Oh, you're interested in Banished, one of the most fascinating and challenging survival strategy games in the market. Developed by Shining Rock Software, Banished puts you in charge of a group of exiles, forced to start anew in a remote wilderness. Unlike other city building games, it doesn't focus on expanding your empire, but more into survival and sustainability. It ventures into various aspects of village management such as resource allocation, farming, infrastructure development, and technologies. The key challenge here, however, is balancing your resources to endure harsh winters, disease, aging and death. With its complex gameplay and beautiful visuals, it will quickly pull you into the harsh reality of a self-sustaining community.
And if you love Banished for its strategy and micro-management gameplay, then I must say, there are a plethora of other games out there that you may find equally compelling. Consider city simulators like Cities: Skylines where you plan and run an entire city, or the captivating space colony sim game, Oxygen Not Included, which forces you to make all kinds of intricate survival decisions. Or perhaps take a more historical route with the Civilization series and chart an entire civilization's course through the ages. Simply put, if you're seeking the thrill of strategy and the satisfaction of successful resource management, you're spoilt for choices.
Now, come a bit closer... I have a full list of incredible strategy games that rival Banished in complexity and immersion, ready to be unveiled. Brace yourself, for this collection will redefine what you consider a challenging strategy game. So, are you ready to discover the hidden gems of this genre?
25. Dwarf Fortress
If you're a fan of Banished, then you might find Dwarf Fortress to be an engaging alternative. Both are city-building survival games that offer players the opportunity to manage, grow, and care for a group of settlers in a challenging environment. In each of these games, you have to focus on resource management, ensuring your settlers' needs are met, and dealing with a variety of risks and challenges like harsh weather, lack of food, and enemy attacks. The complex and detailed mechanics deliver a real sense of connection to your settlers as you strive to keep them alive and thriving. Furthermore, the games’ replayability is incredibly high due to the procedural generation of worlds, you'll always have a unique experience each time you start a new game.
However, there are some differences that make Dwarf Fortress unique and equally enjoyable. Dwarf Fortress delves deeper into the fantasy genre, with mystical creatures and randomly generated lore, which adds a layer of complexity that Banished doesn't have. The open-ended nature of gameplay also allows you to create your own objectives and goals. One other fascinating feature of Dwarf Fortress is the detailed graphics; instead of typical isometric graphics, the game uses ASCII graphics which might seem challenging at first, but it gives an old-school charm and a whole new level of detail to the gameplay. It's like reading a book where your imagination colors the world.
Dwarf Fortress is available on Windows, macOS, and Linux, typically priced around free USD, but donations for the developer are always welcome.
24. Forge of Empires
Forge of Empires, much like Banished, is a city-building strategy game that gives you the freedom to develop and grow your own settlement. As you might have felt in Banished, every decision you make can have a significant impact on the fate of your city, offering a similar strategic and immersive experience. What makes Forge of Empires fascinating is its progressive timeline, extending from the Stone Age to the Future, allowing you to lead your city through different eras while Banished is set in a fixed medieval period. Hence, Forge of Empires extends the concept of city building and strategy with its time evolution factor, directly influencing the architectural style, the kind of resources available, and the challenges you'll encounter.
Similar to the survival aspect in Banished, in Forge of Empires, you not only focus on the growth aspect but also on defending your city when the need arises. Building an army and taking part in thrilling battles becomes crucial as you progress, adding an appealing layer of complexity to the game. The combat system is accessible yet deeply tactical, providing another dimension to your city management efforts which you can find quite engaging. Forge of Empires is an MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) game enabling players to interact, trade, and compete with thousands of other players around the globe, another aspect not present in Banished, but which can add a whole new dynamic to your gameplay.
Forge of Empires is available on Windows, Android, and iOS platforms, and while the base game can be played for free, there are in-game purchases to enhance your playing experience. These usually start from $1.99 USD and go upwards, according to the package and benefits you choose.
