Celestial Empire on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
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The Emperor has chosen you as a new provincial governor. Design the city of your dreams, admiring its details from a bird's-eye view. Take care of your people, develop efficient production chains and trade with other landlords. Ensure their survival through harsh winters and disasters.
Celestial Empire is a early access, historical and city builder game
developed by President Studio
and published by President Studio and PlayWay S.A..
Released on September 23rd 2025 is available only on Windows
in 13 languages: English, French, German, Spanish - Spain, Traditional Chinese, Polish, Simplified Chinese, Italian, Korean, Russian, Turkish, Japanese and Portuguese - Brazil.
It has received 308 reviews of which 279 were positive and 29 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.3 out of 10. 😎
The game is currently priced at 19.99€ on Steam.
The Steam community has classified Celestial Empire into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
Get an in-depth look at Celestial Empire through various videos and screenshots.
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 10/11
- Processor: 3.2 GHz Dual Core Processor
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: GTX 1070 or similar
- DirectX: Version 12
- Storage: 30 GB available space
- Additional Notes: Integrated Graphic Cards are not supported. Intel ARC series may not be supported yet. SSD required / 30 FPS in 1920x1080 with "Low" preset.
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
As of writing this, the game is pretty solid. The features that are there are well polished. You get two maps to play on with a variety of difficulties and a large tech tree to work through. Key positives for me are: - Being able to easily see your resources & customise to your needs - The weather system makes you have to prepare for winter - The depth of the technologies needed to obtain a particular resource (i.e. warm clothes requires two farm types, duck cultivation and the tailor) & working out if you can afford the maintenance costs to build such an infrastructure at the time. What I'd like to see based on what I've seen so far: - Intro to the setting is interesting. Would like to see a story/campaign mode. - A way to work out if you're balancing logging vs replanting to optimise sustainability. You can increase replanting by a percentage, but a percentage of what? - More challenge modes/maps. - More whether based effects. Summer draught, Spring floods as snow melts, autumn storms etc, Looking forward to see where this game goes.
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This game not only combines the long production chain of the Anno series with the workforce mechanics of city-builders, its also explores interesting ways of progression with its tech and faith mechanics, and does it all in a package that plays smoothly and looks good. Celestial Empire does not attempt to be the next great innovation in city-building by introducing some experimental new concept, instead serving to optimize and smoothen the classical city-building experience. The most notable of that is its use of production predictions throughout. Whenever you mouse of a resource icon, it shows you not only your currect stock, but also the change in stock per minute, based on production and consumption. This allows you to fine-tune production chains in a way usually impossible in city-builders and letting you be aware of potentially dangerous shortages before suddenly your entire workforce is unhappy and moves out. There's some quibbles to be had with the implementation (it gets wonky in cases of intermittent production and there's come use-cases of goods it just ignores completely) but it's a feature I'd love to see more often. In what is most easily compared to Anno, Celestial Empire is willing to commit to long production chains in a way city builders usually avoid. As the game advances, the productions get more complicated, culminating in the crafting of silk robes requiring nine buildings in a production tree five steps deep, making the demands of the higher-class citizens feel appropriately weighty compared to the lower class. The house upgrade system is also a good step, as it is not only player-controlled, it's also quite meaningful. As houses get upgraded, their inhabitants shift into a higher class of workforce, becoming suitable to work in different buildings: A farm requires peasants, but a smelter requires craftsmen and a painting studio needs scholars to function. This gives a smoother experience than the usual split of productive workforce and unproductive nobles while still giving the class divides a gameplay impact. The tech tree and faith system are both ways of progression that add an interesting layer to the city building. Both are resources passively gathered from the population, and while tech points are used to unlock new buildings to thus produce new goods, the real novel impact is the way they allow optimization of already existing production. Tech points can be spent to increase the efficiency of buildings globally, by allowing more workforce in a single building or the use of an extra resource (like oxen, coal or irrignation) to increase throughputs. Faith points provide blessings, which have only localized impacts (being placed in buildings and radiating out from there) but also offer improvements to get more out of the same inputs, by reducing citizen needs, increasing citizen density or also increasing production efficiency. It helps in making a late game city feel meaningfull different than an early game one, because it's not just bigger, it gets a lot more done on a per-citizen basis. The one experimental system that somewhat falls down is the trade system, which inverts the usual city-builder rule. Instead of opening a trade post to let traders come to you, you have to send out trading caravans to other cities to export or import goods. Cities further away usually offer better prices in return for the longer travel times, theoretically resulting in interesting trade-off choices having to be made. However, it's rare that one needs more of any good imported than even the cheapest and slowest caravan can carry in a single trip, which makes the whole system feel meaningless. In addition, since it's not plugged into the stock predictions, the trade system feels annoying to plan around. The game also unfortunately decided to just remove all challenge from logistics. There's no commuting, all workforce just goes into a global pool, and similarly all resources are shared between all warehouses. The only logistics question is how far a production building is from its nearest warehouse and whether there's enough carts available there to service it.
