Urban Empire

 PC
  • Publisher: Kalypso
  • Release Date: Jan 20, 2017
User Score
5.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 39 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 39
  2. Mixed: 14 out of 39
  3. Negative: 13 out of 39
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  1. Stephenicus
    Jan 25, 2017
    0
    After spending the last week playing this game, 42 hours in total, I have found the game to have some serious issues. The game economy is completely unbalanced. The infrastructure, like electricity, for example, has no positive net value in the long run and costs way too much. You end up spending way more money on infrastructure upkeep than you get back from benefactors (like industry) inAfter spending the last week playing this game, 42 hours in total, I have found the game to have some serious issues. The game economy is completely unbalanced. The infrastructure, like electricity, for example, has no positive net value in the long run and costs way too much. You end up spending way more money on infrastructure upkeep than you get back from benefactors (like industry) in return so the game forces you to increase taxes which kills city growth. The game also has issues with zone density. Increasing the density of a zone should not cost any money or have any upkeep, but the game developers decided that rezoning a district from light density to medium density should completely wipe out whatever funds you have saved up, with an upkeep so high that by the time the area develops with medium density and money is flowing again, you're in the hole 3 or 4 thousand (which is a lot in this game), and you're not making a whole lot more than before the rezoning. So the incentive to increase city density (which should be really fun to do), isn't there. In fact, it's the opposite. You avoid rezoning to higher densities, and that to me defeats the purpose of a city building game. I do not recommend this game unless the developers fix these disastrous game-play issues.… Expand
  2. Fishersam
    Jan 25, 2017
    3
    For a more detailed review, find "LordMalloc's" review but to summarize, the game's concept has potential but it was poorly executed. The game does a poor job explaining itself. It is as if they failed to test the game with actual gamers before releasing it. Anyone testing their "finished" product would realize that a lot of the concepts are poorly explained. Explaining the concept is veryFor a more detailed review, find "LordMalloc's" review but to summarize, the game's concept has potential but it was poorly executed. The game does a poor job explaining itself. It is as if they failed to test the game with actual gamers before releasing it. Anyone testing their "finished" product would realize that a lot of the concepts are poorly explained. Explaining the concept is very important for a game that is basically a new genre.… Expand
  3. TonhoMilGrau
    Jan 22, 2017
    6
    With great potential, Urban Empire has finally brought solid and fun politics into gaming. Even though it is a breath of fresh air to the simulation genre with both entertaining and complex mechanics, Urban Empire has a disappointingly bad, even game-ruining, tutorial that tends to not only forget to teach the most important aspects of the gameplay, but also lead you to major debts andWith great potential, Urban Empire has finally brought solid and fun politics into gaming. Even though it is a breath of fresh air to the simulation genre with both entertaining and complex mechanics, Urban Empire has a disappointingly bad, even game-ruining, tutorial that tends to not only forget to teach the most important aspects of the gameplay, but also lead you to major debts and bankruptcy, something that wouldn't have been so disastrous if it wasn't for the inexplicably inescapable path into debts that some confusing and shallow mechanics will lead you one day or another.
    But after a great grind, New Games over and over, you'll learn the mechanics, at least what the ones humanly possible to. But the worst aspect of this game is, from far, the fact that it isn't an Early Access project, giving the feeling that a constant improvement on the gameplay and design flaws, which are many, is far away, if not completely impossible.    … Expand
  4. Bravo6x
    Jan 22, 2017
    5
    This game is a good example for a good idea, executed very badly and poor. This is a political/economical city management/"tycoonish" game.
    IMHO: The most important thing in developing a game like this, is game mechanics. Looks like they went for graphics instead. Because the graphics are very good for example. But the game mechanics are terrible. This voting and council system was a very    This game is a good example for a good idea, executed very badly and poor. This is a political/economical city management/"tycoonish" game.