23. Life is Feudal: Forest Village
Life is Feudal: Forest Village, much like Banished, is an engrossing city-building survival game that places you at the helm of a small medieval community, striving to lead your people towards sustainable prosperity. It shares the same core mechanics as Banished, where you must properly manage resources and the wellbeing of your community to fight against the challenges of disease, weather, and having enough food and materials for everyone. Yet, Forest Village expands upon its Banished roots by implementing a range of more advanced mechanics like terraforming, which allows you to manipulate terrains in your favor, and an immersive first-person view, which lets you directly control and follow any of your villagers for a more personal, down-to-earth gaming experience.
Forest Village also boasts a more in-depth agriculture system, not seen in Banished, that factors in soil fertility, irrigation, and crop rotation, adding another layer of complexity on top of your resource management tasks. If you enjoyed the historical accuracy in Banished, you'll appreciate the addition of livestock diseases in Forest Village that mirror real-life pandemics, providing an extra layer of historical realism to your gameplay. The game also includes military elements and hostile wildlife, so defending your village will become an essential part of your strategy, distinguishing itself from Banished in a way that adds a bit of action to the city builder genre.
Life is Feudal: Forest Village is available on the PC platform via Steam, typically priced around $25 USD.
22. Tropico 5
At first glance, Tropico 5 and Banished might seem like thoroughly disparate gaming experiences but delve deeper and you'll find some incredibly striking similarities that'll definitely whet your appetite. Both games fall snugly into the realm of city building and management simulators with an emphasis on resource management and town planning. Resource allocation, citizen management, and sustainable development are key components of both games where the environment can be harsh and unforgiving. The lack of resources, unexpected disasters or plain mismanagement can lead to the downfall of your administration. Survival is not guaranteed and it’s up to you to strategize and adapt in order to thrive, just like in Banished.
In addition, both Tropico 5 and Banished feature engaging progression and growth systems, ensuring that players remain engrossed for hours on end while they strive to continuously expand and enhance their civilizations. Tropico 5 brings an intriguing political element into the mix, where you don't just manage the city, but also maintain diplomatic relations, handle citizen demands, and cope with international pressures. However, fundamentally, both games provide a challenge in the form of balancing population growth, resource management, and infrastructure development which makes Tropico 5 a natural progression for fans of Banished looking to diversify their gaming portfolio with a similar, yet fresh gaming experience.
Tropico 5 is available on Windows, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, typically priced around $20 USD.
21. Anno 1800
As a fan of Banished, you'll find a familiar sense of city-building and resource management in Anno 1800 that will likely tickle your fancy. Both games task you with starting from scratch, with a handful of resources and a few workers, asking you to build and manage your town. You'll find yourself recognizing similar challenges in Anno 1800, such as balancing the resource production to meet the demands of an ever-growing populace, or planning out your city's structure for efficient workflow so that every citizen can contribute to the prosperity of your town. Just like in Banished, the growth of your town has a direct impact on the workload, and handling the ebb and flow of population against surplus and scarcity is an exciting aspect of the game.
The distinct difference between Anno 1800 and Banished, which might even up the interest for you, is the setting and scale. While Banished is set in the medieval period, Anno 1800 is set during the Industrial Revolution, presenting new challenges and opportunities that come with this historical backdrop. This game also provides you with larger scopes for city-building, trading with rival empires, and even naval warfare, taking the gameplay beyond mere survival. The multiplayer mode also adds a new layer of competitiveness that Banished didn't offer, so you can enjoy shaping history with your friends!
Anno 1800 is available on Microsoft Windows, usually priced around $59.99 USD.
20. RimWorld
Just like Banished, RimWorld is a game that will test your ability to manage and grow a small community. Both games are about survival, but RimWorld adds a dash of sci-fi flavor, where you command a stranded crew of colonists on a remote planet and manage their survival against a variety of threats like predatory animals, raider attacks, and environmental hazards. The management aspects in both games are intensive, with the need to make strategic decisions around resource gathering, infrastructure development, and survival tactics. In essence, they infuse the utmost thrill of managing a civilization in an unforgiving environment where every decision counts.
Storytelling is another shared thread between RimWorld and Banished. In Banished, you create your own story through your village and its citizens. Similarly, RimWorld uses an AI Storyteller that dynamically adjusts the game's events based on your actions, making every playthrough unique and immersive. The scale of both games, despite being set in entirely different time periods, end up strikingly comparable in terms of immersion and satisfaction. And of course, the complexity and depth of both games pave the way for countless hours of rewarding gameplay experience.
