MEMORIAPOLIS is a historically accurate city-builder where you take Rome-inspired settlement by the reins and guide it through the ages. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.

MEMORIAPOLIS Review Overview

What is MEMORIAPOLIS?

MEMORIAPOLIS—meaning "City of Memories"—is a captivating city-builder that transports you to the grandeur of Ancient Rome and other similar historical settlements. As you guide your people through the ages, you'll craft a city that reflects the unique journey of your civilization. With a focus on organic territorial expansion and historically accurate city-building, MEMORIAPOLIS invites you to shape the legacy of your people on the grand mural of human history. Diverse leadership styles and countless wonders await your civilization—will you be the one to lead them into a prosperous future?

MEMORIAPOLIS features:
　⚫︎　6 unique leadership styles and focuses
　⚫︎　Policy-making and voting mechanics
　⚫︎　Organic territorial expansion and proximity-based resource-gathering
　⚫︎　Dioramic visual style
　⚫︎　Culture-based faction dynamics
　⚫︎　Expansive upgrade tree
　⚫︎　Stylistically diverse world wonders and cultural buildings

For more gameplay details, read everything we know about MEMORIAPOLIS's gameplay and story.

Digital Storefronts
Steam
$24.99

MEMORIAPOLIS Pros & Cons

Pros	Cons
Amazing and Unique Visuals Organic City Growth	Crashes, Bugs, and Freezes Not-So-Random World Events Could Use A Better Tutorial Inaccessible Minimum Hardware Requirements

MEMORIAPOLIS Overall Score - 74/100

Rome certainly wasn’t built in a day, and MEMORIAPOLIS is a testament to that old adage in its current, half-finished state. It came out of the Colosseum gates with a bunch of new features, executed with varying degrees of success. However, its visual style has already been refined to an iconic level, even at this early stage of development. MEMORIAPOLIS has the potential to deliver the experience that Civilization VII aspires to offer, but whether it will surpass or even equal that promise remains to be seen.

MEMORIAPOLIS Story - 6/10

There's not much to say about MEMORIAPOLIS' narrative, as it hardly has one—though that's not unusual for a city-builder. While a defined story path is rare in this genre, the game isn't a complete sandbox. The inclusion of warring factions, swappable leaders, progressing ages, and semi-random world events adds a layer of narrative flavor. However, don't expect any main characters or deep story arcs; the focus here is more on the evolving history of your civilization than on a traditional plotline.

MEMORIAPOLIS Gameplay - 8/10

MEMORIAPOLIS aimed to make city-building and management feel more organic and historically accurate, and it manages to do so quite handily—barring a few clunky mechanics. Given that the game is still in early access, some rough edges are to be expected, and "a bit clunky" is often par for the course at this stage of development. However, the progress so far suggests that the game is on the right track to achieving its ambitious goals.

MEMORIAPOLIS Visuals - 9/10

MEMORIAPOLIS steals the show with its stunning and stylized visuals, which depict your growing city as a diorama or miniature—the kind you’d find in a museum under a glass case. The meticulous attention to detail in the stylization of cultural buildings and ancient wonders elevates the experience, perfectly capturing the essence of a growing city-state. It's this dioramic approach that makes MEMORIAPOLIS a visual masterpiece, setting a new standard for city-building games.

MEMORIAPOLIS Audio - 6/10

The audio in MEMORIAPOLIS simply does not complement the game's historical and nature-centric theme. The soundtrack, composed of lo-fi beats and gentle synths, feels disconnected from the rich visual style inspired by ancient civilizations, least of all Rome. To top it all off, the sounds and music are completely forgettable and of mediocre quality at best. Talk about a failed vibe check!

MEMORIAPOLIS Value for Money - 8/10

If you’re a fan of city-builders and 4X games and are eagerly awaiting Cities: Skylines 2 to reach its full potential or the eventual release of Civilization VII, MEMORIAPOLIS might just be the perfect game to tide you over. Priced at just $24.99, this early-access gem already shines with impressive visuals and engaging gameplay while still technically being within the ballpark of city-builders of this quality. While it’s still in development, it’s only a few audio tweaks and balance adjustments away from reaching its full potential.

MEMORIAPOLIS Review: Visually Memoria-ble, but Clunky Overall

If I had a drachma for every early-access city-builder featuring Greco-Roman aesthetics and organic urban planning, I’d have… exactly one. As tempting as it is to lean into the Doofenshmirtz meme, MEMORIAPOLIS genuinely stands out as the only game I’ve come across that blends these two elements effectively. While titles like Builders of Greece and Manor Lords excel in one area or the other, MEMORIAPOLIS manages to combine both, hinting at its potential to be a standout even in early access. Unfortunately, you’ve also got to throw in severe performance issues and some odd music choices to the mix, which turns what could’ve been a stellar early-access performance into a game that’s as clunky as it is memoria-ble.

