Urban Empire Critic Reviews

While exploring the many intricacies can be downright frustrating, and the political game can get difficult, Urban Empire is a game unlike any other in its genre. I’ve never played a sim that actually follows the rules of the democracy we have today. That alone makes it a unique enough title to at least try out. I just wish there was a little extra polish or at least a more thorough explanation on how the smaller intricacies in the game work.

Overall, Urban Empire is a solid outing for Kalypso and has a nice blend of city building and political management that players of the genre should find interesting. It has flaws but its new perspective on an old formula is something that can be explored further in the future.

Urban Empire's focus on politics and invention through history provides an interesting take on the genre, although it can get a tad repetitive in the later parts of the game.

Interesting city builder concept with a political focus, but it lacks information and fine tuning.

Urban Empire takes from kind of titles, like Cities: Skyline, Civilization, Democracy and Crusader Kings, but its interpretation of the city building games is not completely successful.

For now, I would strongly recommend this game for those that enjoyed Cities: Skylines and other similar simulators such as Tropico. For the almost £30 asking price however? You are better off getting Cities: Skylines if you wish to simply focus on a producing a productive and interactive city. In a few more patches this game could be something great.

It is not your run of the mill city builder and it is hard to market something so different from the norm. That difference is not just a weakness, though, it is also a strength. I can guarantee you that you’ve not played anything like this before and the community - is - figuring it out, slowly. Urban Empire is a breath of fresh air and for that reason alone it is worth checking out.

It's hard to rate Urban Empire. On one hand we get a really cool mixture of economics, ideology and politics, and the entire game is well made with minimalistic graphics and an excellent soundtrack. On the other hand playing through 200 years o history takes up to 6 hours, which are surprisingly dull.

Urban Empire's premise of focusing on the political tumult that's usually behind city planning is a good one, and the emphasis on four families allows for some lightweight roleplay in how you guide your city to greatness. Unfortunately, the personal approach tends to stumble as each game more or less plays out like the last, and the constant juggle of votes makes for an experience that's more exasperating than exciting.

Urban Empire tries to work with an intriguing and fresh idea – “mayor simulator” that’s more about politics than budget – but leaves it extremely underdeveloped.

If you always wanted to experience boring council meetings first hand, Urban Empire got you covered. The political machinations of this so-called city ruler are presented way too dry to elicit any other response than eye-rolling. While the part about building a city and researching new technologies is way more fun, there simply isn’t enough feedback for players to penetrate the game’s intricacies. With only a few, small maps to build on and no mod support, Urban Empire makes a poor case for itself.

Urban Empire is a trying game, but there's beauty in how it captures the many obstacles that plague political life, but it’s still marred by instances of poor execution and an unwieldy user interface. Still, if you've ever wanted to know what a more realistic, less tongue-in-cheek rendition of SimCity would be like, you could do a lot worse. If you're willing to spend the time, Urban Empire has a lot to show you, but it comes with its share of annoyances.

Urban Empire aims to offer an interesting mix of political intrigue with city-building creativity and management. However, it doesn't give anywhere near enough information or allow enough freedom to make it as compelling as the idea could have been.

The stronger Scenarios can't rescue Urban Empire from being disappointingly average however. A few quality of life tweaks here and there could have achieved a great deal in making Urban Empire a more engaging experience. With little noticeable cause and effect you're stuck prodding buttons until you hopefully stumble on solution, which sadly flies in the face of strategy as we know it.

In Urban Empire the worlds of politics and economy collide in an interesting but moderately successful way.

Overall, Urban Empire is a game that gets just about everything wrong. Your city isn’t a lot of fun to build or watch, and there isn’t a lot for you to do. The replayability is also poor, since there is very little difference between playing two different cities. Urban Empire just needs more things included, they need to work better, and they need to be explained better. Maybe that will happen with future patches, but I sort of doubt it, so Urban Empire is definitely a game to skip.

Quotation forthcoming.

Urban Empire boasts a political system crafted with fun and originality in mind, as well as historical accuracy and gorgeous aesthetics. Yet even such impressive features do not make up for a lack of dimension and depth on which the success of simulators almost exclusively depend.

Untraditional conception of building strategy promised many, but instead of that, it delivered dys-functional game mechanics and botched gameplay. Urban Empire stands between the two genres, and takes the worst from both – limited building is combined with dysfunctional political part of the whole game.

To some extent, Urban Empire is a game that plays itself. Buildings grow higher and higher, factories crop up on empty plots, citizens open up new shops - all without your input. It could've been a fun zen experience, but everything is artificial and lifeless, and, despite milktoast graphics, the game at times is too sluggish.