20 Games With The Best Base Building Mechanics, Ranked
There are a lot of games out there that give players the creative tools to create what they want in order to move forward in a game. This is one of the biggest elements of base building games, a genre that has a collection of games that have their main focus revolve around creating an effective home.
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The base-building genre can be a bit loose by definition, so there are plenty of games out there that can claim to be perfectly fit underneath the label. However, there are only a few games that perfectly represent what the genre is about.
Updated on October 11th, 2022, by Chris Birsner: With both survival and simulation games continuing to become popular as the years go on, so too does the prospect of base building games. Being able to build the perfect home to enjoy spending time in or build a fortress that is impossible for enemy forces to destroy, the satisfaction of taking on a large project, completing it, and seeing the benefits of having a base is an incredibly rewarding prospect in these kinds of games. While there have been many of the best base building games mentioned previously, there continues to be a steady flow of truly impressive base builder games on all platforms.
20
7 Days To Die
The key to the best base building games is to make everything harvestable, giving the player the ability to set up their home wherever they like. This is part of the idea behind 7 Days to Die, a survival horror game that was released in 2013 in early access and still remains so today.
Set in the nuclear apocalypse post-World War III, players must survive while being hunted down by zombies that have come to life due to the effects of the war. Bases are not just a safe haven as they can also be filled with traps that can kill zombies looking to break in.
19
The Wandering Village
City-builders tend to be a very different type of base building game as they tend to focus more on creating a civilization without a ton of pressure. However, there are few games that add stakes to this, including the early access title The Wandering Village.
Players work to build a society on the back of a colossal creature that is also attempting to survive on its own. The world has fallen apart thanks to mysterious plants that are poisonous to all, and it is up to the player to build up a community that can protect the people living there as well as the giant the society is built on.
18
Dwarf Fortress
A game from 2006, Dwarf Fortress is a game that is presented entirely through text that forms the images of the game. The primary mode is open-ended, so the player can set any kind of goal that they would like. Starting a new game has the world generate various land, oceans, and civilization.
To survive, players have to decide on where they would like to build a fortress and then create a foundation that will keep those living in the fortress happy while keeping them safe from any dangers.
17
Age Of Empires 2
Speaking of classic games, one game that was all about building civilizations was 1998’s Age of Empires 2. The real-time strategy game has the player focus on building towns and gathering resources, but it also throws in the twist of building armies on top of that in order to take down enemy civilizations.
If players are able to conquer a town in Age of Empires 2, they will have new land that they can play with. Players can take their empire through four different eras that are the equivalent of 1,000 years of time.
16
Timberborn
The best base building games tend to be focused on humans trying to protect themselves from the world. But in Timberborn, the humans are the ones who have made the world inhabitable, so it is up to one species to take on the task of surviving and thriving: beavers.
Facing constant drought, players must pick one of two beaver factions and use their skills to build a society that helps produce the resources necessary to survive some major dry spells. The factories are built using the metal left behind by the human world after they perished, which will help the beavers in developing useful technology.
15
Valheim
A game that was only released in early access in 2021, Valheim has already left its mark as being one of the more fun survival games out there. Along with the need to collect materials and fight off monsters, there is the base-building element to the game that keeps people coming back.
The great thing about building in Valheim is the different locations one may come across. There are a total of six biomes at the moment, from the peaceful Meadows to the freezing cold conditions of the Mountains. There are also the Swamp, the Black Forest, and the Plains.
14
Subnautica
Exploring the ocean can be scary, and players can experience the unknown firsthand with Subnautica. The survival action-adventure games put players in scuba gear as they swim into the deepest depths of the ocean discovering various lifeforms on a planet known as “4546B.”
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Players must survive potential attacks in the ocean while also managing their own health, hunger, and more. A big part of Subnautica is building bases that can serve as a home to rest up as well as building new submersibles that can help in the exploration element in the game.
13
Grounded
Grounded is what would happen if the films A Bug’s Life and Honey, I Shrunk The Kids had a video game child. A project that just left early access, the survival game by Obsidian Entertainment has players shrunken down to the size of an ant.
The goal of Grounded is to survive in the backyard that has plenty of hostile insects living in the area. Grounded focuses on building a nice base that is enough of a shelter that lets the player survive the day-night cycle.
12
Evil Genius
Villians in video games can be really cool, but it’s easy to forget how much work they seem to be putting into destroying the world. Players get to learn how hard it is in Evil Genius.
The 2004 real-time strategy simulation game puts players in the shoes of the villain as they attempt to run a lair that is gathering resources to build a doomsday device that could be used to bribe the world out of all its money. Players must build stations for minions to gather resources and take care of themselves, while also building traps for “the good guys” to fall for.
