Ancient Cities
Skip · Strategy · 2023
Steam Deck PlayableThe verdict
SKIP IT.
It scores 11, under the fair line, at $29.99.
- Length
- 28h
- Value
- $1.07/hr
- Reviews
- 63% positive
Watch this gameOne alert when it is worth buying.
Minimum on the Steam store: 6 GB of memory, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (2 GB) / AMD Radeon RX-560 (4 GB) for Full HD resolution. Windows only.
Ancient Cities is a realistic, survival city builder in an immersive procedural environment. Lead the fate of your tribe through ancient times!
What drives the score
How to read this
Grades run S to D, read from the buyer's side. ▲ marks a lift, ▼ a drag or a dock, ? an input we do not have, • a fact this genre's score does not use. How the grades work
The value story
It has never been cheaper than $7.49. That was May 2026. It has been discounted 28 times in the 6 years tracked here, typically at 35 percent off, with about 6 weeks between sales.
It is pricier than 97 percent of its genre, and less well reviewed than 90 percent. Among the games that feel like it, Ostriv ($24.99, scores 66) beats it on value, while it beats Depraved ($19.99, scores 8).
Of the 800 Steam-purchase reviews this site sampled, 20 come from buyers who refunded the game, sampled from reviews written May 2021 to August 2026. That is more refunded reviewers than 8 in 10 paid games this site has sampled to the same depth, and among the 2,725 games in its genre sampled this deeply, 586 have a larger share. Inside the two-hour refund window, 39 percent of the 277 reviews written there were positive, against 63 percent overall, and those are 15 percent of everything written about it.
The drop-off
77% start to <1% rarestNo achievement in this game marks the ending, so there is no finish rate. The curve runs from the most-unlocked achievement to the rarest, and its shape is where players stop. Steam global achievements
What players say
Do you enjoy builder style games? Are you interested in history? This might be for you if you answered yes. It's not easy, it's not the usual builder game. Time, weather and fertility inherent to map areas affects can be a boon, or cause a need to migrate. Choosing when and where to migrate is up to you. Interesting map in relation to the time periods the game has, which is adjustable every map. From mountains to...
Ancient Cities is one of the most immersive prehistoric city-building and survival games I've played. The graphics are beautiful, the environments are detailed, and the game runs surprisingly smoothly. It's the kind of game where you can relax, watch your people grow, and enjoy seeing your settlement slowly evolve over time. The building mechanics are excellent and feel natural. Expanding your village is satisfying...
A great concept, executed with decent graphics, is mired beneath horrendously unintuitive controls and UI.
Steam reviews, mixed to match its Steam ratio and rotated daily. Opinions are theirs.
No data upstream: critic score (Metacritic).
Cite this score
Ancient Cities scores 11/100 on the BANG Score (a skip) as of Oct 2, 2026. The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/667610/ancient-citiesReviews set the ceiling, and price against real length moves the BANG Score inside it. How it works, and where it is weak → Steam reviews as of Sep 26, price as of Oct 1.
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