One of the best building games of recent years is Urbek: City Builder. Urbek debuted in 2022 and has gone on to achieve a 91% or Very Positive user rating on Steam, but it’s also never really received the level of widespread attention it deserves. With the disappointing launch of Cities: Skylines 2 this year and Frostpunk 2 coming out later than originally anticipated, now’s as good a time as any to look into building games that were looked over in the past. And, with Urbek: City Builder currently discounted to a very low price on Steam, that’s truer than ever.
Urbek: City Builder is, like its name suggests, a city building game where players set out to make and manage their own urban center. It distinguishes itself from other entries to the genre, though, in a number of ways. Most immediately noticeable is its blocky aesthetic, which moves away from the grounded facsimile of real cities more common to its style of game.
Beneath this attractive surface is a novel city builder that features the compelling hook of doing away with money entirely. Rather than use currency, the game sees players depending entirely on access to resources for their construction work. This, along with its emphasis on educational progress systems and the need to carefully avoid exhausting an area’s natural resources, makes Urbek a fascinating evolution of very familiar genre concepts.
You can check it out right now for cheap. Urbek: City Builder is 60% on Steam until August 4, knocking its price down to $7.59 USD / £6.51. Grab a copy right here.
Or, find more like Urbek by taking a look at our favorite management games and strategy games on PC.
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