The Universim is an immersive God Simulator by Crytivo Games where you play as a divine being overseeing the development of your people, the Nuggets. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn’t do well, and if it’s worth your time and money.
The Universim Review Overview
The Universim Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Charming Art Style Being a God Means Something Mostly Hands-off |
Tutorial and Progression are Unclear Pausing Bugs Out the Game |
The Universim Overall Score - 74/100
The Universim is a charming little God game where being a God actually matters. Power trips are common and encouraged, as are divine interventions for your people's benefit (or religious re-education). Research progression is simple and easy, but the game’s general progression isn’t. Unclear road placements, unexplained snapping rules, and a complete lack of a grid-based system prevent traditional city-building techniques. A lot of the game’s minutia also takes a back seat in favor of the grandiose displays of godly power. This isn’t your standard civilization game, and you shouldn’t play it like one.
The Universim Story - 7/10
The Universim’s story is your story, or rather, how you choose to run your civilization through the ages. Similar to other god games and city-builders, it doesn’t follow a strict narrative structure, instead relying on your choices and divine interventions to decide what the tales the tapestries of your people would depict. That being said, this sandbox approach doesn’t always make for good storytelling, especially if your Nuggets are snuffed out three days into the Stone Age.
The Universim Gameplay - 7/10
This is an indie venture developed over years of hard work, and it shows. The gameplay is rough around the edges but not unplayable, and I think that shows a lot of charm. Doing away with the standard grid-based system that city builders usually employ was a brave choice that didn’t turn out extremely well but didn’t disservice the game too much. The highlight of The Universim’s features is definitely its god powers, which can range from simple levitation to wrathful storms. The power trip is real, and I am a wrathful god.
The Universim Visuals - 8/10
This game might look like a low-poly mess to the untrained eye, but that’s part of its identity. The simplistic and high-contrast colors of every 3D asset make it look like a cheap mobile game, but a quick zoom-in betrays sculpted models for the animals, proper leaves and flowers for the foliage, and good water physics for the planet’s bodies of water. These design choices culminate in a charming, almost mischievous, toybox aesthetic that really homes in your role as a god.
The Universim Audio - 7/10
While this game’s soundtrack is well-made and effective for its genre, it’s really nothing to write home about. The non-descript "Sim Music" doesn’t evoke divinity, making me feel like I’m window shopping for a new freestanding bathroom cabinet in IKEA instead of smiting sinners on a planet of my own making. The only redeeming quality of this game’s audio is its excellent narration, which is equal parts cheeky and informative.
The Universim Value for Money - 8/10
The Universim offers hours of godly sandbox entertainment for the middling price of $30. As far as city-builders and god games go, this isn’t too steep and is actually more on the affordable side. The game isn’t perfect by any means, but this imperfection doesn’t make its price any less reasonable. There are cheaper, better games to get but you definitely wouldn’t regret getting this one.
The Universim Review: Your Will Be Done…Most of the Time
Let’s keep things simple for our fledgling god. You are divinity. You get to decide what happens to your people—the Nuggets—and how they move forward in history. You get to tell them what to build, where to get food, and what to prioritize. Apart from those three, I want you to be hands-off. You got that? Good, welcome to your new world. Watch out for mammoths.
The Universim is a god game by Crytivo Games where you play as the unnamed and often-teased god of the Nuggets. A new planet has just become habitable, and it’s up to you to bring its most dominant species up to snuff. Nothing too difficult; you just have to help a few cave people eventually reach space without being sent into orbit using your god powers. Easy, right?
In all seriousness, this is a game that I have a love-hate relationship with. I love it for its concept and adherence to the bit—you are a god; you do godly things. I hate it for its unrefined progression and absolute nightmare of a tutorial, but I’m getting ahead of myself. There’s much about this game I want to talk about, the first and most important of which is its commitment to the idea that you are a god.
Of course, this isn’t the first god game to exist as the games Populous and Godus gave a spotlight to the aptly-named strategy game sub-genre during the late 80s and early 2010s, respectively. The latter’s rocky reception aside, this sub-genre is very clearly defined and offers specific game mechanics that give it an identity – chief among them being the notion that you, the player, are a god. Despite this, none have ever captured this idea as well as The Universim, a game that doesn’t even have "God" in its name. For shame, Godus. For shame.
The Universim allows you to play god in the most literal sense by letting you be more than a glorified point and clicker. As a god of your people, you don’t just tell them what to do and when to do it; you also allow them to flourish, you inspire them to do better, you heal them when they are down, you grant them rain when they ask for it, and you smite their enemies when they deserve it. You answer prayers however you see fit, each choice creating a different outcome. All of these and more you can achieve through your suite of God Powers, fueled by belief. No, you’re not just some nebulous heavenly foreman who can only lift things and plan cities. You are a god and are allowed to feel like one.
More to that, this game isn’t just a city-builder because there’s more to it than making the perfect metropolis. Your followers are at the forefront of your attention, more than the buildings they need to survive and more than the planet itself. When they die, you can assist in their burial or allow the city you built to run its course. When they are sick, you may attend to them or send them to the hospital. When their resources are few and their fields are barren, you can float the nearest rock or fruit their way to comfort them with your assistance. You are fully equipped to handle everything by yourself without a single building to your people’s name, and I think that’s amazing. You can be as involved or detached as you wish, allowing you to simulate what kind of god you want to be as the ages drift by.
