Builders of Greece
- February 27, 2024
- Strategy Labs
- 20h median play time
Get on Steam"Builders of Greece" is a city-building and management game set in ancient Greece. As a ruler, you must make world-shaping decisions, command your subjects, and construct magnificent structures to make your Polis glorious. Overcome challenges and unexpected events to create a prosperous city and ensure its survival in the ancient world.
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The game has a solid foundation and potential for growth, especially for fans of city-building games set in ancient Greece.
- Graphics and aesthetics are appealing, capturing the essence of the Greek setting, and the gameplay mechanics are engaging.
- The developers are responsive to feedback and have been releasing updates to address bugs and improve the game.
- The game is currently plagued by numerous bugs, including issues with saving and loading games, making it frustrating and often unplayable.
- Many features are missing or underdeveloped, leading to a lack of depth and replayability, with only one playable map and limited scenarios.
- The user interface and tutorial are poorly designed, making it difficult for players to understand game mechanics and progress effectively.
- gameplay28 mentions
- 36 % positive mentions
- 54 % neutral mentions
- 11 % negative mentions
The gameplay is a mix of city management, resource allocation, and strategic planning, offering a solid foundation but feeling somewhat simplistic and dated in its mechanics. Players have noted the lack of engaging combat and dynamic events, with many aspects needing refinement, such as AI behavior and user interface. While the game shows potential, it currently suffers from technical issues and a lack of depth, making it feel more like an early access title in need of significant updates.
“The gameplay is engaging, combining city management, resource allocation, and strategic planning.”
“Early access game with a rewarding old-school RTS style gameplay and feel.”
“Plus, some of its management mechanics are kind of interesting, thus letting you build your city more or less in a way you'd like in a casual, comfortable environment.”
“The game is littered with playability concerns, from broken menus and saved games that refuse to load, to poorly explained central mechanics that combine with an unhelpful user interface to all but guarantee your first few attempts will end in confused, frustrated disaster.”
“Camera is clunky (and too close), roads look like they are a simple brown line, gameplay loop is not satisfying, war minigame is like the 90's war video games, constructing just doesn't feel good as other games... really need to polish details to feel good, don't buy now.”
“It has poor gameplay; expected to build a major polis with great walls, great temples, and an army, but found myself building a crappy town, with no temples, no walls, no great buildings, and no army.”
- graphics21 mentions
- 43 % positive mentions
- 43 % neutral mentions
- 14 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with some praising the immersive Greek aesthetic and overall visual appeal, while others criticize the dated quality and performance issues, likening them to standards from a decade ago. Many users express a desire for improvements in animations and graphical fidelity, particularly given the advancements in gaming technology since 2020. Overall, while the graphics are appreciated by some, they are seen as needing significant updates to meet contemporary expectations.
“I really like the layout and graphics of the game; it's easy to learn and to play.”
“Builders of Greece is an immersive city-building game that brings ancient Greece to life with stunning graphics and authentic architecture.”
“The graphics are nice, and the camera feature is fine.”
“Unfortunately, in the times of 2020 and beyond, games of this genre should not still have graphics and animations quality in a state that someone would actually refund a game, go buy a 2006 game, and then feel better rewarded.”
“Unreadable graphics, can't even turn off motion blur.”
“Unfortunately, bog’s graphics engine is pretty dated with ugly textures, clunky animations, and no day-night cycle.”
- optimization10 mentions
- 30 % positive mentions
- 40 % neutral mentions
- 30 % negative mentions
The game's optimization is a significant concern, with players reporting severe performance issues, especially as the population increases, leading to lag and instability. Despite some improvements in building optimization and the developers' promises for future fixes, many users find the game unplayable at higher speeds and with larger populations, often experiencing drastic frame rate drops even on capable hardware. Overall, while the game shows potential, its current state is marred by optimization challenges that need urgent attention.
“Optimized all service building ranges, etc.”
“The achievements work fine now too, and the building optimization was really needed.”
“The biggest problem at the moment is optimization, but as the developers promise, by the final version of the game this will be fixed.”