RimWorld is available on platforms such as PC, Mac, and Linux, typically priced around $35 USD.
19. Stronghold Crusader
Stronghold Crusader, much like Banished, is a game that challenges players in strategic city-building and medieval warfare. Both these games emphasize micromanagement, making decisions about your city layout, managing resource production and logistics vitally important. In the same way you have to carefully plan your survival strategy in Banished, Stronghold Crusader requires a great deal of strategizing, especially when deciding how to allocate your resources for city management, fortification building and military production. Both games will offer you the exciting experience of running an autonomous community from scratch.
What excites a lot of players about Stronghold Crusader is the military aspect. While Banished is deeply tranquil, focusing mainly on city planning, and how to sustain your inhabitants, Stronghold Crusader adds another layer of excitement with its medieval setting filled with warfare and castle sieges. You'll get to enjoy the city-building aspects that you loved in Banished, but Stronghold Crusader presents the added thrill and strategic element of defending your city from invaders. The game consists of many historical campaigns, each providing a new level of strategic depth and challenge. If you revelled in the strategic challenges that Banished set before you, Stronghold Crusader is definitely a game you should try.
Stronghold Crusader is available on Windows and macOS platforms, typically priced around $9.99 USD.
18. Frostpunk
If you loved the city-building mechanics and survival strategy of Banished, then Frostpunk is certainly going to be a treat for you. Similar to Banished, Frostpunk requires the player to build and maintain a thriving city, albeit in an icy and harsh environment following a worldwide volcanic winter. You still get to enjoy the rich resource management and skill balancing elements that were a hallmark of Banished. However, Frostpunk ups the ante by introducing a story element, moral choices and a circular layout for city building, which throws some refreshing, unique enhancements into the mix while still maintaining that core city-building experience you loved in Banished.
Frostpunk also boasts of stunning visuals that bring its icy world to life, adding an atmospheric layer to the experience that Banished fans will appreciate. In terms of hardship and surviving the odds, Frostpunk offers a challenge quite parallel to Banished, but with a significantly darker theme. In Banished, you manage happy colonists, whereas Frostpunk is all about managing the last city on Earth with the main challenge being the unforgiving cold. The stark environmental differences between the two nonetheless offer a similar sense of tension and urgency as you try to balance survival against growth. Ultimately, if you're a fan of Banished's brutal difficulty, you'll feel right at home in Frostpunk’s cruel, frozen world.
Frostpunk is available on multiple platforms, including PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, typically priced around $30 USD.
17. Age of Empires II
Age of Empires II brings the strategic construct-and-survive elements that you love from Banished to a historically vibrant atmosphere. Like in Banished, you'll collect resources, construct settlements, and balance the various needs of your developing civilization. However, Age of Empires opens up the world further with a grand real-time strategy feel, with combat that has the player commanding an army for defense and expansion. A variety of campaigns based on actual historical events and figures takes that experienced city planning knowledge from Banished and puts it to the test in front of an ever-changing set of scenarios.
The complexity in Age of Empires II is on-par with that of Banished, offering countless hours of gameplay. However, it also targets different parts of the brain with strategy elements that are more combat-focused compared to the life-sustaining challenges in Banished. Visuals are just as detailed, and the historical time girl lends unique aesthetics to each building and unit, transporting you back in time with every session. And for fine-tuning your strategy, the AI in Age of Empires II provides a challenging opponent that will keep you on your toes, making every victory feel thoroughly rewarding.
Age of Empires II is available on Microsoft Windows and macOS platforms, typically priced around $20 USD.
16. Aven Colony
Oh, if you loved Banished, then you're in for a treat with Aven Colony. Both are city-building strategy games where resource management, infrastructure planning, and citizen happiness are of utmost significance. Just like in Banished, Aven Colony offers an engaging gameplay loop that involves farming, mining, and hunting to get resources, which you then use to build structures and cater to your populace's needs. The challenge level scales gradually, making sure you are always on your toes trying to make your colony thrive and progress.
