City builder games are a dime a dozen in the current video game market, so it takes something really special to stand out from the pack. Publisher Maximum Entertainment is hedging their bets on developer Brimstone’s ‘Overthrown’, which is billing itself as a ‘chaotic city builder’ where players take on the role of a monarch who is in possession of an ancient soul-stealing crown with magical abilities. With cutesy cartoon graphics, and plenty of potential, is ‘Overthrown’ the city builder that we’ve all been waiting for and can it do enough to shake up the genre?
‘Overthrown’ is certainly an ambitious title. While it may be billed as a city builder, it’s actually a lot more than that. The game weaves in RPG elements alongside the main aim of the game, which is to build a kingdom and run a community. When you start the game you can choose the difficulty of your game, and you can choose to play it solo or multiplayer. For this review I took the medium difficulty setting and I pressed on with the solo mode.
The first thing I noticed about the game, is that it’s not very intuitive. There’s pretty much no help at all when you’re getting to grips with how everything works. Besides a few instructions that pop-up on the screen, there’s no attempt to show you the ropes and this may well leave some games exasperated. ‘Overthrown’ expects a lot of the player from the beginning, so the least it could do is gently help them along and learn the basics. After fumbling around with the controls, I started to build mills and attract civilians, but it was incredibly unclear how to access, and start, the research element of the game that allows you to unlock new buildings and possibilities.
Once you start to build and place buildings, you can easily just pick them up and relocate them if you need to. The ability to literally throw buildings is oddly fun but I’m not entirely sure it’s necessary. Similarly, you can pick up the civilians that your town attracts and throw them too if you want (again, not really sure why?) The more civilians you attract, the more processes you can outsource to them so you’re not having to do everything yourself and this system takes a little time to master.
Your kingdom is impacted by the seasons, as would be the case in the real world, and that can make the game very challenging. If you haven’t built the right things or considered the changing seasons, you can find yourself in dangerous territory very quickly. ‘Overthrown’ really is a test of your multi-tasking skills and you have to be able to juggle a lot at the same time in order to succeed.
Away from the building element of the game, there’s a huge world map to explore and you can use your monarch to sprint across the landscape. Due to the lack of guidance throughout the game, it’s not always clear why you should set off exploring, or where you should go, but eventually it becomes part of your routine as you continue to expand your kingdom and ward off threats. There is a combat element in the mix too, although I felt this was a little added on and not particularly thought through.
‘Overthrown’ falls short of its ambition but there’s a solid city builder there. More care and attention to help players in the beginning stages would be welcome, and the ability to have a little more hand-holding throughout, for those who need it, would add to the game. Some gamers may simply get frustrated quickly and give up, and with so much to get your head around I wouldn’t necessarily blame them. ‘Overthrown’ has the potential to be a lot of fun but it needs a little more fine tuning before it gets there.
Publisher: Maximum Entertainment Developer: Brimstone Reviewed on: PS5 Also available on: Xbox Game Pass, PC via Steam, Xbox Series X|S Release date: 18th March 2026
