Imagine Earth

by Aethyna Apr 25, 2025 | 1 Votes | 32 Played | 0 Reviews

9 rate

Genres:

Simulation

Graphics:

Labels:

City Building , Building , Sci-Fi , Space Games , Management

Platforms:

Publishers:

Serious Bros. Joining the Expansion Department at Imagine Earth Ltd, you are quickly put to work to help the company achieve its goal of being the sole contractor for the United Space Nations in the region. Establish colonies on remote planets, manage your workforce, and exploit the riches to fuel your company's growth. Will you succeed? Play Now Similar Games

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Summary Plotline Gameplay Graphics/ Sound Conclusion

Summary

Imagine Earth is a city builder and colony management game that puts you into the shoes of an up-and-coming employee at the Expansion Department at Imagine Earth Ltd. In this game, you oversee the process of establishing colonies on remote planets rich with minerals and resources to exploit... hopefully in a sustainable way. Manage your growing population as you try to fulfill the bottom lines of your corporate overlords, and the resolutions of the United Space Nations, as well as battle against rival corporations and other competitors who have the same idea as you did in a bid to win over the planet for your company. Will you succeed?

Plotline

Being a mostly capitalism-driven game, Imagine Earth is filled with stories of corporate backstabbing and undercuts, though not as ruthlessly as some TV series may portray. In this game, you have a fairly dependable ally, Alia, to aid you in your tasks and a boss that’s pretty chill overall, as long as you can attain the objectives he (and, after a corporate takeover, she) sets for you. While you do make an enemy (or more, depending on your decisions) out of an ex-colleague in the game, I’d say, without trying to spoil too much of the story, it’s mostly his own fault (greed) that he was ostracized and kicked out of the company. You don’t really feel all too bad for him, to be honest.

Gameplay

Set on a triangle-gridded map of the planet you head to, Imagine Earth will have to set up a city center and various facilities, which you’ll need to power your city and fulfill the demands of your boss. This includes energy, food, and goods, which range from electronics to building materials. With these in place, you can then set up housing complexes to house your working force – the very people who will then be paying taxes to you, adding precious funds into your city’s coffers so you can further expand the city as well as improve the city’s economy by pursuing rare and much more resources like gold, titanium, or even crafted goods like medicine to trade and sell.

It's easy to build anything in this game. The only catch here, besides having enough resources for the construct, is to place it within the city’s limits. You can expand the city limits by leveling up the city center or by adding frontier towers or buoys. You can even purchase adjacent grids at a fixed price if you think the cost is worth it. The districts and facilities you can build aren’t always unlocked right from the start. Instead, you will need Tech Licenses to essentially license the right to use said technology in your city. These licenses are earned as you progress, though if you have way too much disposable income, you could buy one from the merchant who will visit your spaceport from time to time. Though, personally, I’d say it’s not really the best use of money.

Similar to building resource production structures in RTS games, some structures in this game can only be placed when the resource they need to function is available on that spot on the grid, or is at least nearby. For others, it’s possible to build anywhere you want, as long as the terrain is permissible (can’t build a “land building” at sea or at the coast, or vice versa), but having the resource it needs to best function will ramp up production, giving you the best value for your investment. Similarly, the Stone Quarry, for instance, will get a nice boost to its production if it’s next to two stone deposits as opposed to only one.

Of course, there are also plenty of upgrades you can get, once researched of course, that may bump up production even further, usually at the cost of the environment or more money. Researches take time though, that is unless you get a Research license. Note that the permit isn’t exactly cheap and that money spent might be better used elsewhere… in most cases.

Depending on the difficulty, it’s also easy enough to move districts around so you can get the best possible configuration, playing off on the synergies of various districts. For instance, the electronics factory works best if it’s situated next to a city district, while the park and health districts are best situated right at the center of your cluster of city districts to optimize the happiness and health boost (respectively) they can provide.