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Handwritten Review: This game isn’t complicated or difficult, so I’ll get straight to the point: first the research problems, then why I still recommend it. Players can use this as reference, and I’ve also uploaded a video for context. ++ If you want authentic Chinese culture, do your own research—don’t rely on the game, unless you’re fine with stereotypes. First, let’s summarize the problems of this game: 1. Strange belief issues: Ao Guang, Nüwa, and Sun Wukong cannot be placed on equal footing—it contradicts cultural understanding. Nüwa, along with Fuxi and Shennong, belongs to ancient beliefs, existing side by side. Ao Guang’s status is only lower than Sun Wukong in Journey to the West, and they cannot be equals. If you want to include Ao Guang and Sun Wukong, then you should not use Nüwa, because this insults her status and position. Why not use Nüwa, Fuxi, and Shennong instead? The Three Sovereigns is the mainstream perspective from the Book of Documents, and cannot be arbitrarily altered. I don’t want this game to become another promoter of reinforcing stereotypes of China. But I wonder: when making Greek mythology or Western background city-building simulators, do you also change things at will? 2. Strange crop farming system: Irrigation canals for rice can be acceptable, though rice does not always need canals. Forcing water channels as the only way to grow rice portrays ancient technology as too backward. Moreover, in the game map, there are fast-flowing, vibrant rivers nearby, with fertile and lush land. Why must all crops require canals to be planted in non-arid, fertile regions near abundant water? Many crops don’t need canals at all. Even if this includes mythological elements, it’s unreasonable. In Anno 1800, crops in both the Old World and New World don’t require canals since those areas aren’t arid—only the Land of Lions desert DLC does. For historical accuracy, this game needs more study. Ironically, it depicts ancient Chinese agriculture as if it were so backward that everything required canals. 3. Wrong specifications for the government office (Fuya): Government offices cannot build towers like this. Such towers are only for religious or special-purpose buildings. A regular Fuya is a low, rectangular courtyard. Even with a mythological style, such things are violations of protocol and considered usurpation, punishable by death—this is very serious. The Fuya’s design looks somewhat Tang dynasty, but the soldiers at the gate wear equipment from the Wei–Jin–Northern and Southern dynasties. On the street, there are Qing dynasty soldiers, but their main equipment is still from the Wei–Jin–Northern and Southern dynasties. This is a huge mismatch. 4. The people on the streets and their clothing are not ancient Chinese, nor Asian ancient styles—especially hairstyles. The game is full of AI-generated models with modern hairstyles and stereotypical appearances. In ancient China, Han people tied their hair into topknots. But the streets are full of disheveled, oddly dressed people, even officials. Do you know? In ancient times, being disheveled and against etiquette could be punished. Even in a fantasy China, you should respect basic historical accuracy. Hairstyles and clothing were tied closely to cultural norms and etiquette, balancing aesthetics and practicality. But the game does the opposite. Since the game includes worship, you especially cannot appear disheveled—why? Because that is suicidal. During formal Han ancestral rituals, whether worshipping Nüwa, Fuxi, Shennong, or the Yellow Emperor, clothing and hairstyle had to be neat and proper, with clean face, otherwise it was disrespectful to deities. Not anyone in random clothes could worship. Also, why are there Qing people with queues? 5. Portraits and character images clearly show AI generation. The faces and clothing mix Japanese and Southeast Asian elements, but present them as Chinese. This can confuse players who want to understand Chinese culture. Especially the hairstyle issue I mentioned—appearances are too stereotypical. Why do you think Asians are always portrayed with the same single-eyelid, squinting eyes, and goatee stereotype? Do you treat Western works like this as well? Forgive my harsh tone, but it’s frustrating. Times have changed, shouldn’t perspectives change too? 6. I don’t know if it’s a translation issue, but the game calls something a “bathhouse,” though it is outdoors. That’s incorrect. While this design for aesthetics/gameplay is not a big deal, if someone wants to know about real Chinese bathhouses: they were indoors with rectangular pools, partitions (not just screens), offering privacy. Why indoors? Simple—heating water consumed fuel, and indoor structures helped retain heat. Outdoor bathhouses were unrealistic, as steam would dissipate. Unless it’s a mistranslation and it’s meant to be “hot springs.” But even then, in ancient China hot springs were not public—they were extravagant, like the royal Huaqing Pool. The in-game design looks more like a Japanese half-open-air hot spring + bathhouse. 