2,500 years is a long time and it’s an even longer time if you’re trying to navigate crisis after crisis, attempting to keep your city and its people thriving. Newly announced city builder Memoriapolis puts this challenge right at its centre, tasking you with looking after a nascent village as it grows, comes under threat, and grows again throughout four distinct historical ages. Developer 5PM Studio has shown off its upcoming city builder for the first time and it’s looking rather tasty.
In the gaming world we’re used to seeing this scale of time usually in historical 4X games like the Civilization series or the recently released Millennia. We don’t usually get epochs applied to something smaller, like an individual town or city. That’s why Memoriapolis looks so intriguing; applying a huge concept like the grinding wheels of history to the smaller city building game genre.
Memoriapolis sees you take control over a tiny camp of explorers long ago in the distant mists of time. From here, your city will begin to expand through four ages; Antiquity, Middle-Ages, Renaissance, and finally the Age of Enlightenment. Each age brings with it new challenges and variants on the game’s gameplay mechanics, all of which can impact how, and if, your city grows.
Planning your city’s layout is less about micromanaging every single decision and blade of grass, instead revolving around your people’s needs, the terrain you’re building on, and the direction you want your city to grow in. You won’t be laying out roads, for example. Instead they’ll grow organically to link together the buildings and areas you’ve plopped down.
As your city grows Memoriapolis promises that you’ll step more into managing its economy and politics, making crucial policy decisions that will decide the fate of your people forever. Riots, strikes, and even the Black Death can rear their head to threaten your city – how you react to these challenges will determine your city’s long-term future.
There are a lot of intriguing ideas in this game and it’s fascinating to see big high-concept mechanics mashed together with a genre more famous for micromanagement and moment-to-moment decisions. There isn’t currently a release date for Memoriapolis but it promises to enter into Steam Early Access soon. If you’re interested in making your mark on history, head over to add Memoriapolis to your wishlist.
If your blood has stirred at the thought of playing through history, why not take a peek at our guide to the best medieval games you can play on PC. Or peer into the future with us as we take a look at the best upcoming PC games of 2024.
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