Charles has been writing about games for years and playing…
Banished are a strategy based game where building happens that goes around your village and this way you improve several areas by doing several building activities. The game is well-known because of the huge adventures that come all the time and allow you to engage in the game more and more. So if you have played Banished enough and want to try some other games like banished, then this article is the perfect one.
Here I’ll take you to fifteen games that provide the same gameplay as Banished. The Game has a city building genre and so the games here that I’m going to describe. When you start with the Banished you have limited supply, but you make your steps with it, and soon you gain other important resources.
The concept works on growing your community and fight off against several odds like weather, starvation, population, etc. Get the same gameplay with these city or kingdom building games, so start here.
Table of Contents
ToggleGames Like Banished
Dawn of Discovery (Anno 1404)
The gameplay begins near the region of North America where you are supposed to do a city building job that focuses on economics and real-time strategies. Players need to begin their own civilization by developing the surroundings while initiating different tasks. There are different versions of the game Anno, and this one is truly fantastic. You go on with several activities like exploring islands, make your settlements, establishing diplomatic relationships, combats and much more. Those who want a unique city building experience with the amazing settlement are always welcomed by Dawn of Discovery (Anno 1404).
Anno 2070
The next one is the Anno 2070 that was released in 2011 that is after two years of Anno 1404. It also takes place among the best city building games with several developments than the previous versions. The gameplay requires you to create real-time strategies while creating city elements to form a proper civilization. Anno 2070 offers both single player and multiplayer experience. It takes place in the year 2070, so it also takes care of the global warming issue that has risen and so the wearer level is limited. Anno provides you several challenges to complete in order to survive there and help the humanity.
The Settlers 7
The Settlers 7 is one of the best kingdom building games offers perfect visuals, so players get attracted to try the game just by the looks. As you can understand the name, it is the seventh version of the settlers that is a very long-running gameplay, and it first took place in 1993. The popularity brought the 7th game in the series that includes strategy and building gameplay. Here the game offers several modes like campaign, skirmish, multiplayer and others where you can expect adventures going on. The game has plenty of content that makes it one of the must-have city building games.
From Dust
From Dust offers a three in one gameplay that means you are able to experience strategy, building and god themed concept. It was first released in 2011, and since that time it has been released on several other platforms too. Including three genres, the gameplay can be felt like a unique one where the player is in the god-like character and control several happenings. Here you find a tribe called nomadic and your aim is to help them by creating a pleasant world. You get a tool that is used to control the land, lava and water elements.
Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile
Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile was released in 2004, and since then millions of players are already addicted to it. It is a city building game where you build an older civilization from the Egyptian times. It can be an older civilization building, but the gameplay is fantastic to keep you indulge in its elements. There are enough details and pleasant visuals where you are in the role of Pharaoh, and you have an immortal civilization that has already lived for thousands of years, and it is in the form of Egypt. Your motive is to fulfill the needs of your people and also protect your city whenever needed.
Tropico 2: Pirate Cove
https://youtu.be/P7dRjwidhZk
If you want an adventure near the seaside, then Tropico 2: Pirate cave can be the ultimate choice. The scenery here looks amazing as it is all a beachside experience. Here you perform your objective of building things and meanwhile you enjoy this tropical environment. The game is all about you who is the pirate king and manages his own pirate island. There are other pirates too that you should be aware of and protect yourself while collecting things that belong to pirates like treasure. The game gives you some options so you can change the difficulty level, choose your map, game length and just go for the hut of resources on that island.
Also check our article for games like prison architect.
Tropico 3
Here in the next version Tropico 3, you manage your own republic by ruling the island nation. On the way of searching banished like games, this one has plenty of new features than the Tropico 2 where a player encounters several missions to enhance the position and ruling. As you are the new ruler, so you are responsible for all the developments and infrastructure in the area. You have to keep the people happy from all the seven sections by fulfilling their specific needs. You are also able to create your avatar and customize it from the available options that are wide, set your missions and go ahead with the ruling.
Tropico 4
Tropico 4 is a more developed form of all the previous Tropico games that you can easily feel as you get in the gameplay. It is a better one actually that you enjoy if you want a bit technology in your gameplay. As the game blends all three genres such as simulation, construction, and management so ruling here, your public is more fun than ever. Customization is also very exciting, and your character is known as El Presidente who is on the journey of competing for 20 mission campaigns with other content, so it’s a lot to explore and experience.
Populous: The Beginning
Populous: The Beginning not just the one that comes among the best city building games, but it takes to a new world where graphics are enchanting enough to keep your game on and on. It mixes up the strategy genre and the god games idea, so this hybrid version is a fantastic creation by Bullfrog Productions. Here, you as a player join the stars, you used to be a tribe man and now you are a shaman.
Just to know there are four tribes in total which are red, green, yellow and blue and there are approx twelve missions that you need to complete with several motives. So you are an instructor who gives commands to others and build new structures and manage them while training your troops for fights.
Evil Genius
Anyone who wants to experience simulation plus real-time strategy can refer to Evil Genius. The beginning year was around 1960 when this fantastic gameplay was launched where players need to make strategies while exploring. You aim to build that tower or castle on your island and using those minions as your secret messengers. Picking up one evil genius sets your character and behind your journey to create your place and expand it by time. There are several things that are waiting to be unlocked while you fight against the forces of justice by hiding your identity that you do using dangerous traps and invaders.