7. Addressing issues: Commoners would not call local officials “Commander” or “Governor.” Subordinates also would not call superiors “Governor-General.” Civilians referred to themselves as “this humble one” or “grass-roots commoner,” addressing officials as “Daren” (Your Honor) or “Master.” Subordinate officials referred to themselves as “this official” and called higher officials by surname + title (e.g., Magistrate). If I were the top local official, subordinates reporting would say “Magistrate” or “Daren,” not “Governor.” Even the actual appointed Governor-General was addressed as “Daren,” not directly as “Governor”—that would be disrespectful and poorly educated. 8. Architectural specifications aside, I must complain: besides the Fuya and other problematic structures, why is the tax bureau designed like a military building? A normal tax office would be long, single-story, with a backyard courtyard. Also, tier-three residences clip into each other—model collision issues. And there are too many Qing dynasty buildings. Easy to spot, because Qing avoided nuanced colors, resulting in overly saturated, pure-colored buildings, lacking layered tones or transitions. Currently these are the issues I want to highlight. Other parts are okay. If I think of more, I’ll add them, but this should suffice. =========================================================== Now for the reasons to recommend the game: 1.The game maintains a good balance between gameplay, difficulty, and relaxation. It’s not hard, and provides sandbox mode at the start, allowing free playstyle. 2.If you can tolerate Chinese elements mixed with other Asian influences, it’s worth buying. 3.Built on Unreal Engine—beautiful scenery, good graphics, optimized okay, light on hardware. 4.It does include some research into Chinese elements and aspects of ancient life, though limited. Industry, agriculture, and goods are fairly complete, with good resource balance—not frustrating. 5.An alternate-history, fantasy China-themed city builder with minimal political content, so it doesn’t feel uncomfortable. 6.Fairly cheap, matching its content and quality. 7.Based on Anno gameplay, but positively improves building/production chain efficiency and other details—worth experiencing. 8.Multiple belief points and worship mechanics improve the experience and efficiency. 9.Rich content and building variety. Though landscape architecture is limited, details are fine. The game’s timeline is appropriate—natural progression extends playtime without becoming tedious. If you want cultural accuracy, try Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom (Wiki: https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/皇帝：龙之崛起 , GOG: https://www.gog.com/en/game/emperor_rise_of_the_middle_kingdom ). It also has flaws, but is more complete. If accuracy isn’t your concern and you just want a simpler city builder before Anno 117, then this game is worth buying.
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The game is very good. If I had one wish it would be to have a slower speed than the current normal (1). It's a bit too fast paced for a city builder for me.
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Celestial Empire is an amazing Anno-style city/logistics builder. Compared to the old demo version it plays much better and even runs much better. I have to highlight a feature which has got a nice chuckle out of me - as the leader of your city you can walk around in first person. But unlike in other games, you can actually walk up to a production building and work there yourself, to increase your production. That is a very nice detail.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Celestial Empire is currently priced at 19.99€ on Steam.
Celestial Empire is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 19.99€ on Steam.
Celestial Empire received 279 positive votes out of a total of 308 achieving a rating of 8.34.
😎
Celestial Empire was developed by President Studio and published by President Studio and PlayWay S.A..
Celestial Empire is playable and fully supported on Windows.
Celestial Empire is not playable on MacOS.
Celestial Empire is not playable on Linux.
Celestial Empire is a single-player game.
There is a DLC available for Celestial Empire. Explore additional content available for Celestial Empire on Steam.
Celestial Empire does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
Celestial Empire does not support Steam Remote Play.
Celestial Empire 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 Celestial Empire.
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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 | 11 October 2025 19:33 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 11 October 2025 08:16 |
| Steam price | 12 October 2025 04:37 |
| Steam reviews | 11 October 2025 15:45 |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Celestial Empire, 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 Celestial Empire
- SteamCharts - Analysis of Celestial Empire concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Celestial Empire compatibility
Game modes
Features
Online players
126
Developer
President Studio
Publisher
President Studio,
PlayWay S.A.
Release
23 Sep 2025
Platforms