find it charming, really hope it would turn out better than They are Billions.

Nebuchadnezzar - babylonian Caesar/Pharaoh. Rather interesting, kind of released from EA barebones, but now is slowly getting there with free patches.

Kingdoms and Castles - very simplistic kingdom building sim, both in terms of mechanics and graphics. You grow food, place houses, attract citizens and defend from invaders, while managing taxes and settlement growth. Its main strength is that all its mechanics work and its not a fucking early access.