You can build your dream city, manage your residents, and study traffic solutions from the top city builders.
Are you looking for the best city-building games to play on your PC in 2022 Nothing is more relaxing than a good afternoon of city-building games and a warm drink. We have spent countless hours trying to make buildings look just the way we want them, or saving a population from collapse. Sometimes we even deliberately caused that collapse to test how our citizens would handle it. It happens, but not as well as we think.
This list contains the top city-building games. It includes entries for those who are serious about their management, but also for those who enjoy a more relaxed approach to the genre, with tutorials and stripped down interfaces. We’ve also included both realistic city builders and sci fi simulator games, just in case you get bored of planning your urban spaces against a traditional background.
This list of the top city-building games for PC will help you achieve your goals, whether it’s to repopulate Earth or conquer new planets.
These are the top city-building games for PC in 2022:
- Tropico 6
- Aven Colony
- Frostpunk
- Surviving Mars
- SimCity4
- Cities Skylines
- Anno 1800
- Surviving The Aftermath
Romans in the Age of Caesar
When it comes to city-building, historically-speaking, the Romans were among the best, and Romans: Age of Caesar is all about re-building the Roman Empire. This MMO is unique in that it allows you to work with up to 16 players to build and maintain your own city. Many others are also working on their cities to become part of the empire.
You really feel like you are helping to build an empire digitally. As you play, resources will be gathered by you and other players so you can expand and grow your city. It’s an amazing thing to be part of.
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Tropico 6
El Presidente is back, but this time you will be able to manage multiple islands at once. You will be responsible for building a city and maintaining paradise by making corrupt deals with foreign allies.
Tropico 6 is about finding balance in a city where there aren’t enough residents. There will be challenges from corrupt government officials. You’ll have to overcome them in order to reach your overall goal which changes with each scenario.
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Tropico 6 offers you plenty of options, but you should be aware that you could face severe consequences if you make a wrong decision. You have two options if a general election is imminent. You can either bend the numbers or keep your head clean. However, there will be a compromise between losing the election or having to restart the level, or angering internal factions.
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Tropico 6’s dazzling presentation is a deceiving reflection of how much care and love you will need to give to your regime in order to keep everyone happy. The island setting makes it easy for you to monitor your buildings and receive notifications, whether you’re looking for rebels or building more homes for your citizens.
Aven Colony
Aven Colony takes the city builder to another planet, where they will face more difficult obstacles than just deciding where to build their roads. You’ll need to consider the dangers posed by hostile environments and terrifying new biomes.
Your main goal is not to create a new city that will attract residents. It is your primary objective to rebuild humanity. This is a noble goal. You’ll have to adapt to the environment, fight against natural disasters (pretty important, this), and battle against alien lifeforms such as gigantic sandworms.
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As a governor, you will start as an officer and progress through the ranks until you become the president of your colony. The rest of the game will follow your lead. You can expand your toolbox and test your skills by setting small goals such as building a water pump or manning a Starship Troopers-like force.
Aven Colony doesn’t just focus on building cities. It also incorporates elements from the best 4X games as well as strategy games . You can also engage in light combat or take part in an expeditions system to uncover the planet’s past.
Frostpunk
Frostpunk is a city-builder that will make your morality questionable. Your mission is to survive an ice age in a steampunk-powered, sheltered city. Your role as leader of survivors is to rebuild the city around the giant heater, which constantly needs fuel to keep its inhabitants safe and healthy.
Frostpunk, like many of the most popular survival games is about managing resources efficiently to keep the city running. Your main concern is keeping your furnace fueled. Frostpunk, unlike other city builders, is all about survival and not ruling. It’s a continuous juggling act to keep new residents happy while also making sure the furnace and city are fully functional.
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You might not expect much from one of the most apocalypse-themed Frostpunk games. It isn’t exactly a lighthearted game for city building. In this harsh tundra, death is inevitable. You will need to make difficult decisions to keep the city afloat. Instead of worrying about how structures look and where they are placed, you’ll need to create the laws that keep your citizens safe, gamble on risky expeditions and sometimes make an example of someone who is a criminal.
