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Squirrel's Pick Squirrel's PickThe best game on this page. If you only try one, try this. Closest Match Closest MatchThe most similar game to the anchor, by what players say.
City BuilderColony SimSurvival
$19.99 ~64.7 hr median no co-op complexity: moderate 90.4% of 43k
The Squirrel's verdictBanished strips the colony builder down to one tightly balanced loop: every production chain, storage decision, and worker route matters because a single missed harvest or undersupplied winter can end the settlement. Released in 2014 at $19.99, it holds a 90.4% positive rating with a 64.7-hour median playtime and reviews still arriving daily.
Not for you if you want deep tech trees or long-term goals, since reviewers consistently call the systems shallow once the basics click.
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HistoricalAgricultureMedieval
$34.99 ~46.3 hr median no co-op complexity: moderate 86.2% of 25k
The Squirrel's verdictRaiders and individual settler survival needs separate Farthest Frontier from most colony builders in this genre: workers can die on routine tasks, and bandit camps near your settlement create compounding logistics problems. Reviews flag time-wasting friction and logistics breakdowns past 40 hours, but the game reached a 1.0 release in 2025 with a 86.2% positive rating and a 46.3-hour median playtime.
Not for you if you want fast early pacing, since reviews describe slow advancement and logistics friction that compounds at higher hour counts.
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City BuilderBase-BuildingColony Sim
$19.99 ~62.7 hr median co-op complexity: moderate 90.5% of 10k
The Squirrel's verdictSame production-chain city-building at scale, with card-based construction and trade routes replacing Settlement Survival's tech-tree pacing. Co-op is functional, not bolted on, and factions and cultures give you distinct starting strategies. Reviews note import/export can be exploited to skip resource-gathering entirely, which flattens the mid-game. Median playtime sits at 62.7 hours.
Not for you if you want resource-gathering to stay central rather than being bypassable through trade dominance, or you tire of repetitive difficulty scaling after the first playthrough.
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City BuilderSurvivalPost-apocalyptic
$24.99 ~21.8 hr median no co-op complexity: moderate 76.8% of 10k
The Squirrel's verdictBoth are large-scale colony builders about logistics and production chains rather than individual colonist stories, closer to SimCity than Rimworld. Endzone adds radiation and resource-scarcity pressure Settlement Survival lacks, but reviewers describe similarly shallow late-game depth and grinding, repetitive scenarios once early systems are mastered.
Not for you if you were hoping the late-game would offer more mechanical depth than the early hours already showed.
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City BuilderBase-BuildingColony Sim
Strong Mods Strong ModsA deep, active modding scene extends it past its base content.
$24.99 ~10.5 hr median no co-op complexity: moderate 86.3% of 357
The Squirrel's verdictSimultaneous multi-map management is Of Life and Land's clearest structural addition to the colony-builder formula: you balance production and population needs across separate maps rather than a single settlement. Reviews describe a responsive developer through the 1.0 release, with 180-hour playthroughs reported alongside a 10.5-hour median, suggesting wide variance depending on how deep you go.
Not for you if you want combat, direct NPC control, or find worker pathfinding and task-refusal frustration a dealbreaker.
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City BuilderColony SimResource Management
$18.99 ~14 hr median no co-op complexity: moderate 80.7% of 429
The Squirrel's verdictSettlements Rising gives colonists individual visible routines and adds a card-based conflict layer on top of the standard production-chain template. Reviewers note the building set is nearly identical to other genre entries, with one calling it a near-clone of Settlement Survival's loop. It released in 2025 with a Very Positive rating, a 14-hour median playtime, and an active developer.
Not for you if you already played Settlement Survival and want meaningfully different mechanics rather than familiar systems with light additions.
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City BuilderColony SimSurvival
Strong Mods Strong ModsA deep, active modding scene extends it past its base content.
$19.99 ~11.4 hr median no co-op complexity: moderate 72.2% of 3k
The Squirrel's verdictPatron runs the same core loop: worker-hauled logistics, production chains, and a tech tree layered over a Banished-style settlement builder. Reviews note similar pathing waste, where carriers cross the map for single loads, and UI sorting problems for building menus. At a 72.2% positive rating and 11.4-hour median playtime, it plays as a smaller, shorter version of the same systems.
Not for you if you want the huge colonist counts and marathon sessions Settlement Survival reviewers logged, since Patron's median playtime is 11.4 hours.
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City BuilderColony SimEconomy
$1.99 ~14.5 hr median no co-op complexity: light 60.8% of 1k
The Squirrel's verdictSame city-builder logistics loop: production chains, resource micromanagement, colonist needs, in a Wild West setting instead of a generic survival map. Reviews describe it as similarly thin past the opening hours, with content largely exhausted quickly and gameplay turning repetitive. Median playtime sits at 14.5 hours. Fits players who want a shorter, cheaper dose of the same systems.
Not for you if you're looking for depth beyond the first few hours or long-term progression goals, since reviews describe the content running out fast.