If you don’t realise this to begin with, and forget it as you go along, you can end up building so close together that you can’t fit a street anymore. Unlike recent titles Foundation and The Universim, Empires and Tribes doesn’t place streets automatically. In its present state, the placement is functional at best and takes some getting used to, particularly with roads. After admiring the view from that angle, entering building mode takes you into an aerial view, which is where you get to worry about the big questions: like layout, proximity to amenities and oh-whoops-I-need-to-demolish-my-church-to-build-a-quarry moments. When you begin your city-building adventure, it’s with both feet planted firmly on the ground.

Let’s dive into exactly what makes Empires and Tribes such an appealing concept. While the current introduction made us a little dubious to start with - the UI is a little janky at the moment, so the initial dialogue raised eyebrows - we soon warmed to it. In it, you play as the mayor of a new village, eventually to become a town, city, or whatever you make of it.

In Empires and Tribes, be sad no more: you spend most of the time on the ground with your people, seeing buildings rise up around you and even helping to build them yourself.Įmpires and Tribes is an early-access title which became available on Steam early this year. It’s often a point of sadness in city-building games that you can’t easily get down from your god-like perspective and take a walk around whatever you’ve just spent ages building.

Empires of the undergrowth review