10 Games like Banished you must play

By Kieran Burt
Published: June 9, 2023 (Last updated: last month)
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10 Games like Banished you must play

We discuss ten games like Banished you must play. Add these well-recommended games to your gaming library.

Banished was released in 2014 and has players control a group of exiled travelers who restart their lives in a new land. With only the clothes on their backs and a cart full of supplies, they decide to build a new settlement. Developed by Shining Rock Software, this game was released to mixed reviews, with the graphics and the early game being highlighted.

City simulators are a hugely popular genre, with games spanning multiple historical, fantasy, and sci-fi settings, but all sharing similar gameplay. If you’re looking for more to check out, here are ten games like Banished you must play.

10 Games Like Banished

RimWorld (2018)

RimWorld is a management game with a sci-fi setting. It tasks players to ensure that a colony is kept happy but, most importantly, alive. The stories it tells are generative, meaning they’re unique to each player and their choices, but they include simulating violence, psychology, ecology, diplomacy, and more.

Frostpunk (2019)

Frostpunk is set in an alternate 1886, where the Sun is dimed by eruptions of Krakatoa, Mount Tambora, and other mysterious forces, meaning that Earth is plunged into a harsh volcanic winter.

Players have to build and maintain a city in this apocalyptic environment, but the game doesn’t make their work accessible, demanding them to make tough moral choices to keep citizens from freezing to death.

The Colonists (2018)

Inspired by the Anno series and The Settlers, The Colonists sees players take control of a group of self-replicating robots who have escaped Earth and are searching for a new home and to become human. Players build infrastructure for their colony, including roads, boats, and transport systems, harvest resources, and either develop in peace or engage in a war against AI-controlled colonies.

Kingdoms and Castles (2017)

Set in a medieval setting, Kingdoms and Castles sees players build up a city of their own, starting with a tiny little hamlet and working their way towards an imposing fortress, complete with its own castle.

There are AI-controlled kingdoms present too, but declaring war on them is just one option. Players can set up alliances and trade agreements with these other regions to help build up their own settlements.

Anno 1800 (2019)

Anno 1800 is a city-building game set during the industrial revolution, but players don’t just build a city. They can build ships with naval combat, visit (and conquer) other islands, and establish trade routes.

The game also has an element of choice, as players can either go down in history as either an innovator or an exploiter and either a conqueror or a liberator.

Cities: Skylines (2015)

A more modern take on the city builder games most are familiar with, Cities: Skylines sees players take control of city planning, engaging in zoning, taxation, road systems, public services, and public transport.

A player must work carefully to keep their city’s budget under control, their citizens healthy, their citizens in a job, employment levels high, and traffic and pollution levels low. There is also a sandbox mode, which gives players more creative control and dials down the many meters.

ISLANDERS (2019)

For players looking for a more casual city builder, then they shouldn’t go any further than ISLANDERS. Using a procedurally generated island, players place buildings from their inventory to earn points, which in turn unlock more buildings to be placed. The game session ends when there’s no space left to place buildings.

Tropico franchise (2001-2019)

Tropico is a series of game management set in the Caribbean islands that have players building their own semi-democratic banana republic. It manages to explore complex topics like totalitarianism, manipulating votes, and the interventions of powerful companies and Cold War superpowers and their influence to keep the player in power and inject humor into these heavy subjects.

Civilization franchise (1991-2016)

Originally created by developer Sid Meier, the Civilization games take players through history as they build up the human race from the stone age to the space era. In a turn-based game, players research different technologies representing the cultural, intellectual, and technical sophistication of the civilization.

There is also the opportunity for the player to build their empire through violent conquest, just one of the several ways to win the game.

Rise to Ruins (2019)

Rise to Ruins is an extremely difficult management game. It has a pixelated art design and also incorporates tower defense into the mix of things. Players aim to build their village during the day and beat off hordes of monsters at night.

Do you have any other recommendations for games like Banished? Let us know in the comments below.

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