Preview of Builders of Greece – it's very ancient

In management games, the goal is generally to make your city prosper, to expand its borders, to manage the happiness of the inhabitants – fairly classic objectives. Each game then brings its own little personal touch to differentiate itself from the competition, which is often very tough in this area. Well, the differentiation of Builders of Greece…that's because there isn't one. It's a classic among classics. But let's not move too quickly.

Builders of Greece is about building your own city in ancient Greece with very little guidance and few events that punctuate your game. The tutorial shows you how to manage your city established on a desert island and how to create, in the right order, the first buildings which will constitute the foundations of your city. But even during the tutorial, it is clearly not ergonomic. At one point, the tutorial tells me of the arrival of an enemy ship which will land on the beach… but which one? We are on an island! I see a point on the minimap, I say to myself that it must be there… and no, it wasn't. I come back in a hurry with my units, but I missed the enemy landing which is already heading towards my city. I have time, because they landed far away… which isn't very smart, let's face it. I intercept the enemies, I manage to defeat them… and the tutorial freezes… I guess it's because I didn't fight them in the area intended by the tutorial, which prevents the game from knowing that my enemies are dead and to advance in the course of the game… This is the kind of thing that happens in Builders of Greece.

The goal of the game, to make your city prosper, is to keep the inhabitants happy, which encourages them to work better and to encourage other citizens to join your city, thus gradually expanding it. There are three types of citizens in your city, each with a defined role, starting with the base, your “workers”, whether they are farmers, fishermen, gatherers, etc. They are the ones who will provide you with your primary resources, but also the ones who will pay the majority of taxes that will allow you to develop.

There is no seasonal cycle, nor day/night cycle in the game, your city evolves non-stop, without any changes or adaptations necessary, which makes the game rather monotonous. Other issues arose during the tutorial (seriously, if you play this game, FOLLOW IT TO THE LETTER, otherwise you risk getting stuck…). Buildings that don't get supplies, actions that don't launch… it's terribly frustrating.

I can't completely demolish the title either: visually, even if the game is not beautiful, it has the merit of being clear. The buildings are easy to identify, it's orderly, clean. But honestly… that's about all the positive things I can say. Yes, it's early access… but in my experience, it happened to me after Manor Lordswhich crushes it in all aspects of the game, whether in quality, in gameplayin realism, or even simply in terms of pleasure.

Unless you're a real fan of the era, or feel a little nostalgia for (very) old city management games, move on. The detour is not worth it at the moment.

Game tested by Seiei with a version provided by the developer.