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What are the best City Builder games on Steam?

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Cities: Skylines vs Frostpunk vs Rise of Industry

 vs Tropico 5 vs Concrete Jungle vs Cardboard Town vs Fabledom vs Industry Giant 2 vs One More Island vs Against the Storm vs City of Gangsters vs Airborne Kingdom vs Cities XL Platinum vs Imagine Earth vs Polyville Canyon vs Before We Leave vs Space Colony: Steam Edition vs Dorfromantik vs Townscaper vs BalanCity vs Urbek City Builder: Prologue vs Tile Cities

Specs

Steam Rating

Very Positive

Genre

City Simulation

Platforms

-

Steam Rating

Very Positive

Genre

City-building, Survival

Platforms

Windows

Steam Rating

-

Genre

-

Platforms

Windows, Mac, Steam

Steam Rating

Very Positive

Genre

-

Platforms

-

Steam Rating

Very Positive

Genre

-

Platforms

-

Steam Rating

Very Positive

Genre

-

Platforms

-

Steam Rating

Very Positive

Genre

-

Platforms

-

Steam Rating

Very Positive

Genre

-

Platforms

-

Steam Rating

Mostly Positive

Genre

-

Platforms

-

Steam Rating

Very Positive

Genre

-

Platforms

-

Steam Rating

Mixed

Genre

Management

Platforms

-

Steam Rating

Very Positive

Genre

-

Platforms

-

Steam Rating

Mixed

Genre

-

Platforms

-

Steam Rating

Mostly Positive

Genre

-

Platforms

Windows, XBox

Steam Rating

Very Positive

Genre

-

Platforms

-

Steam Rating

Very Positive

Genre

-

Platforms

-

Steam Rating

Mostly Positive

Genre

-

Platforms

Windows

Steam Rating

Very Positive

Genre

-

Platforms

-

Steam Rating

Overwhelmingly Positive

Genre

-

Platforms

-

Steam Rating

Very Positive

Genre

-

Platforms

-

Steam Rating

Very Positive

Genre

-

Platforms

-

Steam Rating

Very Positive

Genre

-

Platforms

-

Pros + Cons

Pro
 Depth of field

There is a depth of field effect that will blur distant buildings, which mimics Sim City's diorama effect. It can of course be adjusted with a slider as to how much or little to use.
Comment

Pro
 Large Amount of Workshop Mods & Assets

With almost 150 thousand assets and mods, you can totally change the gameplay and look of the game
Comment

Pro
 Large scale

At a total of 36 square kilometers of area to use (compared to Sim Cities 4), there is quite a bit of room to build and play.
Comment

Pro
 Workshop Support

The game supports the sharing of creations through the Steam Workshop.
Comment

Pro
 Steady Stream of new content via DLCs

DLCs are optional, they do go one sale. Plus when a new DLC is released a bit of the content is released into the base game.
Comment

Con
 Resource heavy

If your computer doesn’t have decent specs, don’t expect to be able to run this game smoothly.
Comment

Con
 Can be difficult to glean what one has done wrong in game

Cities: Skylines has difficulty letting the player know what they have done wrong, which results in a lot of head scratching.
Comment

Pro
 Balanced simulation experience

Overall, the simulation aspects are handled quite well, and there is a lot to micromanage. Resources such as lumber and coal must be harvested and managed to construct buildings and keep your city warm. Rationing and finding food is important too, as your citizens need to eat to work. You will also be managing your "hope" and "discontent" metrics which is a general indicator of your population's happiness. Overwork them and they may revolt or die of exhaustion. Underwork them and they may starve or freeze to death. Finding this delicate balance between survival and keeping people content is where the game truly shines.
Comment

Pro
 Captures the grim reality of survival incredibly well

As the world lies in a deep freeze and your city is just barely clinging to life, many situations will arise where tough choices have to be made in the name of survival. When facing a shortage of adult workers, you may opt to send children to work, and possibly their death, out in the wasteland collecting coal and lumber. When people die, you can bury the dead or, in the most dire of times, use them as a food source. When coming across survivors, you have to weigh the benefits and downsides of taking them in. They may provide extra labor, but it's just another mouth to feed. As the temperature plummets, you can order workers to double shifts to keep the heating going, but it puts them at risk for starvation and exhaustion. There are just so many little decisions that add up to driving the point home that you are really in the middle of a crisis and its captured incredibly well in-game.
Comment

