Posted on: January 22, 2017

SharkyIzrod
Verified ownerGames: 38 Reviews: 1
Interesting ideas disappoiting execution
The game isn't straight up bad, and it can provide a couple of hours of fun, and hell if your playstyle suits the way history goes, maybe even more than that. But what I mean by suiting history is what makes this game a 2/5 for me. Simulators, tycoons, strategies, grand strategies, all these genres have a lot of the fun in them be alternate history, in one form or another. It's about doing it your way, not the way history went. Well, with Urban Empires it's the exact opposite. One party can have half the city loving it and following it and it can disappear in the next era because it is "voted out" or "obsolete" in the game's misguided goal to be somewhat historically accurate. You don't get to make your alterante history utopia (or dystopia, whatever floats your boat) and you don't get to truly decide anything, but rather are given a little bit of wiggle room between the eras whereupon everything gets reset and your choices are given very little if any value at all. The game lacks any true feeling of player agency and neither the simulation nor the family intrigue portions of it live up to what I was hoping for. I wouldn't recommend the title in its release state to anyone, expect MAYBE: those who know exactly what they are getting into and are completely informed on what this game offers and/or those whose political leanings and/or roleplay goals are to follow history as closely as possible without any interest in leaving your own mark and making your city truly feel like it's "your city."
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