    IMHO: The most important thing in developing a game like this, is game mechanics. Looks like they went for graphics instead. Because the graphics are very good for example. But the game mechanics are terrible. This voting and council system was a very good idea! But for god sake... the votes and the council itself are working like an idiot.
    For example: Sometimes even if you have a lot of money, they don't want to build anything. They vote no to train station, no to new district, no to everything. My first (and probably the last) try in this game was 2.2 hour. In this more than 2 hours i was able to build: 2 district, a police station, a clinic, and gas lamps. Nothing else. I progressed to almost 1900 but i doesn't feel any "accomplishment". Tho voting and council are working very badly and seemingly (other reviews) random. No real simulation or common sense at all. This is the part where this game fails big time. Not mentioned the sometimes inexplicable childish manifestations in game. I'm very sad.. not expected this. And for last but not least: Very overpriced!
    If you are fan of the tycoons, manager, simulation, games: Not recommended to buy at all (at any price)!    … Expand
  5. LordMalloc
    Jan 21, 2017
    2
    This game is great in concept, and poor in implementation. I have played 3 games now, trying to work out various strategies and can say this:
    1) This appears to be based on some designers idea of how politics work. Choices you make may or may not do what you think they do, and there is no information denoting what the overall effect might be. I don’t need the game to let me min/max, but I    This game is great in concept, and poor in implementation. I have played 3 games now, trying to work out various strategies and can say this:
    1) This appears to be based on some designers idea of how politics work. Choices you make may or may not do what you think they do, and there is no information denoting what the overall effect might be. I don’t need the game to let me min/max, but I would like to at least understand who supports various initiatives, and what they are likely to vote for. It feels like there is some formula, but it is very unclear what that is. This makes every decision very frustrating.
    2) When information is presented, it is done in an awkward and confusing manner. For example there are lots of stats about each district available, but none of them cover “what does this district need?” or “How do I address problem X?” So even when there is info available, it is still frustrating just trying to make sense of it.
    3) The engine designer must have done the UI also because the way things like bonuses are presented is horrible. “Sales Bonus! Demand -10%!”. Even if the engine calculated a bonus as -10% for something, why in the world would you present it like that. Its just backwards.
    4) Citizen desires, which they call The Wheel of Life are presented as offsets to the current era target. So you have a hard time understanding how much better you need to make things. They should just show it as “11/15” instead of “-4”. Even then, once you learn to understand what it means, how to solve that issue is unclear.
    As I said, this game could be really good and after playing it a few times I can see where they were going with it. But the developer just did a very bad job of putting it into action in a way that makes sense to most people. Sure you can learn how to read their numbers, but I should have to work at learning the strategy, NOT at figuring out how to read their statistics.
    This is a $10 game with more polish than you would expect from that price range and a big publisher.    … Expand
  6. Inference
    Jan 26, 2017
    8
    It has many things to adjust (as many reviews say) but the main idea of this game is great and it has possibility of improvement much. I expect additional patch that it will be great game. But not just now.
  7. Bumbajack
    Jan 21, 2017
    9
    I love it. Great, smooth mix of apolitical simulation with City building features. Don't expect a city builder though, it is more macro management like..
  8. rs232
    Mar 3, 2017
    10
    This game is fantastic. I will admit, it has a large learning curve. The creator of this game made an excellent new genre of City Building, Real Time Strategy, and Turn based gaming. I have been playing city builders since the original Sim City. This game has all of the fun of those games, with an added element of politics. You must learn to work with, and destroy, the politicalThis game is fantastic. I will admit, it has a large learning curve. The creator of this game made an excellent new genre of City Building, Real Time Strategy, and Turn based gaming. I have been playing city builders since the original Sim City. This game has all of the fun of those games, with an added element of politics. You must learn to work with, and destroy, the political parties to get the things you want passed. This makes it a very realistic game, and fun once you get the hang of it.

