Games like Cities: Skylines

The Squirrel's verdictTheoTown is a retro pixel-art city builder that originated on mobile and carries that origin in its UI and structure. Community-made plugins serve the role that mods fill elsewhere, with reviewers citing a large and active plugin library. One flat $9.99 price covers the full game across PC, Mac, and Linux, with no expansion DLC. Median playtime is 28.6 hours. Some features, including online regions, are gated behind a daily login currency.

Not for you if you want deep systemic simulation and 3D visuals, or you find mobile-derived interfaces frustrating on PC.

The Squirrel's verdictSimCity 4 Deluxe Edition remains, for many reviewers, the deepest city-building simulation available, with a modding community that has sustained it for over two decades. It requires third-party patches and community mods to run stably on modern hardware — that dependency is a barrier, but it also means a vast, mature library of content exists. Median playtime runs 33.7 hours. PC and Mac only, no console version.

Not for you if you want a game that runs without manual patching and mod installation before your first session.

The Squirrel's verdictCliff Empire keeps the resource-chain city building and the satisfaction of watching a settlement grow from nothing, but trades Skylines' open sandbox for a scripted, plot-driven scenario with defined goals. Each cliff runs as its own isolated economy requiring trade between cities. One flat $17.99 price, no DLC layering. Median playtime sits around 51 hours.

Not for you if you want an open-ended sandbox rather than a goal-driven scenario, and dislike managing isolated city economies that must trade with each other to survive.

The Squirrel's verdictSimCity 3000 Unlimited is a 1999 2D sprite-based city builder covering zoning, budgets, and city growth in a stripped-back form that predates the complexity of later entries in the genre. It carries a $4.99 price and no DLC. Median playtime is 8.4 hours. Multiple reviews flag resolution limitations and camera control issues with the Steam port.

Not for you if you need modern resolution support or smooth camera controls — several reviews report the port handles these poorly.

The Squirrel's verdictHighrise City uses zone-and-grow city building as its structure, but places supply chain management at the center: mining, manufacturing, and production chains determine whether your city expands, not road layout. Reviewers consistently describe it as closer to Anno than to traffic-focused city builders. Priced at $29.99, PC only, no co-op. Crashes are frequently reported across reviews.

Not for you if you came for traffic engineering rather than resource logistics, or need a stable build — crashes are frequently reported.

The Squirrel's verdictCitystate II puts macroeconomics at the center of city management: immigration rates, inflation, public debt, and policy sliders drive outcomes more than road layout or pipe placement. Reviewers note that zoning and utilities exist but are not the focus. The simulation carries an explicit political framing that some reviewers found limiting. Crashes occur and the game lacks autosave by default, which reviewers flag as a significant issue.

Not for you if you want detailed traffic and infrastructure design, or need reliable autosave — crashes can erase substantial unsaved progress.

The Squirrel's verdictTownsmen shares the core loop of growing a settlement from a small foothold into a working town, with resource chains and citizen needs replacing Skylines' traffic and zoning puzzles. Maps are small, populations run in the hundreds not thousands, and menus surface DLC prompts during building. Median playtime sits at 6.9 hours, suited to short sessions rather than sprawling metropolises.

Not for you if you want a large-scale city sim with thousands of inhabitants rather than a small-map town builder with visible DLC upsells in the build menu.