Speaking of ages, this game simplifies the standard strategy game tech tree by making research a matter of time. Thre is no need to gather resources to enable a study like in Factorio; just decide which academic venture you want to pursue next and queue it up with up to four other ones. Give it a minute, and you’ll be speeding through the Iron Age in no time. I particularly like this change because it frees up your people to focus on other things instead of spending precious nugget power on something that usually happens in the background. This effort is better spent on resource gathering and building, both done automatically after you set the initial plans down. You can choose which building gets prioritized, but it’s mostly hands-off the moment the foundations are set down. It’s this kind of AFK approach that makes this game unique, but not always in a good way.
The fact that you can let your people be and assist them only when required is a part of the game’s authenticity to the god bit. It is also a detriment to its image as a city-builder strategy game, however, as your nuggets are absolute buffoons when it comes to logistics. Getting a building up is such an immense chore sometimes because, in addition to the game’s lack of a gridded building system, your nuggets take forever to bring the building materials – longer still to build the actual building.
Granted, this is because you’re NOT supposed to play this like a normal city-builder. You set things up and wait for your nuggets to do it, enacting miracles along the way as their bodies fail and resources dwindle. A skill issue for sure, but one that’s forgivable considering this is what many would be led to believe and what many more would assume, given the game’s genre and sub-genre. Simply put, this game looks like a city-builder but isn’t one. I was content to say that it was more than that but with every delayed construction and facility upgrade, I am tipping more to the side of it not being a city-builder in any sense.
This game isn’t all bad, though. Despite the clunky city building and F-tier logistics, it looks and sounds great. Cartoony visuals and vibrant colors make it stand out in a genre saturated by plain old buildings and average-looking boxes with doors. The nuggets themselves look hilarious but aren’t out of place on an equally silly alien planet filled with plenty of animal-adjacent creatures. The narrator is well-voiced and has a smart mouth to boot, making every action a fun endeavor, if only to see what snide remark he has in store for you. If only the music was as high-quality. Audio-wise, these two create a mixed bag of hilarious comments and painfully average IKEA music that I’d rather separate.
So that’s the godly scoop. The Universim is a god game done well because it focuses more on the "god" aspect rather than the city aspect. This focus shows its strengths and weaknesses, with those being an immersive divine experience and a weak building system, respectively. Visuals and audio are up to industry standards, with the narrator in particular acting as the icing on the proverbial angel food cake. I probably won’t recommend this as a city-builder to anyone, but as a game where I get to run amok as a true and unchallenged god.
Pros of The Universim
| Things The Universim Got Right |
|---|
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Charming Art Style Being a God Means Something Mostly Hands-off |
Charming Art Style
The Universim very clearly attempts to be cute and charming in its presentation of this sandbox universe to the player. You can see as much from the simplistic design of the "Nuggets" – as they are called in-universe – and their equally simplistic buildings. The trees and animals are more detailed, but their colors are simple, relying less on blended shades and opting for a cell-shaded cartoony look.
Together, these design choices breathe an air of mischievousness and creativity through the entire game, similar to a toy box waiting to be played with. Hidden behind the micromanagement, the placement rules and the resource gathering are pieces just waiting to be moved by an all-powerful being—you.
Being a God Means Something
God Games are all about being a god—shocker, I know—but how often is that really the case? Sure, having powers and followers are staples of the genre, but how often does one really feel like a god in these games instead of a glorified city planner who can chuck lightning? The Universim makes being a god mean something more than just screwing around with powers and telling people what to do. For one thing, you pretty much have your entire kit of divine powers from the start, no arbitrary follower count is necessary, at least not until the very late game.
For another, your effects are less "do this" and are more like actual divine manifestations that your people pick up on instead of doing mindlessly. Take the "Holy Ground" power, which sanctifies an area, making it fit for residential houses. You can still build other things there, but residential areas are more likely to pop up in hallowed ground. Those that do pop up are visibly prettier than those not built on sanctified ground, which isn’t helpful, but really homes in that you are a god that "guided" these people instead of using divine console commands.
You also answer prayers from your people, which could be anything from simple requests for material wealth to answering philosophical quandaries that no mere mortal can just solve. The Universim isn’t about just being a god; it’s about what a god should be. The best part about it all is that you get to answer that question in the end. Wrathful? Benevolent? Sure, but above all, be guiding and present at all times.
Mostly Hands-off
A guiding hand need not be the only one moving, for a god that does all for their people will soon see their creation felled the moment their back is turned. For a game that requires micromanaging and resource gathering from a divine POV, The Universim is mostly hands-off. You are incentivized to guide, not direct, your Nuggets on how to survive. Research is only a matter of picking what comes next and letting the clock run down as your Nuggets do their thing. Construction is only a matter of what to build next and where; your nuggets will handle the logistics and building mostly by themselves (with some minor prioritization directions from you).