Being able to move facilities around can also be helpful in cases when a facility becomes dependent on a deposit and is depleted. In this situation, it’s best to move a nuclear power plant to another uranium deposit than having the power plant stay at its current location, producing the bare minimum of power that it can generate.

Of course, aside from the challenges of colony building, Imagine Earth will also have you go head-to-head against local natives, other competitors, and pirates, and even nature since some planets are more prone to getting natural catastrophes like thunderstorms, pandemics, and meteorite hits that can destroy or damage buildings or city districts. There are also potential allies that you can befriend to access new markets to trade in.

Once your city grows big enough, you may even be invited to the World Congress where you and other important players on the planet will get to decide which resolution will be passed. Naturally, you’ll want to be the one with the most votes just so you can push through resolutions that are beneficial to you and not to your rivals.

One of the most interesting parts about the game is its messaging on sustainability. It wouldn’t do just to pollute the planet and plunder every resource you could on the planet without getting any consequences be it from the World Congress, your allies, or your own people – after all, they are paying taxes that you rely rather heavily on to develop your city, and they’d want a better life where they wouldn’t need to mask up to avoid air pollution, for instance. It’s truly a great message, and it’s really nice to see how this works in the core system of the game.

Now, as fun as the game is, some players may find the gameplay loop boring since you’re basically starting over again on every new planet. Personally, I’d say it’s a bit unfair to paint the game with such a broad brush – yes, the gameplay is essentially the same for each planet in the game, but the kind of gameplay experience you’d get is wildly different due to the different challenges presented, and more so if you ramp up the difficulty.

Imagine Earth – Galaxies review

For the low price of just $4, players get to dive right back into Imagine Earth’s strategically fun gameplay in a galaxy with up to 20 planets to explore and colonize. There are even two game modes on offer, namely endless mode, which is more sandbox-style and more relaxing, and competitive mode, where you’ll go up against AI corporations in a galaxy-wide competition in which the one with the highest victory points will be slated to hold the title of main administrator of the galaxy.

Different from the main base game, there’s a space station here that functions as the central hub in which you’ll get to unlock interplanetary research and extensions for city centers, as well as an orbital space lift that allows you to move resources between colonies from different planets and the central hub. There’s a new story campaign featuring a new character which is pretty sweet as well.

That said, as much value you can get out of this affordably priced DLC, there are some real issues with the AI and game design here. There are times when the AI polluted the planet so much that the United Space Nations had to swoop in and close the planet due to an environmental collapse… none of which are my fault. The time limit is also a bit of a bummer for someone who enjoyed the game as a chill, cozy-ish city builder. The base game is definitely a lot more relaxing to play here.

Graphics/ Sound

Balancing artistic flair with naturalistic elements, Imagine Earth features a vibrant and detailed style that not only brings the entire planet to life but also clearly showcases how sustainable development, or the lack thereof, can impact the beauty of a planet. Each biome here has its own unique design, and the game assets are all meticulously crafted to really bring players, in combination with other visual elements, into the game’s immersive atmosphere.

In terms of sound, the game opts for a selection of relaxing background tunes and some ambient sounds, like the sound of traffic. I also love the voice acting here. They all feel real and relatable, though perhaps the super chill boss you get earlier in the game can be a bit hard to imagine in real life.

Conclusion

All in all, Imagine Earth offers a fascinating city-building experience that’s unique from any other sci-fi-themed city builders on the market, thanks to its emphasis on sustainability. While the pacing can be slow at times, the overall experience can be very rewarding, especially for avid fans of city builders who enjoy thoughtful planning and varying challenges. So, if you’re looking for a fun city builder game with a conscience, Imagine Earth is worth your time and money, for sure!

New Game Added: Imagine Earth

by Aethyna Apr 25, 2025

Joining the Expansion Department at Imagine Earth Ltd, you are quickly put to work to help the company achieve its goal of being the sole contractor for the United Space Nations in the region. Establish colonies on remote planets, manage your workforce, and exploit the riches to fuel your company's growth. Will you succeed?