
Urban Empire is a ‘City Ruler’, pioneering a new breed of strategy game that combines city builder features with political scheming and adds profound social and historical events into the mix, creating a whole new gameplay experience.
Modeled estimate, not a reported figure. How we estimate →
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About

City Ruler, not City Builder: Urban Empire offers a unique combination of classic city building and political management gameplay. Take on the role of a mayor, be a political mastermind and prove your skills by prevailing against opposing parties and guiding your city through technological evolutions and ideological revolutions.
Choose from 4 ruling families with 5 characters each, like the equal rights and social justice advocates the Kilgannons, or the Sant’Elias, who focus on scientific progress and the pursuit of knowledge.
Create and manage city districts on a large scale and fulfil your citizens’ needs – such as happiness, safety, and public services.
Introduce new ideas and technologies, like the electric tram, antibiotics or video games and use your power to convince the city council of your political agenda.
Up to 1000 dynamic events represent the twists and turns of urban life: make and influence decisions on issues such as women’s rights, the hippie movement, and child labor.Genres
Stats
All-time low is the lowest price we've recorded for this game since we started tracking it.
Languages: English*, French*, German*, Russian*, Simplified Chinese**languages with full audio support
Engagement
Hours played at review time, across 40 reviews with recorded playtime.
Reviews
Themes across 40 recent reviews and how positive each mention is. A keyword signal, not full sentiment analysis.
positive critical· bar length = how often the theme comes up
Reviews
This was such a let down in every possible way. The devs abandonded it after only 4 months after release. I truly belive this could have become a decent game if it had gotten a little bit more attention and love from the devs.
Por el precio que tiene es inexcusable que no traduzcan el texto al español.
This game sounded interesting in the description, however...everything about it feels like a chore and the fun never comes. Don't get me wrong, I love management and simulator style games but this was just not fun or enjoyable. I tried to get into it but just couldn't, I should have requested a refund.
[b]7/10 – Good[/b] This is a good game, I just wish they'd put a bit more of time and love into it. Talking about love, I can only ask you to try and give this game some love because it's really deserving if you like the genre. Urban Empire is a unique blend of city-builder and political simulator, and while it’s far from perfect, it definitely stands out in its own way. [b]Let’s start with the good stuff:[/b] - The voice acting is actually really nice and adds personality to the game. - There's a surprising amount of depth to city management, with real consequences for bad decisions, which I appreciate. - The political system, though not flawless, forces you to think strategically and negotiate with parties to push your agenda—at least until you're rich enough for it to stop mattering, except maybe during mayoral elections, where you do can get voted out otherwise. - I love the era progression—both aesthetically and mechanically. Decisions like replacing gas grids with electricity city-wide actually feel impactful. - District management is richer than you'd expect. You can add features like phone service without placing phone booths, or upgrade roads without traffic lights. It's cool, though admittedly shallow in execution and not as smooth as it could be, making upkeep hard to manage and progress difficult. I think that's the big reason why many people bounce off the game. [b]Now, the not-so-good:[/b] - The game badly needs a better tutorial. Key mechanics like traffic, happiness x taxes, and political goodwill are barely explained. - I had no idea there were different victory types until I checked the achievements—this is never explained. - Upkeep is brutal in the early game. Not expanding usually means going into the red, forcing you to grow faster than you might want, messing with compact city planning, so much that you can't really take advatange of public service ranges. - Performance sucks in the late game, especially in Era V. - Endorsing is shallow. - The character backstories and roleplay options feel hollow. Even playing as a conservative family doesn't change the fact that social reforms (like rights for women/LGBT/children) are always beneficial, so you’re never incentivized to roleplay against them. - The zoning demand system is kind of broken when you have a lot of districts. High demand doesn’t always lead to logical expansions, which can cause stagnation. - The game could really use some fresh mechanics introduced in later eras—something like Twin Cities or Party Spying. It would make era progression feel more meaningful and dynamic. Despite all this, there's a solid, very ambitious game underneath. It just needed a bit more polish, explanation, and some optimization love. If you're into political strategy and want a city-builder that tries something different, give Urban Empire a shot. It might surprise you—as long as you’re willing to forgive its rough edges.
I do think there is fun to be had playing the game and that is why I recommend it but I also agree that there are lots of problems with it. Because of all the bad reviews which again I do think raise valid points I only dared get it on a big discount because I was very curious to try it out. And after just a couple playthroughs I do think the game has a very interesting and enjoyable concept, it could have been a great game really if it was just a little bit better balanced. Unfortunately the game is simply too punishing. You have to raise money in order to build improvements to keep the population happy to keep them productive and raise more money. It's a simple loop and it is actually quite enjoyable and interesting in the beginning, the game throws you different situations and options to make each playthrough a little different. The problem is that the upkeep of the improvements quickly becomes too expensive to maintain. So what you do is you raise taxes. Council will not let you raise taxes too high however (and it's a good thing they don't let you because it would choke your economy, the council is actually pretty smart and most of the time following along with it rather than opposing it too strongly is a good strategy). If you start defying council too much it will lose you political goodwill with the different parties... and then you risk getting voted out and game over. So it's very easy to get stuck in little depressions and recession downward spirals and then you're not progressing and you have to spend a full era just rebuilding your economy to start progressing again and what should have been fun and rewarding instead becomes agonizing and frustrating. So do expect to get disappointed if you get it and just enjoy the bittersweet taste of what could have been a great game.