Residential areas? Forget about it—you're not gonna tell them where to build; their houses will go where they please. Reproduction? That’s for them to decide as well. The best you can do is telekinesis some rocks over and guide the occasional fruit their way so they can live their best lives under your watchful eye. This might be a negative for some, but I consider this a plus for two reasons.
Firstly, this is a new and novel idea. It’s a micromanagement game with not that much micro, but just as much fun. Two, it’s easy for newbies to pick up. It’s completely viable to just set up the pieces and see what happens. Together, these upsides make it feel like you're overseeing a living, breathing society rather than a numbers game made to look like a city.
Cons of The Universim
| Things That The Universim Can Improve |
|---|
|
Tutorial and Progression are Unclear Pausing Bugs Out the Game |
Tutorial and Progression are Unclear
Oh, to be a god game with unclear instructions and unhelpful tutorials—what a tarnished existence! These are the main things holding The Universim back from being a genuinely fun experience: its buggy mess of a tutorial and its unclear path forward. City-builders and god games require a lot of micromanagement and thus require helpful tips and tutorials to assist the uninitiated. The Universim has a tutorial, but half of the instructions don’t count toward its progression. The other half that do get counted are extremely vague and could be misinterpreted as a laundry list of other things to do.
This could be a way to promote creativity, but doing so when the player knows nothing isn’t a good way to approach a game like this. What’s more is that the progression system is…unclear, to say the least. Most games from this genre are directed forward by their tech trees and the ever-increasing resources required for further research.
For The Universim, however, you just queue up a research and wait for it to finish, with the only prerequisite being other technologies. How you do things and what you do next is…well…up to you and whatever you find in the world. Again, not that bad – creative, actually – just not that good for people still recovering from the brain rot of the game’s tutorial. If you were hoping this game would show you the ropes before you got into it, then you’re in luck because it will – just not very well.
Pausing Bugs Out the Game
On the topic of bugs, there’s one that usually triggers whenever you do specific actions while the game is paused. The most notable one has something to do with continuous sounds that were playing before you paused. These could be wolf howls, ambient noise, or, most annoyingly, the alarm that you can activate once you unlock and build the forecast tower. It just drones unceasingly until you unpause.
It’s not the most game-breaking bug, but boy, is it annoying. I had to pause once or twice in the middle of natural disasters just to consolidate the damages, and that me-forsaken horn kept blaring in the background. It’s hard to tell if this was intentional, but I’d rather treat it as a bug because if it were a feature, I’d be questioning exactly what it was for.
Is The Universim Worth It?
All Things Considered? Just Barely.
Being able to provide many hours of micromanagement fun is inherent to the genre of god games and city builders; The Universim is no different. I can imagine any genre veteran getting a good game in with little trouble—it's the newbies I worry about. Though the game is a lot more hands-off than most of its ilk, its iffy tutorial and lack of direction could dishearten the unseasoned. And for the price of $30, you can’t be turning away neophytes like that. This game is still worth its price, although that much is an achievement barely reached.
| Platform | Price |
|---|---|
 Steam |
$29.99 |
The Universim Overview & Premise
In the beginning, there was darkness. Then you said, "Let there be…something… " and the Nuggets came to be. The Universim’s story is your story and that of your people. The tapestry of your civilization is yet to be, but that’s all part of the fun, as you, their mighty god, will be alongside them every step of the way. How your civilization starts and ends is completely up to you, so take your divinity seriously and guide your Nuggets through the greatest history a people can have.
The Universim FAQ
What Are Some Quick Beginner Tips for The Universim?
Make Sure You Save Some Laborers for Building Projects
The main reason that buildings take forever to build is poor logistics and bad work assignments. If a nugget is assigned to a particular building, they cannot transport materials to build sites and construct buildings. Leave at least 10–15% of your population unemployed so you always have laborers handy for your next building project.
Keep Raw Food Stockpiled
Raw food is more important than cooked food and must always be stockpiled in mass quantities. If you are missing food, laborers and employed nuggets alike will forage for something to eat instead of their assigned task, which can slow down production significantly.
Dedicate Your Farms to Food or Herbs as Needed
Hospitals and Eateries rely on herbs and food, respectively. Dedicate a farm for each to make sure that neither’s supply is compromised at any given time.
Rush Couriers
To further solve logistical problems, rush the research that grants you Courier nuggets. These special nuggets can carry four times as many building materials to build sites, but cannot build themselves. You will still need laborers to construct buildings, so make sure you only do this if you can spare the nugget power.
What Does the Percentage at the Town Hall Building Mean?
The percent is how much percent of your TOTAL population will be assigned to jobs. The game defaults to 75%, and the game will never let the number go over 90%. This makes sure that 10% of your population is always devoted to labor, delivery, and construction.
The Universim Product Information
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| Title | THE UNIVERSIM |
|---|---|
| Release Date | January 22, 2024 |
| Developer | Crytivo |
| Publisher | Crytivo |
| Supported Platforms | PC |
| Genre | RTS, City-Builder, Simulation |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | N/A |
| Official Website | The Universim Website |