StarTopia
StarTopia is the one that is in play since 2001 developed by the Bullfrog employees where you develop several space stations in order to make a hub in the galaxy. You are placed in the universe, so you feel the environment and all things like happening in the space. You need to create survival tools according to that and take care of all the things required in the space. The game brings you several objectives, and one of them is controlling the invasion of aliens.
Here you get your staff, so you command them, and they just follow the instructions, each of them is skilled differently that is good for a particular task.
Towns
Towns also bring up strategy making and simulation genre where you experience the RPG gameplay based on Windows and Mac. Here you need to create dungeons while looting resources so you can use them for your own benefits. There are battles as well where you need to fight against your opponents and win over to gain advantages. Here are several objectives that you need to complete such as doing some field work near the trees, mining, build shops, trade things, etc.
Black & White
Black & White another one in the god game genre that Lionhead Studios developed perfectly and it got in move in 2001. Other than the god genre the game has other ones too, and this entire blend makes it a unique gameplay. Here several people situate in several islands that you need to control as you are the god of the game. But controlling them is not that easy as you have to please them by doing things in their favor and take care of their choices. So the missions depend on impressing the villagers and win their belief. There are two options such as the kind god and the evil god and challenges differ accordingly.
A Game of Dwarves
Here it is all about the dwarf settlement where you are supposed to build dwarf civilization and manage them afterward. It is in records since 2012 that is same as the Banished due to the gameplay. You are a dwarven prince, and you are here to claim your ancestors’ lands that the evil magic drew away and made the dwarves away from their lands. There are several levels that can be enjoyed and enemies that can be defeated. Also, there are secrets that you reveal as you explore. So enjoy A Game of Dwarves and build your place to train all other dwarves to be great warriors.
Dwarf Fortress
The last one in the list of games similar to banished is this unique Dwarf Fortress gameplay. It is actually a city building experience where you see dwarves and keep them under your control. Visuals are okay unlike other games here, but many of you players can feel it worth playing. The game took place in 2002 that is entirely free to play and justifies the building genre. You in the game are a builder who builds a perfect place for the dwarves, face battles and evil invaders and protect them from happening.
Age of Empires Series
While the Age of Empires series is not a city-building game, fans of Banished will definitely appreciate the strategy and historical element. With basis in actual historical events, the series has eight installments that take you through an immersive journey from the Stone Age, the Roman Empire, the Middle Ages, and multiple Colonisations. It’s been a franchise with a dedicated following from 1997 to 2020.
If you’re tired of having short-term flings with games, Age of Empires will quench your thirst for commitment to a well-established game series with a huge community and hundreds of thousands of hours of gameplay.
Cities: Skylines
This is one of the best games when it comes to building entire cities. In Cities: Skylines you are the appointed mayor who needs to build a fully functioning metropolitan city for the society to flourish in. You start out by just building the city, mapping the layout for residential, educational and medical institutions.
Then you do the challenging job of maintaining it, like building a flyover bridge to divert traffic. It is immensely satisfying to look at stunning aerial views of an enormous city that you designed and created! You can be as specific as you want with the details of each building infrastructure, or focus instead on the welfare of the people.
Factorio
The crown jewel of the factory and building genre of video games, Factorio is a great game for anything who enjoys building. However, there’s much more to building in this game. You play as an astronaut who crash lands on an alien planet. You have to build a rocket if you want to ever return back home.
Of course, it’s not as easy as just scavenging for scrap metal to put together: you have to set up automated factories that will mine and manufacture everything you need to make a full-fledged rocket from scratch. You start the game with nothing but a pick axe and slowly but surely establish your hold on the planet. It even goes beyond the rocket, you get to keep setting up Megabase. And if you thought this alien planet was going to let you work in peace, think again: there are hordes of bug-like creatures that will destroy your progress.
Zeus: Master of Olympus
This single-player strategy game is right up your alley and cannot be skipped from this list. If you enjoy building games and are also passionate about the Greek civilization, you can now be the mind behind a mighty city-state, or polis. A fun and relaxing experience building an ancient city, you take care of the infrastructure of the building structures, as well as having amenities for education, entertainment, agriculture and politics: in an almost historically accurate fashion.
Just like most games in this genre there are natural disasters that will come and hinder your progress (else it wouldn’t be fun at all). Part of these natural disasters in Zeus: Master of Olympus are monsters from Greek mythology. And since you’re quite literally playing God in this game, instead of having to fight the monsters yourself, you can leisurely pick out the right mortal hero to do your bidding.
Minimum System Requirements for Banished
- OS: Win XP SP3 / Vista / Windows 7 / Windows 8
- Processor: 2 GHz Intel Dual Core processor
- Memory: 512 MB RAM
- Graphics: 512 MB DirectX 9.0c compatible card (shader model 2)
- DirectX: Version 9.0c
- Storage: 250 MB available space
- Sound Card: Any
Conclusion
So all the 19 games like banished are mentioned here that I think you would love to play. All of them totally justify the genre, and many of them are a mixture of several genres including building and simulation. So, download any of them in your devices and let me know your perfect game from this list.
Charles has been writing about games for years and playing them all his life. He loves FPS, shooters, adventure games like Dota 2, CSGO and more.