{"id":90701,"date":"2016-06-19T13:53:38","date_gmt":"2016-06-19T11:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=90701"},"modified":"2016-06-19T13:54:06","modified_gmt":"2016-06-19T11:54:06","slug":"greatest-city-building-games-of-all-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/pc\/90701-greatest-city-building-games-of-all-time","title":{"rendered":"Greatest City-Building games of all time"},"content":{"rendered":"

The vast quantity of PC games on the market means that some relatively niche genres can gain strong support.<\/p>\n

Nothing showcases this more than Paradox’s Cities: Skylines, which brought the city-building genre back into the spotlight.<\/p>\n

After SimCity’s failure to launch<\/a><\/strong>, Cities: Skylines graciously stepped in with a revolutionary city-building game that featured a ton of new content.<\/p>\n

The genre has seen a few different approaches to tycoon mechanics, although there hasn’t been much variety in terms of developers. Most major city-building games were developed by experienced city-builder specialists such as Impressions Games or Maxis.<\/p>\n

We have unearthed some of the greatest city-building games of all time according to their GameRankings<\/strong> <\/a>and Metacritic<\/strong> <\/a>scores.<\/p>\n

N.B.<\/strong>\u00a0Metacritic\u00a0rankings are not an accurate measurement of games released before the year 2000.<\/p>\n

\n

Caesar III<\/h3>\n

GameRankings: 88.60%<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Metacritic Score: N\/A (user 8.7)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Caesar III is the biggest success of all the Impressions Games ancient city-builders.<\/p>\n

The game is set in the ancient Roman Empire, and the player is a governor in service to Caesar. The campaign sees the player building cities in various locations and can present quite a challenge to new players.<\/p>\n

The game is the most highly-rated out of all the Impressions Games city-builders and takes the top spot on this list.<\/p>\n

\"caesar3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Cities: Skylines<\/h3>\n

GameRankings: 86.49%<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Metacritic Score: 85 (user 8.7)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Cities: Skylines is the most recent revolution in city-building titles.<\/p>\n

Paradox Interactive, a studio renowned for their work on complex titles such as Crusader Kings and Pillars of Eternity, turned their sights towards the city-building genre and created Cities: Skylines, expertly filling the gap left by the latest SimCity.<\/p>\n

The game has been been well-received and is regarded as the best recent city-building title.<\/p>\n

\"Cities<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

SimCity 4<\/h3>\n

GameRankings: 85.23%<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Metacritic Score: 84 (user 8.7)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

SimCity 4 was Maxis’ best game in the SimCity franchise.<\/p>\n

A fairly modern entry, the game features all the best mechanics of the SimCity series without any of the annoyances and hindrances some titles possessed.<\/p>\n

Retaining all the charm of the Sims universe, the game is still the best in the franchise.<\/p>\n

\"SimCity<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Settlers II<\/h3>\n

GameRankings: 83.75%<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Metacritic Score: N\/A (user 9.1)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Settlers II ranks high amongst city-building fans, although the game has since forgone town management in favour of combat.<\/p>\n

Settlers II is very different to modern Settlers games, and focuses more on the management and city-building side gameplay, offering increased depth in lieu of a faster pace.<\/p>\n

\"Settlers<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Anno 1404 (Dawn of Discovery)<\/h3>\n

GameRankings: 82.46%<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Metacritic Score: 82 (user 8.8)<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anno 1404 (or Dawn of Discovery as it is known in the United States) is a favourite amongst more competitive city-building fans.<\/p>\n

The game features a perfect mix of of exploration and town management, allowing players to build multiple cities on different islands and create trade routes between them.<\/p>\n

The main attraction of this city-builder is its expansion pack – titled Venice.<\/p>\n

Anno 1404: Venice features multiplayer, allowing multiple players to build on the same map and interact in a way that has still not been surpassed by another city-building game.<\/p>\n

\"Anno<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Tropico<\/h3>\n

GameRankings: 82.33%<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Metacritic Score: 85 (user 8.4)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Tropico is an old favourite among city-building fans.<\/p>\n

Players assume the role of a dictator who has complete power over a tropical island filled with politics, humour and challenges.<\/p>\n

The entire series has provided solid city-building games, with the first iteration being the highest-rated of the franchise.<\/p>\n

\"Tropico\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Honourable Mentions<\/h3>\n

Although the above games were generally received well by critics, the majority of city-building games cater to different audiences and score more mixed reviews.<\/p>\n

Below are a few city-builders which scored decently, but\u00a0unfortunately not high enough to compete with the front-runners.<\/p>\n

\n

Banished<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Banished\"<\/a><\/h3>\n
\n

Zeus: Master of Olympus<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"zeus\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

SimCity 3000<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"SimCity<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Pharaoh<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Pharaoh\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Tropico 5<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Tropico<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Anno 2070<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Anno<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

What is your favourite city-building game? Let us know in the comments and forums.<\/strong><\/p>\n

More gaming news<\/h3>\n

The best PC games of all time<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Microsoft to unveil new Xbox hardware at E3 2016<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The future of competitive gaming in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’ve unearthed some of the greatest city-builders of all time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":232,"featured_media":90711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_enabled":true,"_sma_x_custom_text":"","_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,3],"tags":[17576,14224,18331,18329,18333,1966,18149,753,2180,8406],"class_list":["post-90701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-pc","tag-best","tag-building","tag-caesar","tag-cities-skylines","tag-city","tag-games","tag-impressions","tag-list","tag-simcity","tag-tycoon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/232"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90701"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93501,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90701\/revisions\/93501"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}