The Best PC Simulation and World-Building Games for 2022

Simulation games replicate activities, be they mundane or fantastical, in ways that action or strategy games do not. Sims tend to fixate on involved, highly specialized undertakings, and making said activities as realistic and immersive as possible. With sims, the journey is just as important as the goal; it’s not just about catching fish, for example, but how you catch them that matters.

The games that fall under the simulation umbrella are broad and varied. Sims can be sports games, massive sci-fi fantasy games, bizarre niche games, or breathtaking flight recreations. Some simulation games are world-building games, a genre that challenges you to create and manage a town, city, nation, or planet.

The nature of these game, as you may suspect, play to a more niche crowd. These titles will never match, say, Call of Duty in terms of popularity or sales numbers, but their customer base keeps returning for that more measured, cerebral play.

What About Strategy Games on Steam Deck?

If you’re a PC gamer, you’re likely playing simulation and world-building games on a Windows-based PC. In that case, simply download and install these titles. However, if you want to play these games on Steam Deck, check out Valve’s game compatibility list. It showcases the PC games that work with SteamOS. Right now, there are many SteamOS-verified titles. Here’s what you need to know: A green checkmark indicates that game is fully verified to run well on Steam Deck, while a yellow checkmark indicates that the game is playable on Steam Deck, “but requires extra steps or manual work from the user.” Of course, you could always install Windows on your Steam Deck. Keep in mind, games that require an online connection may not be ideal for on-the-go-Steam Deck play unless you can find a Wi-Fi signal.

As a platform, the PC hosts many simulation and world-building games. These are our favorites.

Cities: Skylines

$29.99

at Steam

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Have complaints about real-world city infrastructure? Cities: Skylines tasks you with doing better. The city-planning simulator first released in 2015, and still has a massive player base. The game gives you a large plot of land to build roads, buildings, and other essential infrastructure to attract citizens and keep them happily toiling away as you collect taxes to further improve the city.

The game has received steady updates from developer Paradox Interactive. These updates added airports, trains, a day-night cycle, and an extensive natural disaster system.

Civilization: Beyond Earth

3.5

$9.99

at Humble Bundle

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Building on our inborn desire to explore—and, of course, exploit our hunger for addictive turn-based strategy games—Civilization: Beyond Earth catapults you off the planet that’s housed your kings, wonders, and wars for millennia.

The Firaxis-developed game lets you build a society on a new world by selecting a spacecraft and sponsor, determine if your culture goes high tech or exists in harmony with nature, and fend off attacks from alien creatures.

Civilization: Beyond Earth (for PC) Review

Elite: Dangerous

4.0

$8.99

at Humble Bundle

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If you want to rocket into space without enduring rigorous astronaut training sessions, play Elite: Dangerous. Frontier Developments’ crowdfunded follow-up to the classic Elite space sim series gives you a ship, a handful of equipment, and a full tank of fuel, then sets you out on your own to explore an incredible 400 billion star systems. The goal? Amass wealth and power.

Being an MMO, Elite: Dangerous lets you play solo or partner with other star travelers to form factions. Politics and economics are the lifeblood of the galaxy, and every cargo run, government crackdown, and pirate raid influences the price of goods in a given system.

Elite: Dangerous (for PC) Review

Euro Truck Simulator 2

$19.99

at Steam

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Trucking is surprisingly popular vehicle sim subgenre. Sure, racing and driving are staples, but there are many people who prefer the weight and realism of cross-country trucking. Euro Truck Simulator 2 has been around for nearly a decade, making massive graphical and mechanical improvements to its core game since its launch back in 2012. It delivers a rich, open -world trucking experience, where you are free to travel wherever you want, all while managing fuel, fines, tolls, and maintenance.

You start off as a hired grunt who takes jobs from companies with borrowed trucks and paid expenses. As you amass wealth, you can eventually buy your own truck and garage, and take higher paying jobs with your own gear.

Fishing Planet

Fishing is a pastime that lets you whittle away hours by snagging piscine treasures from the depths. Fishing Planet aims to capture that magic.

Fishing Planet is a free-to-play sim that starts you off as a low-level fisherman at a basic lake. You catch fish to increase your level and earn in-game cash, while maintaining your rod and gear. You can spend earned cash on traveling expenses and licenses for newer, higher-level lakes, and continue the cycle.

Rushing to the high-level content takes a lot of grinding, or real-money purchases to mitigate the expensive fees, but if you’re looking to kick back and catch some lunkers while slowly working towards your next big move, you can’t go wrong with Fishing Planet.

