Ever since I first played Age of Empires II, I have been hooked on playing real-time strategy and city builder games.
The genre has come a long way since the 2000s, so I’ve listed some of the best city builders that are guaranteed to keep you entertained for hours on end.
1. Airborne Kingdom
In Airborne Kingdom, you build a flying metropolis to house your ever-growing population.
However, if you want your city to survive and eventually thrive, you’ll need to keep factors like air drag, lift, and tilt in mind to ensure it stays afloat.
If you want to relax and live out your architectural fantasies, you can also enter Creative Mode, freeing you from resource limitations and time constraints.
2. Dorfromantik
Dorfromantik is a peaceful and relaxing experience in which players create expansive villages by placing down hexagonal tiles.
However, you only have a limited number of these hexagonal tiles, and the session ends once your tile stack is empty.
Completing quests rewards you with more unique tiles, expanding your collection for future play sessions and allowing you to play longer.
3. Frostpunk
In Frostpunk, you must rule over the last city on Earth after a new ice age has engulfed the world.
Heat is essential to your citizens’ survival, and you must make difficult choices such as implementing strict laws and managing resources effectively to brave the apocalyptic winter.
As one of my favourite city-builders, I cannot recommend Frostpunk enough.
4. Northgard
Northgard is set in a Viking world filled with mythical threats like giants and valkyries — plucked straight from the pages of the Norse sagas.
You can choose from various Viking clans, each with its own unique characteristics and playstyle.
To achieve victory, you can use warfare, trade, exploration, or reputation, with each victory condition giving you a different ending.
5. Surviving Mars
Surviving Mars tasks the player with building the first functioning human colony on the Red Planet and surviving the process.
Players have to manage their colonists just as well as their resources, as each individual comes with different strengths and needs that influence their behaviour.
For example, if you aren’t careful, you can drive your scientists to alcoholism if you work them too hard.
6. Townscaper
Townscaper is unique since it doesn’t really have an end goal — instead, you just build island towns to your heart’s content.
The layout in which you decide to place the blocks will affect the appearance of your house.
For instance, if you build ten blocks stacked on each other vertically, you’ll get a lighthouse-looking building, while a U-shape might get you a stream running through the middle of your house.
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