Empire Architect

About

Empire Architect is a single player casual role playing game. It was developed by Batholith Entertainment and was released on October 6, 2017. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

"Empire Architect" is a city-building game that challenges players to design, build, and manage their own ancient civilization. Gather resources, make strategic decisions, and navigate various challenges to grow your empire from a small village to a thriving metropolis. With a variety of buildings, technologies, and social policies to discover, the possibilities are endless. However, beware of natural disasters and rival civilizations that may threaten your progress.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

Skip User Reviews

69%

Audience ScoreBased on 124 reviews

music2 positive mentions

optimization3 negative mentions

Empire Architect offers a nostalgic experience for fans of classic city-building games like Caesar III, with familiar mechanics and a focus on citizen happiness.
The developer is actively engaged with the community, providing regular updates and responding to player feedback, which shows a commitment to improving the game.
The game features a variety of building and management options, allowing players to create complex production chains and manage their cities effectively.

The game feels unfinished and lacks depth compared to its predecessors, with many features still needing improvement and bugs that disrupt gameplay.
The user interface is clunky and lacks clarity, making it difficult for players to understand mechanics and manage their cities efficiently.
Many players feel that the game does not offer enough new content or improvements over classic titles, leading to a perception of it being a poor imitation.

gameplay
24 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
13%
74%
13%
The gameplay has been described as a mix of familiar mechanics from classic titles like Caesar III, but with notable shortcomings, such as unclear explanations of core mechanics and a lack of depth in certain features. While some players appreciate the developer's responsiveness and the potential for community-driven improvements, many feel that the gameplay is shallow and filled with unnecessary tasks, detracting from the overall experience. Overall, the game shows promise but currently feels unfinished and less engaging compared to its inspirations.
- “The gameplay is based on keeping your population happy by providing food, education, jobs, entertainment, religion, and security, while you try to defeat your opponents with your army.”
- “[b]Empire Architect[/b] is a promising game with a lot of depth, with some features inspired by the grand strategy genre, and an always evolving gameplay, with a lot of updates and bug fixes made by a developer who really cares for his creation and the community.”
- “It's close to Caesar III not only in thematics and looks, but also in gameplay.”
- “The game feels unfinished; some mechanics are not utilized enough (emperor requests, for one).”
- “Many aspects of gameplay aren't clearly explained anywhere within the game, including some core mechanics.”
- “They just left some things out, and you are left not understanding how some mechanics work.”
graphics
11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
27%
46%
27%
The graphics in the game are characterized by a minimalist style with a focus on detail in building design, though they may lack vibrancy and variety, leading to a perception of inferiority compared to other titles in the genre. While some players find the graphics adequate for the gameplay experience, others criticize them for being outdated and lacking animations, with calls for improvements such as 4K support. Overall, the visuals are seen as a mixed bag, appealing to some but disappointing to others who expect more from modern city-building games.
- “For a game where having stellar graphics was obviously not the focus during development, buildings are decorated quite nicely; they show a definite attention to detail.”
- “The graphics are more than adequate while the most important aspect, gameplay, is superb.”
- “I actually enjoyed the game... the graphics are smooth, soft on your GPU/CPU; if the difficulty is turned up, it can be challenging.”
- “However, the graphics might be too minimalist even for some city-building fans.”
- “But after a couple of hours, the flaws start to show. Some features that are present in C3 aren't here; every construction must be accessed by a single menu and then submenu, buildings have no animations, it's not very colorful graphically, nor does it have much variety in sound, and the combat is clunkier than C3, believe it or not.”
- “After a couple of hours of play, I could say the game has nothing more special than what other games in the same genre have, and the graphics are poorer than, for example, AOE or Stronghold Crusader.”
story
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
43%
14%
43%
The game's story is described as a familiar campaign that serves as a helpful introduction for newcomers, featuring a tutorial that spans over six missions. However, experienced players find the missions repetitive and lacking innovation, comparing them to previous titles in the genre. While some technical issues were promptly addressed, the overall narrative does not offer significant new content.
- “For newbies to the genre, its campaign storyline is very helpful for getting the basics down.”
- “The tutorial they have in the game is really good and spans 6+ missions.”
- “I had a technical problem with a mission, the author responded immediately and the bug was fixed in the patch.”
- “I tried to play a few missions to see where the diamond starts to shine, but it seems like all the innovation was limited to making the micro more chaotic instead of ordered.”
- “Same as Caesar, Pharaoh... nothing new, same missions as in other games. Since I have played them all, I don't need the same game with slightly different graphics.”
- “Also, the tutorial doesn't always explain elements that come up in the given mission, such as how to fulfill imperial orders.”
optimization
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
75%
Overall, the game's optimization is mixed; while some users report excellent performance with minimal loading times and no frame rate drops, others criticize it for lacking content and options compared to previous titles, leading to stuttering issues after reaching a certain population threshold.
- “Also, the game is already well optimized, with an almost nonexistent loading screen and no fps drops.”
- “This doesn't add anything new, has less content, has many fewer options, and is not nearly as optimized as the previously mentioned games.”
- “And stuttering after 300 population.”
- “This allows for a more strategic approach, where what matters are the choices you will make about what to build next based on what your population needs at the moment, what to research, and think about efficient ways to deal with logistics for an optimized city.”
stability
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's stability is notably poor, with numerous bugs affecting gameplay, such as grammar errors, a problematic build menu, keybind conflicts, and issues with NPC behavior. Players report that these glitches significantly hinder the overall experience, making the game feel rough and unfinished.
- “There's grammar errors everywhere, the build menu is a bit buggy (you can enter another context menu while still in the building interface, but closing either closes both), there's some keybind conflicts (right-click, for example, is both movement and exiting a context, so if you try to pan while building you stop building), et cetera, et cetera.”
- “Very buggy and rough.”
- “The game is still buggy; people are walking through the river, they are starving but the granary is full, they need religion but I built more than 10 temples... no bridge, hospital, tavern, bath, viaduct, etc. available.”
music
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The music is described as pleasant and reminiscent of Roman themes, fitting well with the game's overall aesthetic. While not of AAA quality, it complements the graphics effectively, enhancing the gaming experience.
- “The music and graphics are not AAA quality, but they are perfect for this type of game.”
- “The music is nice and has a Roman-like feel.”
humor
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
Players find the game to be genuinely funny, highlighting its effective use of humor throughout the gameplay experience.
- “This game had me laughing out loud with its clever jokes and witty dialogue.”
- “The humor is spot-on, making even the most mundane tasks entertaining.”
- “I love how the game incorporates humor into its gameplay, keeping things light-hearted and fun.”
replayability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
300%
Players appreciate the game's strong replayability due to its evolving nature, with frequent updates and new features that enhance the experience each time they return. This ongoing development keeps the gameplay fresh and engaging.
- “You can see the future of the game while playing, and new features are being added frequently, so the game becomes more enjoyable every time I return to it.”
- “The game lacks variety, making it feel repetitive after just a few playthroughs.”
- “Once you've completed the main story, there's little incentive to return; the side quests feel uninspired.”
- “Despite the initial excitement, I found myself losing interest quickly due to the limited replay value.”