As a longtime fan of both strategy games and city builder sims, I’m always excited any time I get the chance to take a new title for a spin. As such, I’m rather partial to the idea of Urban Empire. The game comes to us from the amazing Kalypso Media, developers of the long-running Tropico franchise.
Urban Empire takes cues from Tropico and similar games in the genre, but diverges from typical city building simulations in one key area. The focus of Urban Empire remains creating a city, but the actual ruling and management is left entirely in the player’s hands. In comparison to games like SimCity and Cities: Skylines where economic and political simulation within cities is paper-thin, the promise of a much deeper experience in Urban Empire looks quite intriguing.
Urban Empire combines city building elements with political management features, and it plays out over a span of 200 years. The game puts you in the shoes of a mayoral dynasty, a family that rules a city from the start of the Industrial Age (generally considered to have begun in the second half of the 18th century) to the present day. Here’s some of what you’ll be doing, according to a press release from Kalypso:
Establish infrastructures, plan city districts, debate political decisions at the town council, bribe or blackmail your opponents, empower the democratic rights of your people or ignore them and reign supremely by yourself — the decision is yours!
Urban Empire is slated for release during fall 2016.
