TheoTown Reviews

i played this as a minor on my phone now i am a major and i still play it

relaxing, great city building

wish they added more planes or custom liviries. way too addicting

A suggestion from my side is you have a military so tryna add some active war with neighboring towns and increase more trade also. Make that military more active and useful.

TheoTown, developed by blueflower and published by Lobby Entertainment, is a city-building simulation game that merges the charm of classic urban simulators with mobile accessibility and PC flexibility. Originally designed for mobile devices, the game has been carefully adapted for PC without sacrificing its complexity or depth. At first glance, it might seem modest—featuring pixelated 2D graphics and a somewhat nostalgic aesthetic—but beneath its retro appearance lies a surprisingly deep and versatile simulation engine that offers a wealth of options for budding mayors and city planners. The game offers a top-down, tile-based interface reminiscent of early SimCity titles. You are given a blank map and a set of tools, and from there, the city is yours to shape. The usual staples are present: residential, commercial, and industrial zones, transportation systems, power grids, and utilities. But TheoTown quickly reveals its depth with added layers such as regional policies, public services, urban density management, crime, pollution, and even disasters. There is no traditional campaign or narrative structure—everything is sandbox-driven—so the pace and goals are entirely determined by the player. This open-ended format encourages creativity and long-term planning rather than task-driven progression. Where TheoTown excels is in its customizability and detail. The game offers a staggering amount of micromanagement for those who want it. You can design custom road layouts with one-way streets, highways, railroads, and even monorails and subways. Traffic management becomes a challenge in larger cities, and the implementation of traffic lights, toll booths, and road types has a direct impact on congestion and flow. Services like fire, police, health, and education need to be carefully placed and upgraded to maintain a balanced city, and the visual feedback systems (such as heat maps for pollution, noise, and land value) help players make informed decisions. The city simulation runs in real-time, and you’ll often find yourself tweaking layouts for efficiency or aesthetics as your city grows. Visually, TheoTown embraces its pixel art style with confidence. The graphics are colorful and full of tiny animated details, from flickering neon lights to moving vehicles and construction sites. The charm is in the little things—helicopters taking off from hospitals, ferries docking at ports, or festivals occurring in town squares. The modest graphical style also ensures the game runs smoothly on most hardware, and yet it doesn’t feel lacking in personality. Sound design is equally subtle, with relaxing background music and satisfying ambient sounds like traffic, birds, and sirens that reinforce the feel of a living, breathing metropolis. One of the standout features of TheoTown is its expansive plugin system and community-created content. The game supports a robust modding environment where users can design and import custom buildings, vehicles, landmarks, and scenarios. This adds a nearly infinite degree of replayability and variety, especially for those who love adding personal flair or real-world references to their cities. Whether it’s building a replica of New York, a futuristic utopia, or a quaint European village, the tools and content to do so are at your fingertips. The Steam Workshop integration makes this process easy and accessible, greatly enhancing the game’s longevity and community engagement. Despite its strengths, TheoTown does have some limitations that may not appeal to everyone. The absence of a guided tutorial can make the initial learning curve steep, particularly for players unfamiliar with city-builder mechanics. While there are tooltips and help menus, much of the game’s more intricate systems must be discovered through experimentation. Additionally, because the game originated on mobile platforms, the UI, while functional, sometimes feels cramped or less intuitive on PC, especially when managing large cities. There are also moments where the simulation can feel more cosmetic than systemic—while disasters and economic downturns exist, they often don’t present the kind of existential threat found in more dynamic simulations like Cities: Skylines or SimCity 4. Nevertheless, TheoTown stands as a remarkable example of how a small-scale indie title can successfully emulate—and in some ways rival—the classics of the genre. Its blend of accessibility, depth, and customization gives it a distinct identity. It doesn’t try to dazzle with photorealism or intricate 3D graphics; instead, it wins players over with its substance and charm. It’s particularly well-suited for players who enjoy sandbox creativity, long-term planning, and community engagement. Whether you're looking to unwind by slowly crafting a coastal town or dive deep into the minutiae of traffic management and public policy, TheoTown offers a flexible and rewarding platform for urban imagination. Rating: 9/10

I wish it was being updated with new things & that transit was better (with the ability to set train/subway lines, etc.) but otherwise this a fun game and worth it if you like Cities Skylines and SimCity. The ease of access with mods is also a huge W.

best game ever the second best 5 bucks i spend in all my life after falout 4

The game is entertaining, and fulfills its function of building cities, but if you want to play freely and without stress, do not try to get the achievements, they are horrible, many require patience or luck. If you want to complete the game, I'd better turn around and run away, I wish I'd heard that before. Thanks game, you destroyed me 😃

i like TheoTown because it’s chill and kinda relaxing 🏙️ you can build cities, set up roads and trains and stuff, and the pixel art is cute 🛤️✨ it’s fun messing around with disasters too 💥 but after a while it gets kinda boring 😴 like once your city’s stable, there’s not much else to do. still worth checking out if you like city builders, just don’t expect it to stay exciting forever. Its also great how its made for low end pcs, and the fact you can check out others cities. although, a multiplayer city building mode would be great.

TheoTown is nearly perfect and still expanding, what is the point in bundling it with another city builder. If I had a choice between EA's AAA Simcity and TheoTown, I would hands down pick TheoTown. So.. why this other city builder? Just because something is 3D doesn't really amount to how good a game is.