Urban Empire

The concept behind this game is great but, as others have said, it's very poorly executed and seems to have been abandoned by the developer, despite numerous complaints. The economy and politics are very unbalanced. The cost of services and improvements makes it impossible to improve your city without going negative, every time. I realize there are some people out there who like this kind of challenge but there are others, like myself, who like the more casual gaming aspect of a game like this. I can't imagine it'd be hard to implement a difficulty setting that would adjust the formulas and make running a succesful city just a little easier.

I preordered this game and had high expectations. I was however quickly disappointed due to bugs however the gameplay itself have potential but is let down due to bulky user interface. I sincerely hope I have reason to revisit this review once they have done some more patching, but still the game have been out for more than a month now and some severe bugs are till in the game.

This starts off quite interesting but you quickly lose the will to play after the first hour or so, as the game is very unoptimized and lags horrible after you've built a few districts. Also, upgrading your districts is a lesson in tedium, having to click on each one seperately in order to upgrade it. There's not much else to it other than pushing through policies which are pretty much no brainers.

Urban Empire has a different approach to city building. In fact, it should not be referred to as a city builder as it is really more of an urban planning simulator. Sort of a cross between Democracy 3, Civilization and Sim City. While you are the "mayor", you are not a dictator with the final decision. You have to get a vote from the town council for each major step implemented in your city. For example, you can choose where the district will go and (once unlocked by research), the percentage of RCI within it, but you are at the council's mercy as to whether the district will be built. Let's face it, if Sim City were run like a real city, you would be facing constant council meetings to persuade the council into letting you plop down police stations, schools, etc. Urban Empire adds that extra layer, but at this point it is not implemented in the best manner. The game does not do the best job of showing outcomes of decisions and some of the tooltips are very awkwardly worded. I still do not know what they are trying to convey by demand for sales, for instance, and whether I want that to be a positive or negative thing. The interface overall could use some work, and I think some of the language issues may be from playing the game translated into English. I think with some further polish and patches, this game could get very interesting. I am also curious to see what DLC might add in the future (if the game makes it that far). I really like the concept behind this game. I have spent quite some time with it trying to figure out the best way to play it, and I have had one successful playthrough. The game also has some story-telling potential (one of my mayors came out as gay and had an affair with a spy, which was unexpected). In other words, I think there are various elements here to make a very good game, but at this point it is just good. Hopefully some improvements by the developers will help it realize its potential.

This is a good game but lacks value at most should be priced as Cities Skylines. The most innovative mechanic is the technology research that impacts your city, it's a very nice addition to the genre of city simulators the progression in time is also well done, as you research new technologies jobs disappear & new are created for new products, you can add different perks to your town like road lighting, garbage bins etc. I would say this has some flavors of Sim Societies and Civilization V although in this game you can't really click on citizens. Pros - Good Campaign Game - Technologies Mechanics - Interesting mission scenarios - Good Graphics - Interesting Electoral with different parties that change has the time goes - A thin layer of satisfying decision that have ripple effects on the campaign Cons - Needs a Sandbox mode with options like disabling and enabling features - If played with the tutorial active you will most likely loose the game, I lost 4 times straight & had to disable it, it limits too much what you can do on the start & you easily go over budget. - Unpolished values for a bunch of things like Low density to med zones have insane upkeeps, that will make you loose the game if not careful. - Confusing necessities on the UI, for example if you make an industry zone & give it no electricity running water, sewer, internet anything it doesn't seem to impact greatly on the performance and competitive of those industry, you actually make a much better profit having dark ages industries in 2000 xD than having a zone with all those services. - Having good relations with parties is very hard, approving legislation that those parties want doesn't give a good enough boost, it needs to give a large boost even in some cases some permanent thresholds perhaps. - Infrastructure & their upkeep is too high and you can't remove them, for example you add lighting posts or metro/bus and you start having massive looses you can't undo those services.