Builders of Greece is a city-builder from BLUM Entertainment that lets you build, manage, and oversee your own Hellenistic settlement. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn’t do well, and if it’s worth your time and money.
Builders of Greece Review Overview
Builders of Greece Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 A Trip Through a Beautiful Greek Countryside Great Focus on Logistics and Economy |
A Buggy Mess Abysmal Tutorial and Has No Tooltips |
Builders of Greece Overall - 60/100
Builders of Greece is an unfinished simulacrum of a real city builder. Although the building blocks of a decent game have been hewn, measured, and laid, they have yet to be held together by the mortar of intuitive gameplay and user accessibility. This game cannot stand as it is now; pray to the Olympians that it gets better in time.
Builders of Greece Story - 5/10
City builders aren’t known for their lore and Builders of Greece is no exception. Apart from a barebones premise provided at the start of the prologue and various flavor text strewn about as you progress through the game, Builders of Greece has no definite story to tell.
Builders of Greece Gameplay - 6/10
The flow of progression in this game is as even as an unpaved road. With its various bugs, complete lack of accessible tooltips, and horrible tutorials, you’d be forgiven for thinking that you’re stuck in a labyrinth. It's a good thing that the devs delivered on their promise of a thriving economy and logistic system because this game wouldn't stand out in any other way otherwise.
Builders of Greece Visuals - 7/10
This game looks pretty darn good for a slightly stylized depiction of Greek antiquity. It’s a nice blend of tasteful reverence for the source material and a popular contemporary understanding of Ancient Greece. It’s not quite a AAA experience just yet, but I think even Apollo would approve of this game’s aesthetics.
Builders of Greece Audio - 6/10
While this game’s soundtrack and audio won’t win any laurels, I think they’re adequate enough for the game’s quality and appropriate to the theme it’s trying to evoke. There are no earworms in the track and it all blends into the background before long, but I’ll give it some credit for making me think of city builder games from the 90s.
Builders of Greece Value for Money - 6/10
This game isn't asking for a lot with is $17 price tag, but it's also not giving much in return either. As it stands at the moment, you'd be better off finding a more polished game with smoother features and fewer bugs. Should this game ever finish construction and flesh out the mechanics it's trying to implement, I can consider its cheap price tag a major boon to its value.
Builders of Greece Review (Early Access): Still Under Construction
They say Rome wasn’t built in a day, but it burned down in one. This saying usually refers to a different Mediterranean civilization — one steeped in Colosseum fights and mass-produced armor — but it also applies to Builders of Greece. What I mean is that this game is still being built but is already on fire. Let me elaborate.
Builders of Greece is a city builder from BLUM Entertainment that puts you in the shoes of a leader during the Hellenistic period. After barely surviving an incursion in your homeland, it’s up to you to rebuild and repopulate your very own "Polis" or city-state. I hope you liked that setup because that’s all you’re going to get. There’s no story to be had in Builders of Greece apart from that short intro blurb. I’d raise Hades about it, but city builders get a pass for not having a set narrative because your actions as a leader are the narrative. As you’ll see, however, you won’t get to do much here, and not for the lack of trying.
Let’s start with every city builder’s bread and butter: its gameplay. Right off the acropolis, I was disappointed to see that the game had a grid-based system for the placement of buildings and roads. I was hoping for something more…historical — something that would evoke actual Greek city plans instead of the sterile blockiness of modern architecture. It’s a minor gripe at most. I’m aware that this is likely a design choice for ease of use, but I can’t help but feel that it harshes the vibes a little bit.
Moving swiftly along to the actual gameplay, I’d say that the devs chose well to keep this game in Early Access for now because if they chose to release it as it is, I’d want my drachmas back. To put it simply, the gameplay is fun and rewarding, but it’s weighed down by so many bugs and roadblocks that it even gave Atlas pause.
I was genuinely having a great time planning out my city when everything screeched to a halt all of a sudden. It took me some time to realize what had happened, but I eventually realized that all my warehouse haulers were bugged and running into each other like they were struck by Dionysus’ madness. And since the game had a major focus on logistics — more on that later — this was basically the municipal equivalent of a heart attack. This happened several times, causing me to reload a save every time.
There was another major bug that I encountered during the game’s abysmal tutorial so let’s discuss both of them now. Unlike Civilization, HUMANKIND, or Cities: Skylines, Builders of Greece doesn’t have a dedicated tutorial. Instead, you get missions that give you a path forward. This would have been a good enough idea if it actually worked. Half the time, these missions won’t be completed even when you finish all the parameters. This bug happened to me when I first booted up the game, which stopped me from playing the rest of it until I could troubleshoot the issue.
To make matters worse, the game has a distinct lack of tooltips and other ways to assist the player, so I hope you have some string on you because this game can be labyrinthine at times. And for a game that touts its focus on logistics and economy a lot, it doesn’t really give you a lot of tools to manage those facets of your Polis. You get line graphs and rundowns of production and consumption but it won’t tell you which building is producing and consuming what. I can see the foundations of a good logistics and economics system being set but it’s no Parthenon.