Let’s begin where the game shines before diving into its less desirable aspects. Visually, this game is positively stunning. Apart from the beautiful building assets—especially for the world wonders and cultural buildings—the game presents your entire empire in a unique, dioramic view that makes it look like a museum piece. The use of color saturation and well-placed blur effects nail the miniaturized aesthetic, delivering a visual experience that games like Civilization VI (and the upcoming Civilization VII) have been striving for years to perfect. If any aspect of this game would set it above its peers, it would be this.

Mechanically, MEMORIAPOLIS introduces several fresh ideas and exciting features, particularly in district partitioning, urban planning, and territorial expansion. One of the first surprises for many players is likely the absence of direct road-building. Instead of laying out roads manually, players control building placement and orientation, allowing roads to form naturally as paths emerge between building entrances and existing streets.

Residential buildings and fortifications can’t be placed directly either; they appear organically based on factors like terrain, desirable living areas, and the flow of the city’s evolving layout. While this might lead to less orderly, grid-like cities, such arrangements fit the historical context the game proudly emphasizes. In this respect, MEMORIAPOLIS successfully captures the authenticity it promises in its promotional material, recreating the chaotic yet historically accurate development of ancient cities.

Among the innovative mechanics MEMORIAPOLIS introduces is its proximity-based approach to territorial expansion and resource gathering. True to its name, the system relies heavily on how close buildings are to city limits and nearby resources to determine their productivity and efficiency. Beyond the city limits, construction is restricted to scouting towers, which extend your reach by unlocking additional building areas in the surrounding wilderness. These areas can host resource-gathering structures like mines and lumber camps, which only function if their respective resources fall within the building’s active range. However, resources in a given area deplete over time, requiring these buildings to be frequently relocated to keep your city well-supplied.

This system applies to the upgrade paths of each resource building as well, increasing their active areas with every upgrade and even allowing them to specialize in other types of production down the line. Amazingly, this is but a taste of the game’s expansive tech tree, every node of which is unlocked using blueprints, and every section of which is separated by the game’s four ages (only two are playable in early access).

When it comes to game progression, MEMORIAPOLIS is already giving Sid Meier a run for his money, edging out Civilization VII in the race for innovation. The game unfolds in sweeping epochs called "ages", each introducing a fresh tech tree, unique city centers, wonders, cultural landmarks, and service buildings. Unlike most city-builders with this kind of progression, you can't revisit the architecture of previous ages, but strategically combining sets of buildings across different eras unlocks powerful new upgrades for each. This layered progression, emphasizing depth over sprawling expansion, embodies what Civ 7 aspires to achieve—though only time will tell which game truly masters the concept.

Despite its fresh mechanics and striking visuals, MEMORIAPOLIS stumbles in key areas. While the game impresses with innovation, its performance, audio, and narrative leave much to be desired. Frequent freezes and bugs disrupt what should be a seamless experience, making gameplay more frustrating than it ought to be. The soundtrack, which is almost entirely composed of lo-fi beats, might disappoint players expecting the grand, sweeping scores typical of historical city-builders. As for the narrative—well, there isn’t much to speak of, but that’s not entirely unexpected in a city-builder.

And with that, the final brick has been laid for MEMORIAPOLIS—at least for now. The game has built a strong foundation with plenty of potential, but it still needs more rooms, floors, facades, columns, and arches before it can truly stand as a wonder. A new soundtrack and some crucial bug fixes are definitely in order. Mechanically, the game is solid, though it flirts with being a bit too bloated, so the developers should be careful to add only what’s truly needed moving forward.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and MEMORIAPOLIS will need just as much time to reach its full potential.

Pros of MEMORIAPOLIS

Things MEMORIAPOLIS Got Right
Amazing and Unique Visuals Organic City Growth

Amazing and Unique Visuals

One thing I can’t praise enough about MEMORIAPOLIS is its stunning and unique visuals. While it’s not the first city-builder to attempt a miniaturized aesthetic, it’s certainly the most successful. The game perfectly captures the charm and uncanny realism of a high-quality museum diorama, complete with the illusion of being encased in glass. Of course, such breathtaking visuals come at a cost—performance. However, with the game in early access, the developers have ample time to optimize and ensure that MEMORIAPOLIS retains its iconic look without overwhelming lower-end systems.