A unique aspect of Aven Colony that sets it apart yet remains reminiscent of Banished is the outer space setting. Instead of woodlands and villages, you are creating and managing colonies on an alien planet, Aven Prime, trying to survive against harsh weather conditions and alien species. This adds a new layer of strategic depth to the game as you have to research new tech, manage oxygen supplies, and even combat space squid! And just like Banished's season control system, Aven Colony demands you to adapt to its immersive day-and-night and seasonal cycles which have noticeable effects on your colony.
Aven Colony is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows PC, typically priced around $29.99 USD.
15. City Skylines
City Skylines and Banished share common ground in their genre, both being city-building simulation games where strategic planning and resource management are key. In City Skylines, much like in Banished, you have the power to create your own city, expanding it over time while managing infrastructure, economy, and population growth. They both offer an immersive experience where every decision you make has an impact on the development of your city, making gameplay highly engaging and rewarding.
Both games also emphasize careful resource management. As in Banished, City Skylines asks its players to manage individual resources like power, waste, and education to the smallest detail. Both games also ask players to zone residential, commercial, and industrial areas, while dealing with traffic and public transport. However, City Skylines takes it a step further by offering a more detailed city simulation, including a day-and-night cycle, weather effects, and a more complex economy. Despite these differences, fans of Banished will feel right at home in the intricate and enthralling world of City Skylines.
City Skylines is available on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, typically priced around $30 USD.
14. Planetbase
In terms of gameplay and objectives, Planetbase draws a lot of similarity from Banished. Like Banished, Planetbase is also a city-building simulation game, but it sets you up in colonies on different planets instead of surviving in an old-timey wilderness. Same as in Banished, you need to responsibly manage resources, set a strategy, deal with ever-changing environmental conditions, and ensure the survival of your colonists. Planetbase cranks the difficulty up by adding the elements of space exploration into the mix. It offers a certain level of complexity and excitement for those who have enjoyed the challenging gameplay of Banished and looking for more.
Another aspect where Planetbase mirrors Banished is the graphical representation. Banished was highly appreciated for its stunning visual details which created an immersive gaming environment. Planetbase, with its beautifully rendered interplanetary landscapes and habitats, upholds the same aesthetic standard, which adds another layer of enjoyment to the involved gameplay. The models of colonists, robots, and the structures in your base are impressively detailed and the dynamic weather effects augment the reality of being on a foreign planet. So, if you enjoyed getting engrossed in the natural-rural surroundings and loved the atmospheric aspect of Banished, you will find Planetbase equally engrossing and visually appealing.
Planetbase is available on Microsoft Windows, OS X, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, typically priced around $20 USD.
13. Surviving Mars
Surviving Mars takes the city planning and survival elements you loved in Banished and transports them to the red planet. Like Banished, Surviving Mars offers you a challenging environment, a limited population, and finite resources. It’s all about smart planning and strategic development to ensure survival, while managing the unique challenges that Mars presents. From the same nuanced resource management to the intricacy of infrastructure design, you'll experience the familiarity of Banished's complexity, but with an intriguing sci-fi twist.
Not only do you have to worry about food and industrial production, but you also need to manage life-supporting systems like oxygen and water. Technological development plays a key role too, adding another layer of planning to your burgeoning Martian society. Furthermore, Surviving Mars introduces an exploration aspect, where you can discover secrets hidden in the inhospitable Martian landscape. Anomalies vary from new technology to resource caches and even alien artifacts. From the detailed management to the tough decisions under strain, Surviving Mars carries the spirit of Banished into a captivating extraterrestrial setting.
Surviving Mars is available on Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, typically priced around $30 USD.
12. Ostriv
Ostriv, much like Banished, is a city-building game that grants you the freedom to foster a settlement from scratch within an expansive open world. The primary focus on resource management, city planning, and individual citizen well-being matches the core mechanics of Banished, making it an attractive choice for fans of the genre. Each villager in your town has their unique requirements, just like in Banished, meaning every decision you make significantly influences your town's growth and sustainability. If you enjoyed the challenge of maintaining balance among various elements such as housing, food production, trade, and more in Banished, you would feel right at home in Ostriv.