Surviving Mars
Surviving Mars is a hybrid of survival and city-building, much like Frostpunk. However, Surviving Mars takes place on a barren, red planet, not surrounded by a frozen hellscape. As you explore Mars’ dusty surface and search for fertile terrain, you’ll have all the tools you need to build a happy, functional city for colonists.
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There is no Matt Damon scientist on hand to guide you through this process. As you try to feed your colonists, you’ll become your own scientist, botanist and city planner. But that’s only part of the problem. Surviving Mars can be a bit more difficult. It requires you to pay attention to make sure your citizens have oxygen and are protected from natural disasters such as dust storms or cold waves. But Surviving Mars does an excellent job of keeping you informed about the progress of your city.
Exploration and research play a major role in this survival city builders. You can dramatically improve the facilities and structures in your colony to match your Asimovian fantasies. There are endless possibilities for sci-fi colonies thanks to a vibrant mod scene.
SimCity 4
SimCity has been around for quite some time now. You can see how many other city-building games have borrowed from, or in the case City: skylines, improved on, this immensely popular series of city-building games. SimCity 4 was launched in 2003. Although the game isn’t particularly innovative, it’s still a challenging and satisfying contender.
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Similar to Cities: Skylines you will only have one goal: creating your dream city. There are many different areas of buildings that you can place in a grid-like format. However, you have the option to spend more money on roads or other advanced architecture. As you build your city, you’ll receive prompts to notify you of the needs of your residents. SimCity is simple to use, but it can sometimes be all you need in a city-building simulation.
Skylines of Cities
Cities: Skylines’ meteoric rise to success is down to simplicity. Cities: Skylines is the ultimate city-building game, regardless of whether you are a veteran planner who can handle almost any situation or a novice.
Cities: Skylines lets you quickly build a city skeleton without spending hours scrolling through different building types or worrying about the details. It’s all about how you balance the needs of each area and your citizens. This makes you more like a mayor.
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Cities: Skylines is not difficult, but it isn’t. It is simple to understand and you can always start over again if things go wrong. Cities: Skylines, as you would expect from the studio behind Cities in Motion has a rich and varied mix of transit options. This means that you can spend hours making sure your residents move as smoothly and seamlessly as possible.
There is a vibrant mod scene for the more serious players. It includes scenarios, new buildings and traffic solutions. You can recreate any city anywhere in the world, or even solve LA’s notorious traffic problem. You can check out the best Cities mods.
Anno 1800
Anno 1800 brings the city-building series back to its historical roots. This position will make you a leader in the Industrial Revolution as you trade and build your empire from just a few farms and warehouses into a vibrant industrial metropolis that is the envy of the entire world. As you move to the modern age, you will be able to attract tourists to your museums and zoos, while navigating the many logistical issues and social issues associated with seismic change.
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Anno 1800 has many different ways to play, including multiplayer and sandbox. Anno 1800 is similar to the best 4X games. There are many ways to win it, from attracting investors and wealth to building diplomatic ties and attracting visitors. You’ll be competing against other islands and will need to pay attention to your competitors and their decisions in the world. This will help you understand how they work and whether you can trust them.
You’ll also need to monitor your competitors. This will help you keep your employees happy as you grow trade and your town. A newspaper circulates throughout the country, telling stories about the successes and failures of your community. These details help to bring the Industrial Revolution’s world to life. Anno 1800 may gloss over the harsh realities of the period, but it is easy to be drawn in by the beautiful vistas and charm.
Surviving the Aftermath
Surviving The Aftermath is set in a post-apocalyptic setting. You are responsible for overseeing a colony of survivors in a procedurally created wasteland. You must ensure that your survivors’ city can withstand natural disasters, bandits and wild beasts as you build it and grow it.
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It is a harsh environment. In your quest to preserve your colony for as long possible, with limited resources, you will have to make tough decisions about what you are willing to sacrifice or risk in order to survive. Your decisions have a direct impact on the well-being of your citizens, but they also affect the reputation of your colony and your ability to trade.