“I think this game has massive potential, but without further optimization it quickly becomes unplayable.”
“The biggest problem at the moment is optimization, but as the developers promise by the final version of the game this will be fixed.”
“The performance also decreases rapidly with over 1000-1500 inhabitants.”
- stability9 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game is plagued by numerous stability issues, including frequent crashes, graphical glitches, and significant performance problems that hinder gameplay. While it shows promise with a solid foundation, the current state is described as buggy and unpolished, making it nearly unplayable for many users. Overall, players recommend avoiding the game until these stability concerns are addressed.
“Additionally, addressing some of the reported bugs, such as occasional crashes when saving the game, graphical glitches in certain building animations, and pathfinding issues for citizens, would greatly enhance the overall experience.”
“The concept is good, but the game is so full of glitches and stutter that it's almost unplayable.”
“Everything freezes and forces you to Ctrl+Alt+Delete and go to the PC task manager to close the game.”
- music5 mentions
- 40 % positive mentions
- 20 % neutral mentions
- 40 % negative mentions
The music in the game is generally praised for its immersive quality and thematic fit, enhancing the overall experience. However, many users find it becomes monotonous over time, with some reporting issues of overlapping tracks that can lead to a chaotic listening experience. Overall, while the soundtrack is enjoyable, its repetitiveness may detract from long-term engagement.
“The variety of building options and customization, along with the immersive soundtrack, make it a joy to play.”
“Great music, lovely graphics, a grumpy but not hopeless personality, and a solid core premise.”
“The music gets really monotonous after some time, but it does fit the theme well.”
“The music, meanwhile, is pleasant if repetitive, but at one point, songs overlapped for me, creating a cacophony of lutes and lyres that I had to just outright mute.”
- story2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The story aspect of the game is currently limited, featuring only one campaign mission and one map in sandbox mode, which feels more like an extended tutorial than a fully developed narrative experience. Players express disappointment over the lack of diverse maps and premade missions, resulting in a repetitive gameplay experience.
“This would be fine if the game featured a long list of maps and maybe even some premade missions or scenarios to play and solve, but it looks like all we’ll get at the start of early access is a glorified tutorial, a handful of infrequent pop-up window decisions to make about your polis, and a sandbox mode that’s identical to the tutorial, only the robotic-sounding Socrates-looking helper avatar won’t talk as much.”
“Right now, you have access to one of the eight campaign missions and one of eight maps if you decide to play in the sandbox mode.”
- grinding1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game tedious, particularly due to the repetitive nature of rituals required to increase worship grades, with some expressing a desire for more visual differentiation of temples to enhance gameplay clarity.
“When you assign a temple to a god, the color trim or theme of the temple should change so you have an overview of which god is where. Do temples do anything? It feels like at the moment they don't; only rituals heighten the worship grade, and it's tedious to click every 30 seconds.”
“The grinding in this game is excessive. It feels like I'm just repeating the same actions over and over without any real progress.”
“I find the grinding mechanics to be frustratingly monotonous. It takes away from the enjoyment of the game when I have to spend hours doing the same tasks.”
- replayability1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
The game's replayability is limited due to the availability of only one playable map, which makes it challenging for players to find new experiences upon repeated playthroughs.
“I can get over the fact that at the moment there is only one playable map, although it makes replayability hard.”
“The lack of variety in missions really limits the replayability; once you've played through them, there's not much incentive to go back.”
“After completing the game, I found little reason to replay it since the choices I made had minimal impact on the outcome.”
- monetization1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
Reviews indicate that players feel misled by the game's advertising, as the actual design and quality of buildings, particularly the more expensive ones, do not meet expectations. This dissatisfaction suggests that the monetization strategy may rely on promoting features that are underwhelming in execution.
“This game is nowhere close to what I imagined it to be. The buildings are poorly designed, especially the ones that are supposed to be the most expensive and important 'great looking buildings.' There are only 3 or 4, and they are ugly, including the Agora.”
“The monetization system feels exploitative, making it difficult to enjoy the game without spending real money.”
“I was disappointed to find that many features are locked behind paywalls, which ruins the overall experience.”
