Dawn of Man
I love a lot of this game. But what genius makes a game of superhuman raiders that march through winter and blizzards but your dudes decide its just cool to sit in the hut while the town in destroyed. Go ahead and slice my head off while is sit here with yellow thermal condition. Spend hours building and surviving only to have a uncontrolled illogical game issue ruin it. Congrats in your inability to handle this issue in beta.
– Real player with 555.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Historical Survival Games.
Dawn of Man is an excellent educational game. It’s a quick way to teach children how difficult it is to build up a town, society, and people. Farming, Hunting, Building - all skills that all humans should know the basics of how to do it - For REAL - and do with their own two hands. This game gives students a way to experience decades of development in only a few hours.
– Real player with 539.6 hrs in game
The Hundred Year Kingdom
Welcome to an untouched new world.
Only you—the Creator—and a mythical young goddess who calls herself an oracle exist here.
Share times of laughter, tears, and joy as you combine your skills and powers to guide the emergence of a brand new civilization.
Behold what becomes of your world after a century of growth.
・Develop a civilization from the ground up over 100 years in this simple turn-based simulation.
・Construct buildings and cultivate land to create and nurture a civilization with the help of a mythical young goddess who calls herself an oracle.
・Your world will be free of complicating elements like diplomacy, war, and calamities. Rest assured, barbarians won’t invade and Gandhi won’t launch a nuclear attack on your beautiful world!
・How you care for your civilization is up to you.
The Hundred Year Kingdom lets you build and care for a civilization in a world of your own making.
Set up and reshape your world with realms covered in mountains, vast seas, thick savanna, or whatever you like!
Read More: Best Historical Turn-Based Tactics Games.
Imperium Romanum Gold Edition
English :
This is a great game. The “Grand ages of Rome” is the sequel of it and has somewhat better graphics, comes with a plague of fires all the time. In Imperium Romanum that doesn’t happen. You have a lot of time to put up the fires and enjoy your city view & achievements. In this game you can relax but not so in Grand Ages of Rome. Tips: Plant trees near the wood cutter’s cabins, this way you’ll have a continuous flowing supply of wood. Extend your aqueducts to the maximum they can reach and build wells where fires occur more often. If you have enough money anything can be built in a flash. Don’t harass the barbarian tribes until you are really ready to face them. Build wooden walls around your town center to avoid attacks. I give 10/10 for this game and I am very pleased to have bought it!
– Real player with 50.0 hrs in game
A true successor to the game CivCity Rome, this simulator carries over many of the familiar features of the classic game with numerous improvements. Most significant is that a lot of the micromanagement has been removed, and game is not bogged down by de-evoling houses who don’t get every supply they need, even though for instance they live directly next to a butcher, tailor shop, and fruit store yet cant get meat, tunics or fruit. With that said, warehouse management is a bit too easy, since in the old game warehouses had to be watched carefully and supplies “donkeyed” between them to serve other parts of the city. This is now gone, and simply building a warehouse and marketplace next to a cluster of houses magically supplies all their needs.
– Real player with 24.6 hrs in game
Pharaoh + Cleopatra
First of all, please understand that I have no nostalgic attachment to this game. I did not play it as a kid, I did not even know about it until last month when i did a search on steam for any Egypt themed games (because I love Egypt.)
This game is fantastic. It’s so fun to be able to build an ancient city from scratch, and see it go from a few slums to a bustling paradise. I easily spend multiple hours playing this game without realising it.
There are many levels to play, each with different city goals. My favourite part is adding plazas, garden, and different statues to my city to make it look really stunning. The graphics are loving crafted and look beautiful. I also like that there are only minimal military gameplay in this, that was always my least favourite part of any society- building game like Civ or Age of Empires. Just leave me and my city in peace!!
– Real player with 196.7 hrs in game
This is of course a cult classic.
Compared to Caesar 3:
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too toxic colors, liked Caesar 3 much more
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buildings also less beautiful in my opinion
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significantly refined mechanics allowing clearer gameplay (water walker, bazaar lady capacity and many more)
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more difficulty (mainly in more space constraints)
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great monuments
And now how to make it playable:
0. Check out the HD patch guide in the hub and use it.
1. Use WinXPSP2 compability, Reduced color to 16 bit, Disable fullscreen optimizations, Run as admin, Program DPI, High DPI override. Not sure that everything is needed though.
– Real player with 147.9 hrs in game
Scramble
–Overall 8/10–
-Graphics: 6/10: Some parts of the map has icon issues and map looks oddly similar but overall OK UI design and little complexity makes the game more clear to understand
-Gameplay: 7/10: more than enough for a indie developer tycoon/colonisation game.
-Sounds: 10/10: i love the music that plays on the background.Other sounds are great
First of all, this is an indie game even tho it has potential in it you can see by the lack of some aspect; that potential never been used to its maximum. I considered this fact while reviewing keep in mind.
