Builders of Egypt Review — Unmonumental Monument Builder

Builders of Egypt is a new historical city builder focused on ancient Egypt. This ambitious title takes players through thousands of years of Kemetic history, allowing them to construct incredible wonders and expansive cities that endure the test of time and fend off invaders. While the game is clearly crafted by a passionate team and priced fairly, it delivers a mixed experience, hindered by underwhelming elements and questionable design choices that prevent it from reaching its full potential.

Builders of Egypt demonstrates a strong interest in ancient Egyptian history, as seen in the developers’ attention to detail. Every loading screen provides paragraphs of (potentially AI-narrated) text about Egypt’s history and culture. As you play, pop-up events delve into the lives of pharaohs and key historical moments, offering an immersive first-hand lesson about this fascinating setting.

As a big fan of ancient Egypt, I appreciate the effort the developers put into historical detail. This attention goes beyond text blurbs, extending to the game mechanics. For instance, in ancient Egypt, workers were often paid in bread and beer. Builders of Egypt incorporates this by making bread the primary currency, used to construct buildings and pay laborers. It’s a small detail, but one that easily makes everything feel a bit more historically immersive.

As much as I appreciate the game’s attempt to be historically accurate, there are also some areas where it really fights this promise. One example is the inclusion of a full-time fire department—a concept not invented until the 18th century. This feels like a noticeable oversight in a game striving for authenticity, likely added because fire departments are standard in many city builders.

Mechanically, Builders of Egypt is an economically focused city-building game similar to Tropico or the Anno series. While there is some combat and defense, the main focus is on resource production and economic management in the city of Memphis. Each scenario requires you to achieve specific prosperity goals across multiple categories while managing resources, keeping citizens happy, and ensuring your treasury never runs out of bread.

As in similar games, your economy relies on supply chains, where some goods require others to produce. For instance, basic bricks are made by combining clay from clay mines and wheat from fields in a manufactory. The economy has depth, with a variety of goods and industries to develop and sustain a functional ancient city.

There are plenty of resource-harvesting structures, and the game introduces many mechanics to manage. However, this often translates to placing specific buildings near houses to prevent issues (like police for unrest or temples to raise housing quality). A lack of variety in other areas can make gameplay feel repetitive. You’ll quickly fall into a loop: placing houses, upgrading them, or boosting your economy to construct monuments. While common in city builders, this loop lacks enough forward progression or engaging tasks between placements, making it feel dull at times. Often, I found myself waiting on 6x speed for citizens to move in or stuck with no clear way to increase bread production beyond trading. For a game where bread is the main currency, it’s odd that you can’t… bake it.

A major issue is how the game conveys information to the player. The UI is clunky, hard to navigate, and poorly designed. Tooltips are often missing or unhelpful, making it difficult to understand certain mechanics or remember building functions. The tutorial also struggles to teach the game effectively.

The game’s pacing can feel slow and clunky. Growing your city takes a long time, and camera movement is sluggish. Overall, the game feels awkward and poorly optimized. It seems as though Builders of Egypt skipped an early access or testing phase. That said, the price is reasonable—at $20, it offers an average city-building experience with a unique Egyptian theme. While it may not be groundbreaking, it’s worth checking out if the setting appeals to you.

Try Hard Guides received a PC review code for this game. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page! Builders of Egypt is available on Steam.