Last Call BBS

$19.99

at Steam

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This is an anthology that developer Zachtronics released as a final hurrah before closing up shop. Last Call BBS puts you in the shoes of a patron at a bar. The bartender offers his old Z5 Powerlance computer preloaded with a number of games created by strangers on the internet.

The fictional, retro PC’s aesthetics harken back to early Apple and Microsoft GUIs, and you can get lost in its many minigames. In fact, Steed Force Hobby Studio, a model kit simulator that has absolutely no right being as detailed as it is, can cause hours to melt away. It gives you three kits, and lets you split the pieces from the runners, clip the pieces together, and mask them for painting.

Minecraft

4.5

$26.95

at Amazon

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Minecraft is a blocky, beautiful sandbox that lets you explore the depths of your imagination. The core gameplay involves exploring a hostile world made from blocks that you can use to build items as you please. But as you play, you’ll quickly see that this game has so much more to offer than just architecture. 

What Minecraft presents is a Lego-like space for players to enjoy their own kind of play. Dedicated players will love the sandbox’s many possibilities, but even casuals will find pleasure facing off against an unfriendly wilderness.

Minecraft (for PC) Review

No Man’s Sky

4.0

$53.99

at Green Man Gaming

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The controversial and much-hyped No Man’s Sky is a game that offers two opposing experiences. One is a beautiful and wholly fresh journey through space to chart or conquer undiscovered worlds. The other weighs down that joy with mundane and repetitive resource gathering and fighting. 

That said, No Man’s Sky is so much more than a sterile description of its parts and features. The developers at Hello Games have tirelessly worked since the game’s 2016 launch to add new and promised features. The latest update, released in July 2022, adds exterior walkways and food fabricators.

No Man’s Sky (for PC) Review

Out of the Park 2021

$39.99

at Steam

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Unlike the other baseball games mentioned here, the Out of the Park Baseball series focuses on deep simulation and management rather than button-pressing action. The 2021 edition, like the 2016 version we reviewed, is a numbers-driven, hardcore management game that has the official Major League Baseball, Major League Baseball Players Association, and Minor League Baseball licenses.

Fresh to Out of the Park Baseball 2021 are a ballpark construction tool, 2020 MLB rules, revamped player cards, in-season tournaments, new statistics, and much more. As a result, you can enjoy the sport’s on-field and front office elements like never before.

Potionomics

$24.99

at Steam

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In Potionomics, protagonist Sylvia inherits a derelict apothecary and a mountain of debt from her late uncle. She must use her own potion-crafting know-how and her quick wits to procure ingredients, brew medicine, and negotiate a profitable rate for her wares, while also managing time and relationships to improve and grow her business. Sales haggling is handled with a rich card-battle system that pits you and customers in turn-based duel to hammer out a transaction. Potion crafting and resource acquisition require careful time management to stay on top of production (and debt). To top it off, Potionomics uses a charming combination of 2D art and brilliantly animated 3D models to bring its cartoonish fantasy debt simulator to life.

PowerWash Simulator

3.5

$19.99

at Steam

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Chores aren’t exactly the most glamorous or enthralling ventures in real life—we get that. Yet, activities, such as cleaning and organizing, cause you to enter a Zen-like state. Even better, the satisfaction and pride you feel from a job well done cannot be denied.

PowerWash Simulator embraces the joys of cleaning by letting you fire jets of cleanly goodness from a high-powered, pressurized water nozzle. Clean structures, environments, and vehicles, all while managing your soap and supplies. You can also challenge yourself with time and water challenges to see how efficiently you clean under pressure.

PowerWash Simulator (for PC) Review

The Pinball Arcade

3.5

$0.00

at Steam

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Pinball—the classic game of reflexes, luck, and spatial recognition—isn’t nearly as popular as it was 25 years ago, but its legacy of tables, flippers, and gaudy lights lives on in FarSight Studios’ The Pinball Arcade. 

The Pinball Arcade focuses on recreating classic real-world pinball machines from renowned manufacturers, such as Gottlieb and Stern (sadly Bally and Williams tables are no more). The result is a collection that looks, sounds, and feels like the pinball games of yore. Amassing all of your favorite tables could be a serious investment, however, tables are sold in separate DLC packs.

The Pinball Arcade (for PC) Review

The Sims 3

4.0

$19.99

at Steam

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With The Sims 3, the Sims series exited its adolescence and entered adulthood. No longer are the Sims just digital action figures in a big dollhouse; they have personalities, goals, and unique body types and hairstyles. 

The Sims themselves aren’t the only thing overhauled in this release, either. The game mechanics have been changed to make it easier to customize your environments and surroundings, giving users millions of ways to create the worlds of their choice.

The Sims 3 Review

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Jeffrey L. Wilson contributed to this article.