As an enormous fan of the Civilization series, since the original that I actually got off a school computer in the computer lab, I can safely say that I have a great deal of familiarity with the games that are the gold standard for the world-building genre. Having even played some of the offshoots like Colonization and Alpha Centauri, I’ve also observed how difficult it can be to try to break out of the mold that Civ has firmly established to do things a bit differently. Imagine Earth is a pretty valiant attempt to break into that similar-but-different space, and does a reasonably good job of it, especially considering it actually works well with a controller, which isn’t always easy to do.

One major difference is that you won’t be playing as a world culture, with the ability to chart your path through options like war and the outright destruction of other civilizations. Instead, the focus is more on the corporate end of things, with you representing the interests of an entity in the business of finding new worlds and making them both successful and profitable. That means that your adversaries are instead other businesses who are looking out for their own interests, so here diplomacy tends to keep things more on a professional level, with you either working to conquer them through effective competition, or become allied with them in a variety of ways looking to advance both of your interests. The other change in overall focus, as you continue to try to build up worlds and then continue on to new ones, is one on the environment and the impact of what you develop, how you do it, and on researching the technologies that it will take to help prevent the natural disasters and issues that can arise when your approach with natural resources and growth becomes too purely exploitative.

By removing the concern for conquering enemies through force, though you’ll still need to create the means from defense from alien threats, the focus is more concentrated on where and how you’ll place what units and resources, as well as on research. One interesting change, that was a little harder to understand at first, is how you’re able to essentially skip the need to directly research some technologies. By licensing technology already developed by others, you’ll be able to keep focused on your priorities while also not missing out on the means to keep pace with the competition, or possibly help avert a disaster. Despite the fact that much of this is menu-driven in a variety of screens, I actually found most of it controller-friendly and intuitive, something many titles in this vein can’t claim.

While perhaps the removal of naked aggression and the somewhat heavy-handed approach to environmentalism will turn some people off, I appreciate the fact that the developers have managed to give Imagine Earth an overall direction and feel all its own. While obviously not as all-encompassing with the concerns it will make you face from all directions, it does do a decent job of finding deeper aspects of things like the technology side to occupy you in some new ways at least. I also think this is a rare case where a console version of a world-building game feels like it works well, without many caveats. While perhaps better suited to people who already know and appreciate the genre, it also still should be approachable for newcomers as well.