Build an empire that will last for thousands of years in strategy city builder Memoriapolis

In most city builders I usually wind up feeling like an urban planner or a mayor. In Memoriapolis, which launched into early access on Steam today, I feel more like a god-emperor because the city I'm managing isn't just going to grow and expand for a few years or decades or even centuries, but for millenia.

There's a bit of Civ in this new strategy city builder, in other words. You're doing some traditional survival city builder stuff by building farms, quarries, and woodcutters, harvesting resources and using them to expand, setting up trade routes and expanding your buildable territory—but you're also shaping your city's culture and managing mega-construction projects called «Wonders» as you grow from the age of antiquity to medieval times and beyond.

I played a bit of Memoriapolis this week and it's doing some interesting stuff. You don't have to micromanage quite as much as in most other city builders, though that's a bit of a double-edged sword. You don't build roads or dictate the borders of farms and residential areas: place a farm and your itty bitty farmers will begin plowing fields and growing crops without your help, and neighborhoods will begin to rise around your city center all on their own. It's got a nice, organic feel to it and it's enjoyable to watch your city take shape, but one of the joys of builders, generally, is making all those little decisions yourself.

You do have to manage your city's resources, from lumber to food to gold, and make sure the conditions are right for your city to prosper and attract more citizens. Factions quickly begin arriving: in my game my city became home to nearly a dozen different groups like Spartans, Carthaginians, Thracians, Epicureans, and more I dimly remember from my long-ago school days. Each faction has its own interests and desires, which can be reflected in the city you're building. If you want to keep a military faction happy you might build an arena or gladiator training facility like the Ludus Magnus,