11
Minecraft
As stated earlier, base building games can be defined in many ways, so it’s fair to put Minecraft in the category of base building games. The all-time hit is known for its blocky worlds that allow the player to explore and collect anything that is around them.
While the game’s Creative mode is the easiest way to build anything, Survival mode is the perfect place to play for those that enjoy the base-building genre. Building a house, starting farms, and gathering resources are all key to the player’s long-term experience in the sandbox. Based on how popular Minecraft is, it may be the best base-building game of all time.
10
They Are Billions
Those who are looking to build a shelter in a steampunk world should look no further than They Are Billions. The post-apocalyptic survival game puts players in a zombie-infested world where the goal is to build a solid enough base in order to stay alive.
Players must explore the map to collect various resources while laying out a building plan for the base itself. Players also need to prepare their defenses for when zombies start making their way towards the player’s habitat. Domino effects of infection can occur, so protect all sides of a fort as much as possible.
9
Ark: Survival Evolved
With players having to survive in a prehistoric world overrun by dinosaurs, it is no surprise Ark: Survival Evolved has some important base-building mechanics that are important to its overall gameplay. Using materials gathered throughout the land, players will need to craft specific components of a home before placing one down.
For instance, players will need to find enough material to create floors, doors, and walls. Players must be wary of their structure’s pillar or foundation being destroyed, but the ultimate goal will be to upgrade their shack as they play Ark.
8
Astroneer
Base builder games require the player to remain in one area attempting to create the best foundation that they can. Astroneer strongly encourages exploration because of how unique the areas within the game can be, especially when it comes to farming resources.
Astroneer takes place in the 25th century, with each player in control of their own Astroneer whose job is to go on their own adventure scavenging seven planets that have layers that can run deep into their core. The game has four-player co-op that is easy to jump in and out of, making the premise of this base building survival game feel less daunting.
7
Satisfactory
Setting up a home on an alien planet can be really tough at first, but building a solid factory will make life a lot easier. In Satisfactory, players can explore an open world in first-person while looking into creating a plant that could make gathering resources an absolute breeze.
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Players will learn how to make complex machines that will get the resources to build a Space Elevator that they can use to deliver more resources to FICSIT Inc., the company the player works for. The Satisfactory map is pre-generated so that every player starts out in a similar position.
6
The Riftbreaker
It’s always fun when base-building survival games blend with other genres, and The Riftbreaker advertises itself as an entry that involves base building survival and action RPG elements. The best part of this is that it is all about doing it all inside of a mech suit.
The premise is that Captain Ashley Nowak is on a mission to reach areas of the solar system no one else can because of the suit. Go through a portal to reach a planet that will be used to build a base and try to connect it back to Earth. Along the way though, aliens will try to bring Captain Nowak and the base down.
5
Raft
If one wakes up in the middle of the ocean floating on a raft, the simple thing to do is build more on the raft in order to survive longer. Developed by Redbeet Interactive, Raft players will need to use their hook to bring in materials needed to start making their raft a lot more livable.
This includes using materials like wood to make the makeshift boat a little bigger so the shark that lurks nearby doesn’t try to eat the player. The developers of Raft are still working on a full-fledged storyline for the player to enjoy as well.
4
Prison Architect
Base building games are usually about keeping the bad guys from invading from the outside. Prison Architect tasks the player to act as a warden and build a base around bad guys that will keep them locked away from the outside.
Build a prison that is meant to both take care of prisoners and keep them from trying to escape. Manage staff and use money that can be used to help deal with problems currently taking place at the compound. In an alternate Prison Architect mode, become a prisoner and try to escape from a prison that other players have created.
3
Oxygen Not Included
Three space colonists have ended up in a predicament where they have all lost their memory but need to find out how to build a new civilization from scratch.
In Oxygen Not Included, the player is tasked with keeping these three “duplicants” alive by tracking their needs while also directing these colonists to perform the necessary tasks of gathering resources so they can craft important supplies to continue to thrive. The game is procedurally generated, meaning players will stumble upon different biomes in space each time.
2
RimWorld
Set on a planet in the middle of space, RimWorld puts players in control of a colony that is filled with characters looking to escape. Players can choose from a few scenarios to get their game started.
From there, players are tasked with keeping characters alive while they have to deal with random events that can occur at any time. Each character has their own traits as to how they can contribute to the colony, which can help the player decide how to go about building up a reasonable area. The game ends when a character escapes or when all characters die.
1
Factorio
Minecraft is known for a strong modding community. Two tech-heavy mods in “BuildCraft” and “IndustrialCraft” served as inspirations for the construction and management game Factorio.
The game revolves around the finding and collecting of resources to build advanced machines that can lead to factories that automatically harvest materials and even uses these materials to craft objects on their own. Players will need to be careful as creatures in the environment will turn on the player as they look to expand their machinery and research new technology.
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