Organic City Growth

What truly sells the historical accuracy of MEMORIAPOLIS is its commitment to layered, organic city growth. This is how cities evolve in real life. Typically, residential buildings come first, whether planned or unplanned, and the city must adapt by building utilities around them—rather than the other way around. As new technologies emerge, modern structures blend with older ones, repurposing the past and creating a vibrant, diverse cityscape. The result is a city with a history etched into its very cobblestones.

This approach is a far cry from how most other city-builders operate. Typically, they either impose modern urban planning on ancient settings or erase key historical structures without a second thought. MEMORIAPOLIS, on the other hand, allows you to preserve and appreciate the history your people have built, letting you breathe in the legacy of their work as it evolves over centuries.

Cons of MEMORIAPOLIS

Things That MEMORIAPOLIS Can Improve
Crashes, Bugs, and Freezes Not-So-Random World Events Could Use A Better Tutorial Inaccessible Minimum Hardware Requirements

Crashes, Bugs, and Freezes

It’s likely that my setup struggles to handle the game’s high-quality assets and extensive shaders, but MEMORIAPOLIS has been prone to crashes and freezes—once during startup and again while playing through the second age. I've also encountered a bug where pop-up notifications refuse to disappear, even after pressing the Clear Notifications button. While the developers still have plenty of time to patch these issues, it’s crucial they do so sooner rather than later, as some of these bugs could be game-breaking.

Not-So-Random World Events

Although not advertised as a key feature, I wish the World Events in MEMORIAPOLIS were more random and varied. As it stands, the events are fairly predictable—Alexander the Great's conquest always occurs in the first era, and The Fall of Constantinople in the second. There's still plenty of untapped design space in the game, and I hope the developers take advantage of it in future updates by introducing a wider variety of events to keep the gameplay fresh and dynamic.

Could Use A Better Tutorial

The current tutorial in the game is limited to a few easily ignored pop-ups in the lower left corner of the screen. Given the game's complexity, a more thorough and well-designed tutorial would be far more suitable, especially as the challenges increase significantly in the second age. Additionally, it would be helpful to have a more straightforward way to disable tutorials in subsequent save files, as they appear in every game, regardless of how experienced the player is.

Inaccessible Minimum Hardware Requirements

Although it has a good reason to ask much from your setup, MEMORIAPOLIS’ minimum hardware requirements are a tad difficult to reach for your average gamer. On the lower end, the game requires at least an NVIDIA GTX1060 or its AMD equivalent to run, which is on par with what most people should have by now. CPU-wise, however, the game requires an AMD 7 5800X or its Intel equivalent to run across the board to run smoothly. To the unaware, that’s among the top 100 highest-performing CPUs to date and could set you back a couple of hundred dollars depending on where you buy it.

Clearly, these hardware requirements are unlikely to change unless the developers undertake significant overhauls to the game's system. It's something to keep in mind if you're on a tight budget or have a lower-end setup, as purchasing the game might end up being a waste of time and money.

Is MEMORIAPOLIS Worth It?

Yes, It Should Hold You Over Until Civilization VII

MEMORIAPOLIS is priced at $24.99—right on the edge of what you'd expect for a city-builder of this caliber. Some might hesitate to spend that much on an unfinished game, but MEMORIAPOLIS has already demonstrated impressive mastery of its visual style and a solid foundation in gameplay. Ideally, it should be worth every penny when fully released; however, in its current state, $24.99 feels a bit steep. That’s the gamble with early access, but if you’re looking for something to tide you over until Civilization VII, MEMORIAPOLIS could be a worthwhile bet, even now.

Digital Storefronts
Steam
$24.99

MEMORIAPOLIS FAQ

Will There Be A Sandbox Mode For MEMORIAPOLIS?

Not yet. According to the game’s developer, a sandbox mode may be available after the game’s full launch, although it is simply not possible during the game’s early-access period.

Will There Be RTS Battles in MEMORIAPOLIS?

No. MEMORIAPOLIS is primarily a city-builder and no RTS unit combat will ever be added to the game. The closest equivalent would be a battle simulator that is accessible to a building during the game’s second age.

When Will MEMORIAPOLIS Be Fully Released?

According to the game’s developer, following a brief early-access period, the game will be fully released sometime in 2024.

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MEMORIAPOLIS Product Information

Title	MEMORIAPOLIS
Release Date	August 29, 2024 (Early Access)
Developer	5PM Studio
Publisher	5PM Studio
Supported Platforms	PC(Steam)
Genre	Simulation, Strategy, City Builder
Number of Players	1
Rating	N/A
Official Website	MEMORIAPOLIS Official Website

Aaron Bruce Albert..

A massive fan of roguelikes, turn-based RPGs, and open world adventure games. His gold standard games include The Binding of Isaac, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and Dragon Quest Monsters Joker.