– Real player with 6.3 hrs in game
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Fun to play
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Have potential
+Diffrent type beat for a game
+Great Achivements
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Short play time
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Too repetitive after some games
-Would be great if it had multiplayer or coop
– Real player with 2.4 hrs in game
Knights and Merchants
Great Nostalgia, as I played the original game ~2000 when I was a kid. If you already played this game, you can’t do much wrong buying it again, it contains both campaigns (The Shattered Kingdom [TSK] & The Peasants Rebellion [TPR]) which should take ~50hrs of raw speedrunning if you still know the concept of the game.
There is a problem though: This is NOT the original game from 2000! It’s a remake with a hell of new bugs and changes (esp. if you played TSK and didn’t own the Gold Edition)
Some things I noticed:
– Real player with 148.3 hrs in game
If The Settlers and Dark Souls had a love child, it would be Knights and Merchants.
I never got to play this when it was originally released in 1998, and I regret it, but the mistake has now been rectified!
K&M is an old school RTS/city economy builder hybrid. The concept is simple, the graphics a little dated, but still good enough, the sounds are simple and your minions make cute little comments when ordered to do something. The UI is easy to understand and on the surface, it seems a simple game.
– Real player with 140.4 hrs in game
Paleon
While the game is still in pre-alpha it is very promising, the dev rolls out updates that patch bugs and add functionalities pretty often and he listens to his community and participates in the discussions. The game kinda hooks you, for now it’s not very long but it is really cool and for the price it’s very worth it to spend some hours managing your colony.
It has had bugs in the past, but right now, the update 1.3.4b is very solid and I have not had a single crash or game-breaking bug. As I said, the dev is quick fixing them.
– Real player with 17.6 hrs in game
Quite an interesting game, for this stage. One of those typical “I want to research everything at once”-tech trees, which allows for many different paths to develop technology. It reminds me of the Settlers games, but without all the fancier-than-necessary graphics.
On the other hand, it’s also clear there’s a lot of room for improvement, like when it comes to instruction, explanation, and some QOL in the mouse button interactions. To quote Yahtzee Croshaw, “This is a game in which there is officially no shame in looking up the FAQ. A tutorial wouldn’t go amiss.”
– Real player with 14.4 hrs in game
Zeus + Poseidon
One of my favorite childhood games to play, though I’m not quite certain it works as intended, be it because of steam or windows 10. The game launches in fullscreen by default and messes up my screen resolution when doing so. It does feature an in-game windowed mode that fixes this…but this renders the user interface on the right (through which the game is played) mostly unreadable, and it also squishes the text to make it difficult to read.
Additionally, I am uncertain the gods are properly rendered. I remember them when I played the game on disk them appearing instantly; it can take them over a minute to appear now and their animations for anything (be it attack, curse, or blessing) are equally as slowed.
– Real player with 179.9 hrs in game
Oh boy, oh boy…
It finally happened. One of my top 5 games of all time recently got released on Steam. I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve spent playing the main Zeus & Poseidon campaigns, let alone the custom-made ones.
The pinnacle of city builders that started with Sierra and ended with Impressions Games: The Caesar series, Pharaoh (& Cleopatra), Zeus (& Poseidon), Emperor - Rise of the Middle Kingdom, and even Children of the Nile (even though I never quite got into it). Pharaoh is also available in Steam now, so make sure you check it out, too!
– Real player with 94.5 hrs in game
Clanfolk
Clanfolk is an elaborate life sim set in the highlands of medieval Scotland.
Live off the land using historically accurate tools and processes to survive while building a growing settlement for your Clan. Every tile on the map has a purpose. Where you place your settlement, and how you build it, really matters.
Clanfolk will execute your grand building plans while also intelligently fulfilling their own personal needs. Get to know your Clanfolk as they live their entire lives in your care.
The world is fully simulated, and the largest threat is nature itself. Initially, food will be plentiful and the nights warm. There is lots of time to plan and enjoy the medieval homestead atmosphere. As the seasons change, resources will dwindle and careful planning becomes critical. Surviving your first winter is highly unlikely.
Colony Sim
The Clanfolk’s homestead will begin as a wilderness surrounded by mountains, forests, grasslands, and lakes. Over time it may develop into an industrial farm, or a livestock ranch, or a bustling trading post, or a quiet forest Inn, or maybe a hidden mountain fortress.
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Build sealed structures out of Floor, Wall, and Roof tiles.
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Structures track lighting, warmth, beauty and various unhappy smells.
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Windows allow ambient lighting into rooms.
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Use wall torches and fires to heat, light, and occasionally burn down straw houses.
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Venting system to allow fire and body heat to travel from room to room.
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Door locking system to keep Clanfolk, visitors, and livestock where they belong.
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Storage container objects to keep the ground clutter under control.
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Crafting can be prioritized, scheduled daily, and also controlled by maintaining a desired supply.