存档要先输入存档名再存档 帧数太低可以去显卡控制器改成高性能,默认是低性能 社区里有技术帖,能解决大部分问题,虽然也是很久没更新了
not working. crashing after intro. win 10 newest updates
Перш за все, не вистачає української мови у грі. По-друге, система стримувань та противаг просто 10/10, бо моя політична кар'єра рухнула після того, як розійшлося бачення з політичними партіями, які після того блокували кожну спробу зміни існуючого/створення нового району, або таких важливих транспортних артерій, як залізниця, та й взагалі тупо все, що я викладав на порядок денного голосування. Так би мовити, стримали та противажили мене, як мера. Єдина надія була на власні заощадження, які дозволяли обійти цих клятих корумпованих чинуш, але вони не гумові та довго наповнюються, на відміну від міського бюджету.
Kann das extrem negative Echo nicht nachvollziehen. Ja, das Spiel wirkt an manchen Stellen noch unsauber und es gibt gar manchen Gamebreaking Bug. Im Grundsatz ist das Spielkonzept aber durchaus innovativ, komplex und bei Erfolgen sehr befriedigend (aber mit Arbeit versehen, Datenbanken analysieren, Stellschrauben minimal anpassen, Risiken eingehen oder wieder Rückzieher machen). Mir fällt auch kein anderes Spiel ein, welches eine recht realistische Städtebausimulation mit den Vorgängen von Parteienpolitik schlüssig verbindet. Da ich beruflich selber Stadtplaner bin, kann ich bestätigen, dass der Städtebau-Teil akkurat (wenn natürlich auch vereinfacht) abgebildet wird. Präsentation, Gameplay, UI etc. erinnern dabei etwas an die "goldene" Zeit vergleichbarer Simulationen in den 90er und 2000er Jahren. Insbesondere die Grafik haut natürlich niemanden um. Ich halte es aber für zweckmäßig und authentisch.
Ich konnte mich gar nicht mehr daran erinnern, dieses Spiel mal gespielt zu haben, tat ich aber offensichtlich. Nun nach mehr als insgesamt 14h Spielzeit (davon nach über 8 Jahren) heute wieder ca. 2h, bin ich zu der Überzeugung gelangt, dass dieses Spiel auf absolut verlorenen Posten steht. Zum Glück weiß ich nicht mehr, was ich für diesen Titel bezahlt habe, im aktuellen Zustand würde ich jedoch sagen, mehr als 6 Euro wäre er mir nicht wert! Autsch! Zum Spiel an sich: Es lockt mit zahlreichen Elementen die ich von anderen Spielen mag, das Bausystem ist nicht perfekt aber ähnelt einem SimCity oder ähnlichen Titeln. Hinzu kommt der politsche Aspekt, man muss ständig Entscheidungen treffen und abwägen. Leider gestalltet sich das Bauen, wozu dieses Spiel eigentlich einläd als sehr schwierig ohne Trainer etc. Ohne würde ich bei diesem Spiel wahrscheinlich schon nach 10min die Flinte ins Korn werfen denn, es ist quasie unmöglich irgend was zu bewegen, sei es neue Distrikte erstellen, bestehende beartbeiten oder was auch immer. Ständig hast du die Wahl, mit deinem Privatvermögen IG (was du ohne Cheats quasie nicht hast) oder durch Votings deiner Ratsmitglieder der unterschiedlichen Partein zu dem zu kommen, was du eigentlich willst. Sie stimmen meist gegen den geplanten Schritt und somit beläuft es sich dabei, dass man Stunde um Stunde auf das immer gleich bleibdende Stadtbild starrt, da man ohne Zustimmung nichts machen kann. Schade eigentlich, auch ein Freebuild mode oder eine Funktion, bei der man sich selbst die Start und Zielbedingungen des Spiels setzen kann fehlt leider komplett. Die Kampangen und Szenarios sind freundlich gesprochen frustrierend. Eine Schande ein derartiges Spiel in meiner Bibliothek zu haben! Es hat sich nach über 8 Jahren so gut wie nichts am eigentlichen Spiel getan. Guckt euch lieber Katzenvideos auf YT oder so an, da habt ihr mehr von!
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Trends
Concurrent players on Steam, sampled daily since tracking started.
Momentum
Pace estimated from the game's recent review growth (our daily snapshots) at its own sales-per-review ratio — a momentum signal, not booked sales.
Audience
Estimated from the language of this game's reviews — a proxy for where players are, not official Steam demographics.
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