6. Tropico Series. Gamepressure's top 10 city builders

Let's move from the freezing 19th century to a much more pleasant reality – a tropical island run by a dictator. Tropico, a well-known series combining economic games with city builders, is set in exactly such a place, banana republic).

A big advantage of Tropico the humor – the series does not take itself too seriously, so it's a perfect distraction (and if that's what you're looking for, make sure to avoid Frostpunk andBanished). But don't be fooled by the comic book setting and a light-hearted approach – this is a full-blown game that offers quite complex mechanics that suffice for long hours.

In addition to construction of buildings and running the economy, we have to bear in mind the diplomatic relations with neighboring countries, and carefully monitor the population for traces of revolution, as there's plenty of people who'd love to kick you off the throne. How effective the dissidents' actions will be depends in large part on the policies we pursue. If we take care of the residents, we can become their beloved leader, but by over-exploiting them, we risk them turning against us in the least desirable moment.

The latest – sixth – installment of the Tropico series is now available on the PC variant of the Xbox Game Pass subscription.

5. SimCity series

A list of the best city builders can't do without THIS series – this is where city building is at. Of course, we mean SimCity, whose roots go back all the way to 1989. Over the years, the series changed a lot and tried to turn in different directions – unfortunately, not always with good results. Nevertheless, its last full-fledged installment – released in 2013 on PC – is a pretty decent game (spoiled a bit by the controversy accompanying the premiere and problems with Origin), and part four preceding it is still considered by many players as one of the best in the genre.

The cornerstone of gameplay in SimCity is classic city building, without any significant traces of survival and other quirks. The game focuses on planning and building a metropolis, and dealing with various challenges such as traffic jams, limited availability of services, lack of money for renovations needed, and natural disasters.

SimCity has had its ups and downs over the years, and the series' place in this ranking is probably equally a matter of quality, and nostalgia. However, this doesn't change the fact that for fans of city builders, the productions from this series are a must-have. We can only hope that Electronic Arts hasn't abandoned it definitively and we'll finally get a real follow-up (no, EA, the lame 2014 mobile game doesn't count).

4. The Settlers series

Right below the podium: another classic – The Settlers. Like SimCity, it's an example of a series that has undergone various transformations over the years, but unlike the games developed by Maxis Software/EA Maxis, The Settlers franchise turned sort of a hot potato, cast between different publishers and developers, all with different ideas for reinvention.

The Settlers is something between a full-fledged city builder, economic strategy, and RTS – apart from building a village or a city and planning the infrastructure, we also control our troops in battle. This last element of mechanics can be more or less complicated and elaborate, but in the course of gameplay, it's basically unavoidable, so fans of the genre should keep it in mind when reaching for this series.

To be honest, the heydays of The Settlers' are long behind us – the last full-fledged installment of the series was released in 2010 (The Settlers 7: Road to the Kingdom), and the 1996 sequel The Settlers II, along with The Settlers II: Veni, Vidi, Vici are often considered the pinnacle of the entire series. Nevertheless, the aforementioned Road to the Kingdom still looks quite decent, and there's already a sequel/reboot on the horizon, simply titled The Settlers (unfortunately, its release is still being postponed). So, this is a pretty good time to rehearse the magic of this series.