Manor Lords is one of the most popular city-builders we’ve had in a long time, and that’s for good reason. It gives you liberty and tools to live out your medieval landlord fantasy. However, it’s still a rough gem, and there are other fiefs you can manage while this one’s being polished. Here is our list of the top ten best games like Manor Lords.
Farthest Frontier
Farthest Frontier is, in a way, Manor Lord’s older brother. It has almost the same features, and it’s been in early access for a while now, making its way from being a buggy mess to a very playable medieval city-builder you can sink hundreds of hours into. It’s also one of the rare entries on this list with actual combat, but the UI makes it less immersive.
Life is Feudal: Forest Village
Coming from the makers of Life is Feudal, Forest Village is a city-building spin-off riddled with complex systems. It even allows you to possess your townspeople and micromanage them in a way that even my editor would be jealous of. However, optimization isn’t great, and once you start getting to 4-digit population numbers, your PC will be as exhausted as your town’s water supply. Still, if you like these kinds of challenges in games, Forest Village is a Manor Lords look-alike you’ll absolutely fall in love with.
Frostpunk 1 & 2
Taking a break from medieval action, we have Frostpunk. This one’s looks are far from being like Manor Lords’, but when it comes to grit and character, Frostpunk has them in spades. It’s a post-apocalyptic strategy game where you’ll be facing many difficult choices to save your colony, including cannibalism and child labor. The question is whether you, the leader of this last city on Earth, have the guts to do what needs to be done.
Dawn of Man
Life in prehistoric times was really simple. You get born, you start working the land as soon as you can hold a rake, and then they assign you to 20 years of stone cutting so the dead emperor can have a cool tomb the conspiracy theorists 30K years later will credit to aliens. Well, this is just one of the things you’ll have your people do in Dawn of Man, and exactly what makes it so much fun. It’s one of the games on this list that are most like Manor Lords system-wise, though with a different time setting.
Surviving the Aftermath
Another cyberpunk entry on our list is Surviving the Aftermath. The difference between this one and Frostpunk, though, is that despite its seriousness, the amount of BS you’ll encounter is insane. Literally, you’ll have rats setting your buildings on fire and meteors raining down every other day. I mean, if that were to happen to my city IRL, I’d give up on managing it and go full Mad Max on whoever keeps training those rats in pyromancy.
Aven Colony
Aven Colony might be the best sci-fi city-builder out there. Its UI and mechanics are extremely intuitive, and it’ll keep you glued to your screen for hours on end. However, this game doesn’t have a medieval theme like Manor Lords, though. If that’s a turnoff for you, check out the next one on this list.
Ostriv
Ostriv puts you in charge of an 18th-century Ukrainian town that you’ll have to build from just a few houses. The best thing about this game is that, just like Manor Lords, you have almost complete freedom in how you want to build your town. It’s as close as you’ll ever get to 18th-century city planning – without a time machine, of course.
Banished
Banished is an older title, but it’s still one of the most popular city-builders out there and probably the best one similar to Manor Lords. It invented many of the ideas we see in more modern games, and it still remains unique to this day. The HUD is very old-school, and everything in the game is made to be as realistic as possible, with no skill trees or other shenanigans. So, if you want a true hardcore experience, this might be the one for you.
Space Haven
Space Haven is the last sci-fi entry on our list, and it certainly doesn’t look anything like Manor Lords. However, the city-building and management aspects count, and those are very similar. You’ll collect resources, assign jobs, and try to make your colony survive. Whether that’s in space or on medieval Earth doesn’t matter that much, really.
Ancient Cities
Next, we have Ancient Cities. This game is very much like Manor Lords, but the lack of in-game tutorials can make it extremely intimidating to new players. I mean, you can just read the reviews on Steam and decide for yourself, but if you’re not accustomed to convoluted UIs, this one might not be the best fit for you.
That does it for our list of best games like Manor Lords. Finally, if you found this list helpful and want to read more gaming guides, news, and lists, be sure to bookmark Twinfinite before closing the tab.