    I really believe that those who gave this game a low score should take another look. It definitely takes several plays to figure it out. But, that is OK, because once you do, it is a ton of fun.    … Expand
  9. Sixth_Path
    Feb 12, 2017
    10
    After a complete play-through, I believe I can judge the game in its entirety. For a strategy lover like myself, it was honestly a very refreshing experience with different elements of gameplay than what we're used to see in this category of games.

    Obviously, it really lacks polish on some aspects that were largely reviewed by other criticisms (lack of explanations, uselessness of    After a complete play-through, I believe I can judge the game in its entirety. For a strategy lover like myself, it was honestly a very refreshing experience with different elements of gameplay than what we're used to see in this category of games.

    Obviously, it really lacks polish on some aspects that were largely reviewed by other criticisms (lack of explanations, uselessness of infrastructures, weird taxation system, shortage of data sets ...) but overall, I was positively surprised by the mechanics and delighted to see my economy flourish.

    I believe the game tries to paint an accurate picture of the life of a mayor having to lead a city, with multiple statistics at hand without knowing exactly what investment will modify citizen needs. Another thing most reviewers apparently dismissed was to spread large investments as institutions on multiple districts. I continued to create districts at a fast pace and ended up covering the entire map around the middle of the IV era and I can tell you money flowed (I ended up the game with a capital of 76M and a monthly net income of 1450k), the key is having your city grow by creating new districts (without any infrastructure, at least before the last era).

    10 is maybe not an accurate note but I did put it to offset the abusive 0-2 scores. The game is worth a solid 8.    … Expand
  10. Masterhummel
    May 13, 2017
    6
    Urban Empire is not a city building game.

    In Urban Empire your main goal will be to stay in control. If you want to place something as trivial as a police station, you have to be able to pay for it, pay the service costs, have your political allies and enemies approve it during a vote and be sure that the running costs don't kill your city long time. Personally, i didn't have any    Urban Empire is not a city building game.

    In Urban Empire your main goal will be to stay in control. If you want to place something as trivial as a police station, you have to be able to pay for it, pay the service costs, have your political allies and enemies approve it during a vote and be sure that the running costs don't kill your city long time.

    Personally, i didn't have any technical issues but there's some reports in the Forums you might wanna check out. The overall gameplay is fine but feels lacking in some aspects and now and then it's not exactly clear how some things play together until you've done some trial and error. However, overall it still makes for a good and unique game.

    If you're looking for a city builder, there are better options available. If you're looking for something you have to work into and quite time intensive, but is quite rewarding this might be for you.    … Expand
  11. ChoicestGames
    Feb 15, 2019
    6
    Urban Empire has ambitious goals in trying to work as a city builder and political simulator, yet by attempting to cobble a game that will appease fans of both genres, it ends up being a rather restrictive and confusing city builder, with a rather bland political layer. Sure, the soundtrack is pretty good and I love how you can roleplay as generations of mayors that belong to one of fourUrban Empire has ambitious goals in trying to work as a city builder and political simulator, yet by attempting to cobble a game that will appease fans of both genres, it ends up being a rather restrictive and confusing city builder, with a rather bland political layer. Sure, the soundtrack is pretty good and I love how you can roleplay as generations of mayors that belong to one of four dynasties, but those are the only things that are really going for this game. Tropico seems to be the preferable choice if you want something that strikes the perfect balance between city builder and political sim; Reborn Games have given their best shot at it, but they're not quite there yet.… Expand
  12. YigidOx2
    Mar 17, 2021
    5
    It is not fair at all and it is very complex. Also, this complexity is unnecessary. They messed up a very good idea because they couldn't balance the mechanics.
  13. JJAron
    Aug 19, 2020
    9
    While playing this game I was having fun. I bought it for 3$ or something like that, and it's good game. I didn't expect to much, and Urban Empire surprised me very well.

Awards & Rankings

52
#52 Most Shared PC Game of 2017

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
62

Mixed or average reviews - based on 20 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 20
  2. Mixed: 18 out of 20
  3. Negative: 1 out of 20
  1. CD-Action
    Mar 6, 2017
    60
    In Urban Empire the worlds of politics and economy collide in an interesting but moderately successful way. [03/2017, p.70]
  2. CGMagazine
    Mar 4, 2017
    75
    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.
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  3. Games.cz
    Mar 3, 2017
    50
    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.
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