Moreover, both the games' graphics and UI offer subtle yet profound detail, bringing your developing society to life before your eyes. However, it's worthwhile to mention that Ostriv is also known for its innovative mechanics that somewhat step up from Banished. For instance, Ostriv allows citizens to propose new construction projects, lending a more active role to your villagers and making the town seem more alive and dynamic. Also, its emphasis on realistic physics, intricate trading economy, and advanced farming systems contribute to offering a complex yet immersive city-building experience to enthusiasts.
Ostriv is available on PC through platforms like Steam, typically priced around $20 USD.
11. Stonehearth
Stonehearth is a lot like Banished, but with a unique twist. Much like Banished, it is a city-building simulation game where you start with a small group of settlers and strive to grow into a thriving community. Yet, Stonehearth sets itself apart with its charming voxel-based graphics and a focus on not just surviving, but thriving. The game enables you to design your own buildings and structures block by block, which can add a completely new dimension to your creativity. Like Banished, there is a strong focus on resource management and strategy, but Stonehearth also adds role-playing elements with each of your hearthlings having their own jobs, skills, and levels.
Another feature that makes Stonehearth similar to Banished is the unpredictability of the game. Just like in Banished, your settlement in Stonehearth can face challenges such as harsh weather, lack of resources or external threats which makes the game extremely engaging and ensures that no two gameplay experiences are exactly alike. The game also features a sandbox mode that lets you play at your own pace, without the pressure of survival elements, similar to the flexibility and freedom provided in Banished.
Stonehearth is available on Windows, macOS, and Linux platforms, typically priced around $25 USD.
10. The Settlers Online
The Settlers Online, much like Banished, is a strategy game that requires you to make decisions for the growth and survival of a community. Both games are centered around resource management, making it essential for the player to constantly balance between different needs and limitations of their society. In each game, you start with a small group of settlers and gradually expand by building houses, collecting resources, and creating trade systems. While Banished focuses on a low-technology, low-population survival situation, The Settlers Online allows you to build a thriving society, trading resources, and building grand buildings, even allowing interactions with other players to trade, cooperate or compete, adding an exciting layer of social interaction to the game.
The joy in both Banished and The Settlers Online is in watching your little town grow and morph into a bustling city as you carefully guide its development. Both games offer a rewarding sense of progress and accomplishment, as every decision you make influences the growth and advancement of your society. In Banished, a wrong decision can lead to the demise of your town, while in The Settlers Online, clever strategies can lead to a sprawling empire. If you enjoyed the complexity, adaptability, strategic decision making, and gratifying growth aspects of Banished, you will appreciate those very same elements in The Settlers Online.
The Settlers Online is available on PC and web browsers, typically priced around the $0 USD, as it follows a freemium model allowing you to play for free while offering optional purchases to enhance gameplay.
9. Dawn of Discovery
If you enjoyed Banished, you'll find similar pleasure in Dawn of Discovery. This game shares many components with Banished such as the need for strategic resource management, city-building from scratch and a constant balancing act between sustainability, expansion, and survival for your growing community. Equally engrossing, this game offers a rich, medieval narrative that thrusts you into the shoes of a prince exploring and settling new lands, bearing a striking resemblance to the Island-Mode in Banished where you had to convert a lonely island into a thriving settlement.
Dawn of Discovery deepens its similarity to Banished with its focus on community development but brings an added layer of complexity with its emphasis on exploration and network building. It requires a lot of long-term planning and intricate design for creating trade networks among your colonies, much like the balance you had to strike in Banished between resource extraction and storage, population management, and advancement through ages. But what truly sets it apart yet mirrors Banished is its deeper naval facet. Exploration and trade are not confined to your island but extends to multiple isles requiring a robust fleet – a thrilling feature that will remind you of Banished’s occasional trade with occasional passing ships, but taken to a substantial and exciting level.
Dawn of Discovery is available on PC, typically priced around $15 USD.
8. SimCity
SimCity shares Banished's essence of city building and management while taking it a step further by adding intense intricacies. Just like in Banished, you have the liberty to build your city from scratch; however, SimCity provides you with a more in-depth bureaucracy experience. You have to carefully plan your urban layout, considering the infrastructural necessities like electricity, water supply, and waste management. Your cities progress dynamically as you move across different eras, battling a variety of crises like crime, pollution, and epidemics, offering a fascinating challenge akin to the environmental conditions in Banished.
