Sintopia, the management sim that smashes together Dungeon Keeper and Black & White, will stand before Steam's pearly gates for judgment in April

Sintopia city building game
(Image credit: Piraknights Games)

We've been spoiled for city-builders and institutional managements sims in recent years, but successors to the Peter Molyneux-style god game have been considerably thinner on the ground. Molyneux himself has whipped out his giant, disembodied hand for one last grab at glory in Masters of Albion, but PCG writer Joshua Wolen's wasn't convinced by it in our recent preview.

However, there is now another project aiming to rekindle the glory days of Dungeon Keeper and Black & White, and that's Sintopia—a hybrid of management sim and god game published by Team 17. It's arriving around the same time as what is purportedly Molyneux's last game, too, having just settled on a release date for the middle of next month.

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Sintopia | Release Date Trailer - YouTube Sintopia | Release Date Trailer - YouTube
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It's a fascinating blend of two of the god game's biggest touchstones, and our initial impressions of it were promising. Elie Gould checked out an early build last year, discovering plenty of opportunities to exercise their demons within the game's devilish toolset.

"There's so much room to perfect Hell's production lines with intricate layouts," theywrote back in September. "Then there's everything that can play out in the overworld, like killing kings who don't inspired their subordinates, fighting off rogue groups, and having to deal with an end-of-the-world type scenario."

It sounds like exactly the kind of experience I've been craving from this genre. There isn't much longer to wait until we find out whether Sintopia can deliver on its promises. The game is out on April 16.

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Contributor

Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.

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