Ancient Cities on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
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Ancient Cities is a realistic, survival city builder in an immersive procedural environment. Lead the fate of your tribe through ancient times!
Ancient Cities is a strategy, city builder and survival game
developed and published by Uncasual Games.
Released on March 24th 2023 is available only on Windows
in 10 languages: English, French, Spanish - Spain, German, Spanish - Latin America, Portuguese - Brazil, Portuguese - Portugal, Catalan, Italian and Simplified Chinese.
It has received 1,953 reviews of which 1,243 were positive and 710 were negative resulting in a rating of 6.2 out of 10. 😐
The game is currently priced at 29.99€ on Steam.
The Steam community has classified Ancient Cities into these genres:
System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows® 10 (64-bit)
- Processor: Intel® i7-6700 / AMD® Ryzen 5 1600
- Memory: 6 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1050 (2 GB) / AMD® Radeon™ RX-560 (4 GB) for Full HD resolution
- Additional Notes: Linux Proton propietary drivers only. Currently INTEL graphics cards are not supported.
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
Picked it up on sale to scratch my "Dawn of Man"-Itch. It's neat. The game has some interesting concepts: for example maintenance and deconstruction is done cleverly, each building still consists of the resources it was made of and these slowly deteriorate over time. And when you deconstruct your pelt hut, you get the remaining pelts back. Oh and construction stages are detailed and cool, because they relate to the resources used; and deterioration works that backwards: the reeds from your reed hut rotted away? well guess who does not have a roof anymore. Technological knowledge slowly spreading via migrants and learning-by-doing is also cool, especially in the first run when you don't know what you don't know and then gradually learn about the things you need to learn about before learning about them. (I imagine it going like this: "We had straw huts for a year now ... but recently I heard of tales of a BIG straw hut from the newcomers. Can you imagine that?" "Damn. I wish we had the technology to build those!") It's easy to build something that looks organic, especially since you're fencing stuff off against animals. And then there's little details like folks gathering around a camp fire, dancing and singing in the evening. The music also vibes. Oh and of course it has a day-night-cycle, changing weather and seasons, which look neat. Some things feel like they are still a work in progress (animal raids are weird and the game seems to struggle a little with giving everyone something to do when populations go beyond 300, but maybe I messed up somehow?), some animations are off (hunters have this super power where they can balance a stick with steaks hanging from it on their shoulder - no hands), some quality of life stuff is missing (like a proper "delete fence" tool). Some things like work Groups need a little getting used to, priorities don't always work as expceted, but I'm feeding 400 tribespeople by now, so it can't be that hard to figure out. Not quite sure why this has so many bad reviews, but apparently there have been some technical issues. My biggest axe to grind is literally axes: Fine raw stone is rare and my tribespeople insist on using axes for everything except cutting trees - so the woodcutters cannot work, because the NEEDED tool is in use for other stuff that could use other tools. :( Hope it gets better for me. But let's be real: you're not here for a polished AAA title. You are here for a detailed, overly complicated city builder that goes from literally nothing but sticks and stones to the beginnings of civilization, because you feel the need to live through the trials and tribulations of meaningful human progress, since in real life there's only trials and tribulations left, but no progress. Congratulations, you have arrived. TL;DR: Micromanagement-heavy stone age game with nice progression from a little hunter-gatherer tribe migrating about in their pelt tents to a proper city struggling to feed itself with agriculture and failing because it's not producing enough sharp sticks for tilling the soil. Bonus: Singing tribesmen and neatly detailed construction stages for buildings. 8/10 would send my homeless to raid my neighbours for fine raw stones again.
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Ancient Cities is beautiful, ambitious—and utterly broken in the most hilarious ways. 🔸 Gatherers ignore food lying right next to the village. Ten people bring back five rose hips and then call it a day. 🔸 Builders carry one log per day to the site, then vanish like union rules demand it. 🔸 Farmers leave fields empty even with seeds ready, and you’ll never know how many workers are needed. 🔸 If one person dies—say, the only one who knew how to hunt—everyone else just forgets how to stab animals with a stick. 🔸 Your village starves while surrounded by cows, crops, and you know Nature… because the AI collectively gives up on life. 🔸 And yes, every time someone dies, the game goes from Fast Forward to Normal Speed. Even at night. Especially at night. What should I do?! I can't control the NPCs or Force them to pick up food (see bullet point #1) Micromanagement? You wish you could micromanage. You're just watching Beavis & Butthead run a tribe with brain fog and a death wish. Still... it's weirdly captivating. Gorgeous visuals, a unique setting, and real potential—buried under AI so bad it feels like a prank. 🟢 Visuals, atmosphere, concept 🔴 AI, logic, frustration Verdict: Looks like a dream. Plays like a group project gone horribly wrong.