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Till the land, plant seeds, water them, add fertilizer, harvest, re-till the soil, and start again. All automated to the level you desire
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Care for livestock from birth. Keep them warm, dry, fed, watered, and clean their stalls.
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Learn just how hard it was to make a linen shirt. Grow the flax, thresh out the seed, throw the stalks in a river, let them rot for months, strip the loosened fibers from the stalks, spin the fibers into thread, weave the threads into cloth on the loom, and THEN sew your linen shirt!
Life Sim
Clanfolk live their whole lives on the Clan homestead, from birth until death over multiple generations. Clanfolk follow daily schedules, waking up before sunrise, taking their morning meals, washing up, and maybe having a conversations before the day’s work starts. Throughout the day, they will work as hard as their mood and health will allow. In the evening, they finally all come back together to eat, drink, have a chat, maybe play the flute for a while, then off to bed, hopefully a little better off than the day before.
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Clanfolk needs include: Hunger, Thirst, Sleep, Warmth, Cleanliness, Bathroom, Social, Fun, Beauty, and the inexplicable need for Plaid
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When needs are not within safe ranges, then afflictions may result. These afflictions can range from having a bad mood, to a cold that slowly deteriorates into pneumonia.
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Clanfolk have many skills which are improved through use. Skills can be prioritized or disabled to give Clanfolk different job roles to best utilize their skills.
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Babies inherit some skill proficiency from their parents. They are mostly time vampires, but they are cute and keep everyone’s' mood up (during the day)
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Babies grow into Juveniles that begin to provide labor. Juveniles are idea sponges, working slowly but learning much faster than adults.
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When Juveniles become Adults, their learning slows, but Adults finally work at full speed. Ideally, their childhood will have been spent on jobs that they enjoy, making them experts by adulthood. Another benefit of adulthood is the ability to have children to grow the Clan.
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Eventually Adults become Seniors. Seniors work and move more slowly than Adults, but they have the highest skills and provide learning bonuses to others working near them.
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Finally the Seniors will be unable to work and will need to be cared for. Clanfolk are able to understand the needs of other Clanfolk and are able to take care of the sick and injured, fulfilling all their needs when possible. Once the Senior dies, they can be buried in the family plot, and the cycle continues.
World Sim
The seasons in Clanfolk never seem long enough. Winter is always approaching and your time needs to be spent wisely. Each Season has ranges of temperature, rain, snow, wind, and even windchill. Some seasons are for growing and others for harvesting. Winter is for staying inside a warm room and processing the materials collected throughout the year.
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All four seasons have smooth transitions between them, ever advancing and changing each day.
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Sparks start fires that spread throughout the environment based on moisture and object flammability.
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Plant growth system that is aware of ground moisture as well as fertility level, which can be changed with watering and fertilizer.
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Overlays to quickly show fertility, moisture, heat, and beauty.
Neighbor Clans
Visitors will occasionally arrive from neighboring Clans surrounding the homestead. Over time your reputation with these neighbors can grow based on how they are treated as guests, workers, or traders. As your reputation increases with these Clans, contact will strengthen, providing better opportunities.
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Each neighbor Clan comes from a different Biome with different products and desired items for trade. The savvy player can run a profitable trading post if there is enough trade traffic from different Clans.
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As seasons progress, different items become more scarce and therefore more expensive.
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Neighbor clans have intrinsic skill bonuses based on their Clan type as well as their Biome. When looking for the best workers (and potential partners) keep these in mind.
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Neighbors do not send their best and brightest visitors until relations between the player Clan and the neighbor are strong.
AstronTycoon2: Ritual
I am playing the game for a while now and really enjoy it. At the first glance there were a lot of things going on so it took a while to understand villagers behaviour.
Game is very well balanced and have good pace. At the begining possibility to play on slow speed allowed me to absorb and admire nice nature and sun rises :)
Later on when making new buildings, harvesting or cutting wood I preferred max speed. At the later stage of the game, I just slightly changing villagers behaviour through economy interface and focusing mainly to build my own Stonehenge.
– Real player with 80.4 hrs in game
I love this game. I found it pretty intuitive, got stuck a few times but I figured it out. The motto of this game is KISS, Keep it simple, stupid. It has a basic recipe that once learnt permeates the game and allows you to progress at a good rate. I didn’t get all the achievements on my first play through and I learnt so much about where I should place things that I absolutely have to try again and I want to start from the beginning because, it’s just that much fun to play!
I can understand why some gamers may be frustrated with the game however I believe that has more to do with the current culture of gaming more so than the game. What I mean is, people are used to games that are tedious and arduous in nature. This game is casual, it has simple mechanics that are straight forward. If you can’t maintain enough herbs, consider that every time they are watered, they grow. If you plant 100 plants then your workers have to water them to full and then chop them, it is inefficient. This is the first lesson of the game. If you cannot figure out that the management style is about efficiency, then you will not enjoy this game.
– Real player with 61.8 hrs in game