It’s not all bad, though. Builders of Greece still has a few redeeming qualities so it may see Elysium yet. The aesthetics are pretty good for a city builder. I’d like to highlight the game’s architecture in particular because it’s a nice combination of actual Hellenistic architecture and the romanticized image of Ancient Greece that we have today. It’s both respectful and pleasing to the eye at the same time.
Moreover, I genuinely had a blast whenever the game decided to cooperate and actually let me oversee my city. I find the game’s tech tree and building upgrades to be satisfactory, and the management of several citizen types keeps me on my toes. There’s a good game hidden under all this rubble and I can see it being built up with every passing update.
My only hope — and let Zeus himself hear my plea — is that the developers eventually improve this game so it may gleam like Olympus itself. For now, I can only resign to this meager existence and a middling score at best. That’s alright, though, I can wait. After all, if Rome couldn't be built in a day, I shouldn't expect Builders of Greece to be any better.
Pros of Builders of Greece
| Things Builders of Greece Got Right |
|---|
|
A Trip Through a Beautiful Greek Countryside Great Focus on Logistics and Economy |
A Trip Through a Beautiful Greek Countryside
I’ll be honest, I was expecting a highly stylized and irreverent parody of Greek Mythology when I first heard about this game. Something about seeing a cartoony Zeus on a mobile ad for the umpteenth time made me forget that Greece was a real place that could be represented realistically.
Despite my expectations, I was met with the rolling hills, chalk-white cliffs, virgin forests, towering grey mountains, and the azure-blue seas of the Mediterranean. It was beautiful, made doubly so by the Greek architecture that dotted its sprawling countryside. Of course, I soon realized that the game was buggy as heck and confusing to boot, but for that moment — that one minuscule breath — I felt like I was gallivanting among gods. If this is what this game looks like now, I can’t wait for its full release.
Great Focus on Logistics and Economy
Despite the game’s subpar implementation of the metrics required for its effective management Economy and Logistics still reign supreme among the many systems present in Builders of Greece. You need to run a tight trireme if you want your Polis to thrive and I can feel that urgency coursing through me with every new building made. If you’re the kind of person who loves inventory, production, and trade management, this game could be for you (if you can tangle with the meager tools this game gives you).
Cons of Builders of Greece
| Things That Builders of Greece Can Improve |
|---|
|
A Buggy Mess Abysmal Tutorial and Has No Tooltips |
A Buggy Mess
As I mentioned earlier, the game as it is now is a buggy mess that could do with a little bit more playtesting. That’s well and good, it is in Early Access, after all, I just wish they weren’t so debilitating to a playthrough. I can understand some graphical clipping, but both the major bugs I encountered so far nearly ended my playthrough early. There are a few text and translation bugs present as well, but I can forgive those if they deal with the one that gives my beating economy an aneurysm.
Abysmal Tutorial and Has No Tooltips
City builders can be daunting to get into, what with its countless interconnected systems and micromanagement and all. Understanding the difficulty that comes with the learning experience is part and parcel of good game design for this genre in particular. Sad to say, Builders of Greece doesn’t have the best tutorial or any tooltips to boot. The game’s tutorial is mostly comprised of missions that progress you forward, supplemented by short articles in the game’s "Archives" should you have further questions.
While simple, it is ineffective at teaching the game’s mechanics to someone already familiar with the genre, much more a newbie. The lack of tooltips in most menus also just makes the game’s symbology look like gibberish. I legitimately had to rely on forum posts to make heads or tails of most concepts. If you’re just starting out with the city builder genre, I suggest you move along.
Is Builders of Greece Worth It?
Not Right Now
Sad to say, despite solid foundations and many plans to come, the game isn't worth its $17 asking price at the moment. Granted, that's the price of an average lunch with a few sides, but you're better off buying finished games for that price. Maybe in the future, when all the game's unfinished features finally pay off, I can consider this a game worth its value. For now, though, you can use that money as an offering to the gods for this game's speedy development.
| Platform | Price |
|---|---|
 Steam |
$16.99 |
Builders of Greece Overview & Premise
Builders of Greece goes through a leader’s journey in the management and development of a Polis established far from home. Having survived a war that nearly wrote their people off the map, it’ll be up to them to rebuild their great Polis from the dregs of those who remained.
Builders of Greece FAQ
When Will Builders of Greece 1.0 be Released?
The game’s developers have answered on a Steam FAQ that the game’s full version is expected to be released 6-12 months from its Early Access release.
What are the Differences Between the Builders of Greece’s Early Access and Full Version?
According to the game’s developers, Builders of Greece’s Early Access version will not offer the full range of the game’s mechanics in its initial stages. Subsequent patches of the game may include the following additional features:
● Weather System
● New Campaign Missions
● Expansion of Player Cities to Other Islands
● Gods/Faith System
● New Buildings
● New Military Units
● Useful Management Tools
● Extended Technology Tree
Game8 Reviews
Builders of Greece Product Information
 |
|
| Title | BUILDERS OF GREECE |
|---|---|
| Release Date | February 27, 2023 |
| Developer | BLUM Entertainment, Strategy Labs |
| Publisher | CreativeForge Games, PlayWay S.A. |
| Supported Platforms | PC |
| Genre | City Builder, Simulation |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | N/A |
| Official Website | Builders of Greece Website |