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I highly reccomend this game - it's early release but well rounded enough that even after 120 hours I'm still playing new and old games. The supply and crafting toolchains are relatively intricate, and it's enjoyable to play at both small and large scales. Large scale sedentism becomes difficult (my largest village was 280 people) which is very realistic in the archaeological record, however especially with the recent update of large scale, highly habitable hide tents, that migratory patterns are unlocked even for large tribes. The game is very realistic, both visually and archaeologically - I have a background in social anthropology and took enough archaeology classes and read enough historiographies that this hits all the right spots for an ancient history nerd. There is of course endless ground to cover yet for such a realistic game - clothing, pottery for trade, more intricate and/or localized architecture, and additional ages such as copper, bronze and steel ages. In some cases we had multi-story buildings and urban settlements, especially in coastal areas already by 12,000 BCE (I can't recall the name but the first "urban" settlement was on the coast of Peru around this time, I remember learning that fishing nets played a huge role in the population expansion), and in some ways that has been accomplished with the longhouses, but I expect more intricate/advanced buildings to come eventually. I'll warn, this game can become addictive !!! I run it on Linux Mint with an Nvidia RTX card. Originally, like with my other games had an issue, but as it turned out I had formatted an external drive as ntfs instead of ext4! When I changed it to ext4 and re-installed, the game worked flawlessly. The only mod that works for now is nut processing, as it seems the mod API is in flux, but that is to be expected for a game in such early stages
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IF YOU'RE UNAWARE OF GAME'S HISTORY: As someone who loves ancient history, I've followed A.C. since it's early days, with the announcement and green-light campaign on Steam back in 2017. This movement had tons of traction and generated well over 120K by the time it was green lit. Surpassing it's funding milestones where it promises to eventually build in additional climates such as the Middle East and and even an Ice Age pack. Each with their own set of challenges according to their atmospheric elements. Same is true for natural disaster features, also related to each climate. And throw in some raiding to spice it up even more. Improved sky life and the Aurora-Borealis etc. These things have yet to be included, but I'm more than confident they'll be added, as the few building this game up are still working on it in a whole list of ways. Tons of life variety and Optimization has improved far beyond many other city build games. There's plenty of features already added at this point. Honestly, I'm impressed with how far this has come. To say that Uncasual Game's team of several Devs have tackled a tremendous feat (considering the shear size of their vision for this one of a kind piece) while working this project is in itself a deep understatement. There's so many times this game should've gone under over the years and yet somehow against all odds, the Devs have managed to persevere, coming out on top, improving the entire game from it's very poor early access state in 2021. And all this in the face of what was initially ruthless ridicule from original followers base, who's patience for the complete game lasted about a week. And who seemed to think Uncasual Games were the size of Ubisoft Studios; not to mention the overwhelming financial and development threats they were confronted before and after the fall out. The end game of this project has yet to be realized. But what the game provides for playable content as of this post is very enjoyable. It'll take some learning investment to really feel the vibe the world around is meant to give, So prepare yourself to be committed to learning the mechanics of your tribe and the environments. If you're doubtful about paying full price up front, then definitely consider getting this on sale. But understand that the more funds the ever-improving Devs receive from this genre base, the closer they'll be to really making this into the full masterpiece they've intended it to be. I bought this at full price and I can say confidently that I'd do it again. I'm really looking forward to what's potentially in store for the future with this. I wish the Devs an ever successful outcome. They've earned it.
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I was hesitant about buying this game because of the mixed reviews but after i saw recently a youtube video about the last updates i decided to buy it and i can say it is a very good game despite being in works. I like the graphics, better than Dawn of man which is also an ancient city builder, the game is balanced, everything works pretty good. I didn´t see any bugs or glitches. What i don´t like is the storage system because you can store only 1 resource in a storage building. But i am sure the devs are working at this. I recommend the game and i hope the devs will keep working and give us more content and features.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Ancient Cities is currently priced at 29.99€ on Steam.
Ancient Cities is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 29.99€ on Steam.
Ancient Cities received 1,243 positive votes out of a total of 1,953 achieving a rating of 6.23.
😐
Ancient Cities was developed and published by Uncasual Games.
Ancient Cities is playable and fully supported on Windows.
Ancient Cities is not playable on MacOS.
Ancient Cities is not playable on Linux.
Ancient Cities is a single-player game.
Ancient Cities does not currently offer any DLC.
Ancient Cities is fully integrated with Steam Workshop. Visit Steam Workshop.
Ancient Cities does not support Steam Remote Play.
Ancient Cities is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for Ancient Cities.
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Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.
Last Updates| Steam data | 28 October 2025 06:30 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 26 October 2025 18:14 |
| Steam price | 30 October 2025 12:40 |
| Steam reviews | 29 October 2025 21:47 |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Ancient Cities, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Ancient Cities
- SteamCharts - Analysis of Ancient Cities concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Ancient Cities compatibility
Game modes
Features
Online players
20
Developer
Uncasual Games
Publisher
Uncasual Games
Release
24 Mar 2023
Platforms