Critically, while Banished gives you an intimate experience of village life, SimCity elevates the scale to metropolis level, allowing you to manage multiple cities at once in the same region. The way the game allows you to build complicated, interconnected cities, truly makes you feel like a mayor, juggling the fine balance between taxes, public satisfaction and city development. Moreover, it features a multiplayer mode, wherein you and your friends can build cities in the same region, trade resources, and even compete. Although SimCity doesn't have Banished's survival element, it brilliantly compensates with its climatic shocks and other metropolitan challenges, providing a comparable gaming experience with enhanced complexity.
SimCity is available on PC, MacOS, and several other gaming platforms, typically priced around $20 USD.
7. Endzone: A World Apart
Endzone: A World Apart closely mirrors the compelling gameplay and intricate dynamics that made Banished a hit. Like Banished, it's a survival city builder that tasks you with managing a group of people who are trying to re-establish a settlement after a nuclear disaster. You're in charge of the overall survival and growth of your community, including food gathering, managing jobs, and handling various challenges like water scarcity or radiation exposure. Its post-apocalyptic setting conjures a deep sense of urgency and consequences. The mechanics may seem familiar if you've played Banished, but it's wrapped in a fresh theme that brings a challenging twist to the table.
In addition, the building and construction aspect in both the games is similar and loaded with strategic nuances. Like in Banished, you must craft a balance between making sure your community has the basic resources to survive and expand, and dealing with obstacles brought on by the environment. While Banished throws severe weather and illnesses at players, Endzone’s high-risk, high-reward gameplay introduces radiation as a unique challenge to battle. You are constantly needing to adapt, plan, and strategize around these features to ensure the continuity of your budding civilization. So, if you loved the strategic depth and the satisfaction of successfully managing your settlement in Banished, Endzone: A World Apart would be right up your alley.
Endzone: A World Apart is available on PC (Steam), typically priced around $29.99 USD.
6. Kingdoms Reborn
If you enjoyed Banished, you're almost certainly going to appreciate Kingdoms Reborn. They both stand on the pillar of city-building and survival genre, with strategy and resource management at their cores. Kingdoms Reborn goes a step further by adding a card system to control the mechanics of city-building. Just like Banished, the survival of your growing community relies heavily on careful planning and balancing of resources, but the additional facet of strategy card game makes Kingdoms Reborn a more diversified and thrilling experience.
Kingdoms Reborn is not just a clone of Banished though. It brings in its own unique features that set it apart. The multiplayer mode, for example, presents an opportunity to explore, trade, or compete with other players, drastically expanding the typical boundaries of the city-building genre. The procedural map generation also ensures every playthrough is unique—giving a fresh take on the beloved genre. It's like Banished, but with a bolder, grander perspective that brings in brand new possibilities.
Kingdoms Reborn is available on the Steam platform, typically priced around $24.99 USD.
5. Civilization VI
If you've enjoyed the intricate building and life simulation gameplay of Banished, then there's a good chance you'll also appreciate the depth and strategy found in Sid Meier's Civilization VI. Much like in Banished, Civilization VI gives players the opportunity to manage their civilization's resources, design and strategically build their city centers and districts, and carefully plan the growth and advancement of their people. One of its most compelling features is the implementation of the district system, where each district is specialized for different types of productions such as research, military, trade or culture, similar to how you would assign resources and tasks in Banished.
Additionally, Civilization VI will continue to stimulate your art of decision-making. Think, the survival and success of your town in Banished was determined by your choices - building structures, crop selection, managing population and so on. Well, in Civilization VI, this goes a notch higher. Each choice you make defines your civilization, from the social policies you adopt, your technological path, the way you handle diplomacy and war, to your civilization's ideology. As a result, each game session guarantees to be a unique experience, much like how each playthrough of Banished offers different outcomes based on your decisions.
Civilization VI is available on PC, Mac, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, typically priced around $60 USD.