Pro
 Engaging moral choices

You can enact and carry out laws in your city that will affect both the survival and happiness of your citizens in interesting ways. These moral choices add an entertaining and engaging depth to gameplay. For example, if your workers are frostbitten, you can house them in hospitals which costs resources. Otherwise, you can choose to amputate them which effectively takes them out of your workforce, yet they still have to be housed, kept warm, and fed. Children can be kept protected and warm, or you can send them off in the frozen wasteland to work like the adults. Every single action you take affects how content or upset your population is. Whether you keep them safe and warm, or make tough calls in the name of survival is your choice. These systems must be carefully balanced if you want to succeed. All in all, Frostpunk offers no shortage of interesting moral choices for you to make.
Comment

Pro
 Unique premise

Frostpunk takes place in a steampunk-themed 1886 England. A freak snowstorm has wiped out most of the world's population and plunged Earth into a deep freeze. As the last remaining bastion of humanity, you'll be building and managing an outpost as you fight the weather and human nature itself. It's out of this dark and desolate post-apocalyptic premise that allows the game to offer a lot of grim, yet interesting gameplay choices.
Comment

Con
 Not much replayability

Due to no open sandbox/endless mode, a large amount of scripted events that will play out the exact same in every playthrough, and skill trees that essentially accomplish all the same end goals, there's not much replayability.
Comment

Con
 Camera zoom may ruin immersion for some

After building up your city, you can't zoom in to see workers headed down the bustling streets or admire the fine details on the cyberpunk style buildings. You're stuck with a zoomed out camera, which can sometimes ruin immersion.
Comment

Con
 Limiting experience overall

Frostpunk's main scenario only runs about 45 in-game days (6-12 hours). There is no sandbox mode where you can keep growing and building indefinitely, making it a rather limited simulation experience overall. This may be disappointing to those who would prefer to keep their city going as long as possible.
Comment

Pro
 Really well polished game play

The game play has been developed through a long early access period which is now complete
Comment

Con
 Gets laggy in mid to late game

The game still needs a lot of performance improvements. It gets laggy later in the game when your industry has grown more complex.
Comment

Pro
 Beautiful art design

The art design has undergone a full overhaul since the alpha and is now absolutely gorgeous to look at.
Comment

Pro
 Allows for choice in play

There is a mission mode (which is great for those that want to learn the ins and outs of the game through progression) and a sandbox mode (which is more like a city builder where it is up to you how to create your civilization). This makes for a good choice of different play depending on what the user wants at the time. There is also a multiplayer mode that works through competition (who can export more cigars, build a bigger plantation, etc.) that can extend the endgame content when the player feels they have experienced all the single player has to offer.
Comment

Con
 Poor representation of changing times

The art in the game does not represent different time periods very well. The game starts out in the early 20th century and eventually builds up to the modern era. It does not matter what time period the player is in, little in the design of the games is representative through graphics changes.
Comment

Pro
 Great mix of strategy and puzzle

Concrete Jungle mixes city building strategy with aspects of line clearing puzzlers such as Tetris in a very original way.
Comment

Pro
 Deep gameplay

How the puzzle aspect is implemented allows for a lot of depth to the strategy gameplay
Comment

Pro
 Campaign mode that eases the player into the gameplay

By playing the campaign mode users can easily get used to the game at a comfortable pace, with new elements getting introduced the further one makes it. This is a great way to learn the gameplay as it can get complex.
Comment

Con
 Games can last a long time and difficulty is unknown until level is started

Not knowing how long a game will last can be frustrating for those just looking for a quick sessions. On top of this the terrain will not be known until a round is started, which means it could potentially be stacked against the player, which makes for unknown difficulty before a round is started.
Comment

Pro
 Add ons

Expansion packs available.
Comment

Con
 Can get repetitive

Comment

Pro
 Relaxing game

Comment

Pro
 Unique style

Comment

Pro
 Cute graphics

Comment

Pro
 Relaxing

Comment

Pro
 Affordable

Comment

Con
 Not a game

Comment

Pro
 Relaxing

Nice visuals and sound.
Comment

Pro
 Relaxing game

Comment
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