Summary
City-buildershave grown to become part of a huge, expansive genre that covers a plethora of different tastes. Whether players want to sink their teeth into strategic, tactical economic simulations and manage the infrastructure of their society, or lose themselves in the machinations ofa fantasy world, there is always something available for fans of every stripe within the city-builder genre.
New playersand veterans alike in this genre can always be thrown off course when something goes awry. Freak weather events, cascading infrastructure failures, a surprise zombie attack, almost every city builder has events that can throw a player off course, and potentially even bring their settlement to collapse before it’s truly reached its peak. These games, in particular, aren’t just defined by the disasters they throw the players' way, but how the players can respond to these events and keep their cities thriving.
Genre
Post-Apocalyptic, Sci-Fi, Strategy
New Cycleis a post-apocalyptic city-builder that immerses itself in a grim, ruined Earth. Like a lot ofpost-apocalyptic base-building games, the setting is also one of the main antagonists driving the player to consistently innovate and remain on their toes.
Players will have to come up with efficient, robust means of countering dust storms, wildfires, freak accidents, and other not-so-natural disasters like civil unrest and populace revolts. In line with other games that focus on less-than-idyllic city construction settings, disease is also a major factor that players will have to prepare to address over the course of the game.
InFrostpunk 2, the question of a disaster isn’t so much “if” as it is “when.” Players constantly need to be prepared for when the going gets tougher from the very second they begin their game. It’s not enough to simply keepcitizens fed, there needs to be an abundance of food for when the crops start to die.
The most novel way to mitigate disaster inFrostpunk 2is preparedness. The game doesn’t let players fill up oil and food until the city’s needs are met. Instead, it lets players go beyond this, building huge stockpiles to last for months when access to vital resources might be restricted by whiteouts.
Kingdoms and Castlesis an incredible game — not too fussed about overwhelming the player with details, this game provides a set of basic rules and then lets the player shape the kingdom of their dreams. It’s the very essence of “easy to learn, hard to master” in a genre that can sometimes take the mantra of “hard to learn, sociology degree required to master.”
Players who have prepared ahead of time will still find managing disasters challenging, but not unreasonable. Well-trained archers and soldiers will do well against Viking raids, and having firefighters with nearby wells can mitigate the damage from dragon attacks.
Kenshiis a game with an amazing, surreal, somewhat terrifying setting that challenges the player in various ways. The weather and the many hostile inhabitants on the continent are constantly forcing players to adapt andforge a settlementdesigned to weather that particular area of the continent.
Players will need to manage constant raids from bandits and animals with fortifications and their characters. The intuitive mix of exploration, RTS-style gameplay, and settlement management makes for an incredibly dynamic disaster management system.
Terrariais the culmination of a variety of different mechanics and gameplay loops. From tweaking buildsto beating bossesand collecting trophies, the exploration and survival in this game really hinges on a single concept — despite the many directions the game takes.
NPCs are the lifeblood ofTerraria,and whether they are houses in gorgeous villages or utilitarian, vaguely dystopic hive cities, players will need to defend them from random events such as the Blood Moon or Goblin Invasions, as well as the occasional boss that might assault the player at night.
Against the Stormfinds its niche in an addictive and novel mix of city-builder and Roguelike elements. This is a game where disasters are not just constantly happening, but the gameplay is predicated on them. Earning meta-buffs that will serve future playthroughs is a victory in its own right, even when the players' settlements are swept away.
Due to the nature of this game, every gameplay mechanic is a disaster management mechanic. Every unit hired, every fortification produced, all go towards stemming the tide of rain and monsters inevitably coming the player’s way.
Rimworldis not an easy game, and there’s always some way forplayers to improve. The game’s distinct storytellers and their difficulty settings will all shape what players experience, from a natural progression of steadily increasing difficulty to all-out chaos.
Pawns and the player’s settlement will need to be equipped for random events that can strike at any time. Flash storms and snap freezes can disrupt the seasonal produce and clothing of players, while raids become more frequent as time goes on.
Few games can claim to have the depth and intricacy ofDwarf Fortress.In fact, it has shaped and inspired many of the other games on this list. The myriad of different systems all come together to create an organic system in which events can occur.
Maybe a blacksmith, drinking in grief after the loss of his wife, enters a blind rage, builds a masterwork chair, then starts killing every other dwarf in sight. Perhaps a lava flow has gotten out of hand, and now the bottom of the player’s fortress is stewing in molten iron. There’s always some new disaster to manage in this fantastic and challenging title.