4. Factorio
Factorio, much like Banished, offers you the opportunity to encounter unique and challenging survival gameplay. Although the setting differs, as Factorio places you on an alien planet rather than a desolate wild land, the core objective is the same - build, survive, and thrive. Both games assign you with resource management, creating sustainable infrastructures, and moderating your population's needs. In Factorio, instead of managing a group of exiled travelers, you're the sole survivor on an alien planet striving to set up a fully automated factory to prepare for a homeward journey.
The unparalleled satisfaction of an efficient operation is equally felt in Factorio as in Banished. Both games reward careful planning and strategic vision. The logistics and factory set-up in Factorio can be compared to the town-planning in Banished, where foresighted placement of buildings and their functions plays a key role in ensuring survival. The games also share the common challenge of constant adaptability to unexpected situations that can adversely impact the survival of your settlement or factory. Thus, they both present a fulfilling experience of meticulously crafted strategy and management, compelling anyone who enjoyed Banished to try Factorio.
Factorio is available on Windows, macOS, and Linux platforms, typically priced around $30 USD.
3. The Universim
If you loved the strategic planning and survival elements of Banished, then you'll definitely want to take a look at The Universim. Similar to Banished, The Universim is a city-building game, but it incorporates a unique concept of evolving civilizations across different ages and planets. It's all about managing resources, planning your expansion, researching new technologies, and dealing with unexpected challenges, just like in Banished. But instead of a fixed terrain, you have an entire universe to explore and conquer. You're in complete control of your civilization's evolution and can dictate everything from their lifestyle to their technological advances.
Another common element between the two is the immersive environment and in-depth simulation. Just like in Banished, your strategic choices truly matter in The Universim. From the smallest decision to the greatest, each can have serious implications on your civilization's population, resources, and development. The game also has unpredictable events and calamities that mimic Banished’s winters, plagues, and fires. The degree of realism in the simulated weather eco-systems in both games gives you a greater sense of immersion. Despite the fantastical setting, the Universim manages to incorporate a sense of realism into its gameplay.
The Universim is available on STEAM, Humble Bundle, and GOG, typically priced around $30 USD.
2. Saelig
If you loved Banished, you're definitely going to be fascinated by Saelig. Saelig has been frequently compared to Banished due to its strategic, economic-based gameplay and attention to detail. In the same vein as Banished, Saelig is a strategy and survival game where you're put in control of a medieval Saxon town, and your objective is to manage and expand your dominion while dealing with the many ups and downs of life in medieval times. Picture Banished, but with added depth and complexity - more emphasis on individual characters, their daily lives, and family dynamics. You'll see the town evolve and change as time progresses, coupling the economic management of Banished with a broader, more immersive world.
What makes Saelig distinct–and perhaps even more appealing to some–is its added emphasis on role-playing elements. Beyond the town-building, you can control individual characters directly, allowing for a more personalized approach to the game, which Banished does not offer. You can match your townsfolk into marriages, start businesses, and manage the economy based on your vision. Merging the mechanics of detailed strategy games like Banished with individual RPG elements, Saelig ensures a unique gaming experience that is both telangiectasia and highly immersive, sure to keep you engrossed for hours on end.
Saelig is available on platforms like Steam, typically priced around $15 USD.
1. They Are Billions
They Are Billions takes the strategic city-building aspects that you like in Banished but adds a thrilling steampunk survival twist! Similar to Banished, you're tasked with establishing and managing a functional, self-sustaining colony, considering factors such as resource allocation, building placement and expansion strategy. You have tons of building options and it's up to you to design your city effectively to survive in the harsh environment. However, in They Are Billions, balancing growth and sustainability take on a more significant role as you're dealing with the end of the world, with menacing hordes of billions of infected driven by the goal of wiping out your humble establishment.
Steeped in the same intricate strategy as Banished, They Are Billions adds another layer of intense decision-making with its emphasis on colony defense. You must strategically build and position your defensive units around your town to protect against the hordes of infected, adding an exciting tactical element. The random map generation each time you play also makes for endless replayability, so you're bound to not run out of new strategies to try and new challenges to overcome. Whether you're refining your city layout for optimal productivity or neck-deep in the thrill of a zombie siege, They Are Billions offers a captivating blend of city-building and survival strategy that you'll find familiar yet distinctly unique.
They Are Billions is available on PC and console platforms: PS4 and Xbox One, typically priced around $30 USD.
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