Imagine Earth

Imagine Earth takes the city-builder format to the stars, casting players as colony managers who must expand humanity onto new planets after Earth’s resources are depleted. The premise is simple—land your city center, then build farms, power plants and homes—but the underlying systems invite strategic thinking. The tutorial walks you through the basics and the user‑friendly interface keeps things manageable. Layered research tree and licensing mechanic that resets building unlocks between missions encourages long‑term planning. Together with mehcanics like traing resources, upgrading facilities and balancing pollution against productivity it keeps you engaged for a long while. The colourful, detailed visuals distinguish different habitats and make zones instantly recognisable. Combined with a calm soundtrack, this visual clarity gives the game a relaxed feel even as new events and occasional time constraints keep the player busy.

Overall super fun game if you enjoy this genre. There are a few points that would make it even better, like highlighting the other types of buildings in that class before you drop another one of the same type nearby by accident. Research tree is a bit weird too, but lots of it, which is great. And the gradual progression of tech access over the time you play the campaign keeps you wanting to play the next mission. Not to mention a bit of an interesting narrative between the USN, alien races and the team you are working with. Solid title, again if you enjoy this genre (think SimCIty meets parts of StarCraft), then you will enjoy this game, too.

Super

Colony building strategy games have been balancing destruction (of forests, first nations) for as long as the genre has been around. The marketting around Imagine Earth sells us on this point, yet fails to truly consider what is at stake in our future. Point in case: colonies require food to be happy - yet in this far flung hypergate world, the first option is an industrial farm - okay - the second option is cows. As a fan of utopian sci-fi, I don't ever think I've come across hypergates AND cows. No-one has yet envisioned a future where we cut and paste our current reality to our future in the stars. This game is not woke enough. It is a cookie cutter. Technically, Imagine Earth runs well. It seems to be targetted at the 12-18 year old market, in that it is lightweight, with pretty pictures. If you are new to the genre and love burgers, maybe this is the space for you. The 'advisors' grated on me - their portraits and voices. I would also note that this seems more like a $20 game not a $40 game - I dislike having the "real" price doubled only to be halved.

Garbage game. Feels like a disjointed mess that makes your skin crawl.