Early Access code was used with many thanks to Keymailer.
Builders of Greece is a simulation strategy game from developer BLUM Entertainment and publisher CreativeForge Games.
I’ve had Builders of Greece on my wishlist for what feels like forever, and now an Early Access release is here. So I was excited to get to try out the game, but did my excitement last, or did it quickly fade away?
Builders of Greece
In Builders of Greece, your task is to become an ancient Greek ruler and lead your empire to prosperity and glory. Your decisions will shape the course of history in the game as you navigate the difficulties of governance, command your subjects, and oversee the construction of structures that will define your Polis (city) as a beacon of civilization in the ancient world.
Builders of Greece begins much like any simulation game of this type by letting you choose how to play; you have the option of Sandbox mode or Scenarios with or without hints.
Scenario and Sandbox
For my first playthrough, I went with Scenarios mode. As the game begins, you watch the camera zoom over the water and onto the land; it is here you will build an Agora, which is a large public place and is the centre of your Polis.
You must build the economy of the Polis from the ground up, ensuring regular and reliable supplies of food, building materials, and the general happiness of the citizens. Your primary focus is on building new buildings and managing raw materials, such as wood, stone, food and wine. The game also includes a development system in the form of permanent perks using technology, the ability to adjust taxes and trade, and the direct influence of people’s happiness using special goods and service buildings.
Build Up a Settlement
There is a narrator who helps you along by asking you to build woodcutter huts, quarries and homes for your citizens. However, this was the first of my problems with Builders of Greece; the narrator seemed to nod off and forget he was meant to be narrating, as shortly after starting the game, he stopped talking. Maybe I upset him somehow.
Anyway, I carried on and built up a nice settlement with a stone quarry, marketplace, woodcutter, fishing hut, vineyard for wine, and homes for my citizens, and I invited some newcomers to stay.
Tutorial Needs Some Improvements
Also, on that same playthrough, I noticed that the tutorial was pretty useless, as the first thing you are asked to do in the game is place the Agora, which I did. Still, the tutorial didn’t clear the task; it permanently stayed on that first task.
The next time I went to play Builders of Greece, I chose the sandbox mode. The game had recently been updated; great, maybe the narrator had been woken up with the update. The recent update did add a slightly more useful tutorial to the game, and the narrator is awake, but unfortunately, the update broke the keyboard camera controls.
Broken Camera Keyboard Controls
Anyone who plays simulation games knows the usefulness of being able to move the camera with the WASD keys. Also, the camera in Builders of Greece has a fixed set position, which I don’t like, as the player should be able to move the camera freely. Furthermore, pressing the keys on the keyboard does nothing, and since the update broke the keyboard camera controls, moving the camera with only the mouse is painful and extremely cumbersome.
So, I had a look on the Builders of Greece discussion board on Steam to see if anyone else had encountered the camera keyboard control problems, and indeed, there are some posts about it. I hope this bug will be fixed, as it completely ruined my enjoyment of the game. Developers BLUM Entertainment have responded to one message on the discussion board with the following:
“Try increasing your camera speed in the game options (or make sure it’s not 0) it should do the trick”.
I don’t think that is good enough, as the game has had two further updates since the previous camera control-breaking update, and the camera controls are still not fixed! I did change the settings on the camera controls in-game as the developer suggested, but unfortunately, it made no difference to the camera keyboard movement for me. I could still only use the mouse and not the keyboard.
Furthermore, there are other bugs in the game, such as menus that won’t close or overlap. I noticed citizens running on the spot and unable to proceed with their duties, and there aren’t any tooltips when you click on something. Additionally, there is a lot in the game that isn’t explained properly to the player, and it could do with a more in-depth tutorial at least.
Final Thoughts
Since Bulders of Greece is being released on Early Access, some things have not yet been implemented in the gameplay. So, in its initial stages, the Early Access version will not include the full range of mechanics and features that will appear in the final version of the game. But there will be upcoming patches and updates.
The final version of Builders of Greece will have additions such as a weather system, new campaign missions, expansion of the player’s city to neighbouring islands, a god/faith system, new buildings and military units, additional useful tools, expanded technological trees and more.
In the meantime, I can’t, in all honesty, recommend the Bulders of Greece at this stage in its Early Access release. While I like the look of the game, and it does show promise, unfortunately, it’s not there yet; I’d wait a while until the developers have updated the game further before you invest in Builder of Greece.
Alternatively, if you are interested in Builders of Greece and can’t wait to try it out, there is a free prologue of Builder of Greece on the Steam store here.