9 Best City Simulation Games That You Should Know Update 04/2024

Best City Simulation Games

In the city, it’s not always easy to get around. It’s noisy, crowded, and getting to and from work can be difficult. As long as there was a way to design the perfect city, everything would be perfect.

Fortunately, game designers understand what you’re going through. For years, they have given us a way to play God and build our own utopias. Why risk your life on the real streets when you can just build your own? You can go anywhere in the world that you want. This is why we’ve put together our own list of the best city-building games of all time. You can use this list to find the best way to build your own world.

1. Cities XL

Cities XL

People should put Cities XL in the top three because it was a huge project back when it came out. People thought it was a simple city-building video game at first glance, but it also had an online multiplayer mode that was fun to play with others. Cities XL also let players interact with each other on a planet that kept going. This means each city is owned by a player and each player can even trade with other players. It’s like running a world in a game.

A few months after it closed down, Cities: XL became just a single-player game, not an MMO that was all about building cities. So, even though it was a big deal in its time, it wasn’t the best city-building game before SimCity and Cities: Skylines made it better.

2. Townscaper

This game isn’t a city builder in the traditional sense, but there is no doubt that the goal of this game is to build a town. You can choose from a lot of different colours and styles, and it’s a very relaxing experience.

Townscaper has come into its own as a tool for people who want to use their own towns as set pieces in their games. It lets you make a town the way you want it and in the way you want it.

3. SimCity

SimCity Buildlt

The SimCity games have been around for a long time now. As far back as almost 30 years, the first piece in the series was written. It is the first city-building game, and it set the stage for many more. These games still have a place in the gaming world, moving from PCs and consoles to phones and tablets.

Because the formula they came up with still works today, it’s worth your time to check out this game. You can even play the last game in the series, SimCity: Buildit, for free on your smartphone or tablet.

4. Medieval Dynasty

There are some weird things about Medieval Dynasty. Instead of being an omniscient person who decides where buildings are built and what your residents do, you are just a guy who decides where buildings are built and what your residents do.

A lot of fun is had with the settlement building features in this game. They make the game from a simple survival game with generations to something much bigger.

5. Foundation

Foundation

While this game is still in Early Access, Foundation is a very promising mediaeval city builder from Polymorph Games. The game doesn’t have a grid and focuses on how settlements are built instead of how they look.

There are many things that happen that you can’t control in the game, and you have to play in a way that is more reactive than proactive. In addition, the game has a strong modding community that will keep it around for a long time.

6. Valhalla Hills

Is your main goal in life being liked by a Nordic God and getting a place in the afterlife? Then this game is for you! Players will build settlements in Valhalla Hills in order to gain the favour of Odin, the god of the sky. If you want to build a city in a more relaxed way, this is the game we recommend.

Because the art is colourful and cartoonish, it looks good. There’s less emphasis on combat than in some of our other games. To get resources, you’ll have to fight with the Dwarves in the area and there are some monsters to deal with. But for the most part, you can focus on growing your Nordic empire.

7. Urban Empire

Urban Empire

Urban Empire is a city-building game that takes a different twist. Instead of building things, Urban Empire wants you to use diplomacy to help your civilization grow. In most of the time you spend, you fight for votes and favour with your own people.

You will make and break friendships as often as you make them. You will also be looking for ways to make life better in your kingdom. This section is for people who want to watch a “historical family drama” unfold rather than play a strategy game.

8. Tropico 6

El Presidente is back. This time, he’s in an archipelago where you can manage/rule over multiple islands at the same time. Building a city from the ground up is what this city-building game has you do. You also have to deal with the island’s economic needs, the happiness of your citizens, and keeping paradise afloat on shady deals with other countries.

As the game progresses, you’ll face more and more challenges from crooked government officials that you’ll need to complete in order to reach your goal, which changes with each scenario.

As you might expect from a game about building a dictatorial city, Tropico 6 gives you a lot of options. If you make the wrong choice, you can expect to pay the price. A general election could be on the horizon. If that happens, you can bend the figures or stay clean, but there’s a trade-off: You could lose the election and have to start the level over, or you could anger internal factions, which could make the game less fun.

Tropico 6’s ostentatious presentation doesn’t show how much love and care you’ll need to put into your regime to keep everyone happy, in a relative sense. As a good thing, the island setting makes it easy to keep track of your buildings and notifications, whether you see rebels on the streets or a group of shacks that have sprung up as a sign that you need to build more homes for your people.

9. Aven Colony

Aven Colony

In Aven Colony, you’re a city builder on a different planet. You’ll have to deal with a lot more difficult problems than where to build your roads. For starters, you’ll have to think about all the scary new space biomes and the hostile atmosphere.

Instead of building a new city to attract people, your main goal is to rebuild humanity, which is a very big goal. In order to do so, you’ll have to adapt to the environment, fight off natural disasters, run out of oxygen, and even deal with alien life forms like huge sandworms.

Start as a governor and work your way up the ranks to become president of your colony. The rest of the game will follow suit, expanding your tools and testing your abilities by starting with small goals like building a water pump and going all the way up to manning a full-scale Starship Troopers-like army.

Aven Colony isn’t just a city-building game, either. It also has a lot of the best 4X games and strategy games in it. There is some light fighting and a system that lets you go on missions to find out more about the planet’s history.