Games like Empires of the Undergrowth
If Empires of the Undergrowth is your kind of game, the closest matches are Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic, Against the Storm and Cataclismo — picked from the ranked list below. Reviewers single out its ant species specialization matters, atmospheric and challenging. Each pick is ranked by what players of this game also play, shared genres and tags, and review-mined similarity — not a generic popularity list.
Get personalized picks →Empires of the Undergrowth is a strategy and simulation game developed by Slug Disco that tasks players with managing ant colonies underground, released in 2024 at $29.99 USD. The game features ant-species specialization, colony micromanagement, and environmental interaction as core mechanics, with a post-game remix mode that adds further variety. Players describe the experience as atmospheric, challenging, contemplative, and immersive, with reviewers highlighting how ant-species specialization matters, the huge variety of environments and critters, and how story emerges from ant behavior. The game offers massive length with hard difficulty in solo-only play, and is marked as playable on Steam Deck. According to Steam reviews, it holds a 95% positive rating from over 10,000 reviews.
About Empires of the Undergrowth: Command swarms of warriors at an unprecedented scale of warfare in this blend of RTS and base-building. Lead ant colonies against the many fearsome threats of the insect world, while building intricate nests, developing pheromone-based tactics, and evolving to meet growing dangers.
Players who liked Empires of the Undergrowth also play
Steam players who put hours into Empires of the Undergrowth also tend to own these titles — a signal called collaborative filtering. imho.run cross-references millions of library ownership patterns to surface games whose real audiences overlap, regardless of whether their genre tags match.
Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic
WHY THIS
Shares an atmospheric mood with Empires of the Undergrowth.
Top pick for Empires of the Undergrowth fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Empires of the Undergrowth.
Build a soviet republic from an impoverished country into a rich industrial superpower in a city builder with intricate production chains and a fully simulated global economy. Manage the lives of your citizens from education to work and party loyalty to criminal activity.
Against the Storm
WHY THIS
Shares an atmospheric mood with Empires of the Undergrowth.
Second-strongest match for Empires of the Undergrowth fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Empires of the Undergrowth.
A dark fantasy city builder where you must rebuild civilization in the face of apocalyptic rains. As the Queen’s Viceroy, lead humans, beavers, lizards, foxes, and harpies to reclaim the wilderness and secure a future for civilization's last survivors.
Cataclismo
WHY THIS
Shares an atmospheric mood with Empires of the Undergrowth.
Third-strongest match for Empires of the Undergrowth fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Empires of the Undergrowth.
Design and build fortresses brick by brick to stand against endless hordes of Horrors in this real-time strategy game with resource management, siege defense, and exploration. Lead from the ramparts, push back the darkness, and hold fast against the creatures of the Mist.
Dwarf Fortress
WHY THIS
Shares an atmospheric mood with Empires of the Undergrowth.
Ranked #4 for Empires of the Undergrowth fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Empires of the Undergrowth.
Build a fortress and try to help your dwarves survive against a deeply generated world. Keep your dwarves happy, grow their community and beware of digging too deeply. The deepest, most intricate simulation of a world that's ever been created.
Manor Lords
WHY THIS
Shares an atmospheric mood with Empires of the Undergrowth.
Ranked #5 for Empires of the Undergrowth fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Empires of the Undergrowth.
Manor Lords is a medieval strategy game featuring in-depth city building, large-scale tactical battles, and complex economic and social simulations. Rule your lands as a medieval lord – the seasons pass, the weather changes, and cities rise and fall.
Norland
WHY THIS
Shares an atmospheric mood with Empires of the Undergrowth.
Ranked #6 for Empires of the Undergrowth fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Empires of the Undergrowth.
Lead your noble family in this medieval colony sim, facing off against class conflict, religious struggle, and political treachery. Tend to your people’s needs, uncover the lost knowledge of a fallen empire, and engage in nefarious plots against your enemies.
Blacksmith Master
WHY THIS
Shares an atmospheric mood with Empires of the Undergrowth.
Ranked #7 for Empires of the Undergrowth fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Empires of the Undergrowth.
Manage your own medieval smithy in Blacksmith Master and supervise the entire process from mining ores and gems to designing and selling finished products. Forge everything from weapons and armor to tools and cooking utensils to fund your craft and become the Blacksmith Master.
Timberborn
WHY THIS
Ranked #8 for Empires of the Undergrowth fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Empires of the Undergrowth.
Humans are long gone. In a world struck by droughts and toxic waste, will your lumberpunk beavers do any better? A sandbox city-building game featuring ingenious animals, vertical architecture, water physics, and terraforming. Contains high amounts of wood.
Reviewers mention these as similar to Empires of the Undergrowth
Surfaced from review text: when other players write 'if you liked X, try Y', we catch the name and resolve it back to a Steam game.
Simantik
WHY THIS
Reviewers of Empires of the Undergrowth cross-mention this title as a similar play.
Survival first-person shooter in an anti-utopian world with steampunk elements. Explore the map, enter every house, complete quests, communicate with other characters, and a large arsenal of unusual weapons and abilities that you will receive during the passage will help you survive.
Impossible Creatures Steam Edition
WHY THIS
Reviewers of Empires of the Undergrowth cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Strategy with Empires of the Undergrowth.
Impossible Creatures is a 3D RTS game that pits the player against an evil villain. Using Earth’s most formidable animals as building blocks, the player must create an army of genetically-altered mutant monsters in a titanic struggle to protect an unsuspecting world.
Dungeons 3
WHY THIS
Shares an atmospheric mood with Empires of the Undergrowth.
Reviewers of Empires of the Undergrowth cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Empires of the Undergrowth.
At last, the Dungeon Lord has successfully united the forces of evil and established his dark empire. Time for the next step in his most diabolical quest: expansion!
Buggos
WHY THIS
Shares a contemplative mood with Empires of the Undergrowth.
Reviewers of Empires of the Undergrowth cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Empires of the Undergrowth.
Lead your hive to victory in 'Buggos', an RTS Auto Battler! Customize your swarm with 120+ evolutions and conquer humanity. Strategy meets bug chaos!
Grounded
WHY THIS
Shares an atmospheric mood with Empires of the Undergrowth.
Reviewers of Empires of the Undergrowth cross-mention this title as a similar play.
The world is a vast, beautiful and dangerous place – especially when you have been shrunk to the size of an ant. Can you thrive alongside the hordes of giant insects, fighting to survive the perils of the backyard?
Dungeons 4
WHY THIS
Shares a challenging mood with Empires of the Undergrowth.
Reviewers of Empires of the Undergrowth cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Empires of the Undergrowth.
The Absolute Evil and its trusted *cough* servant, the Dark Elf Thalya, return in Dungeons 4 after the events of its fabulous predecessor to bring about their triumph over the forces of good once more.
War for the Overworld
WHY THIS
Reviewers of Empires of the Undergrowth cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Empires of the Undergrowth.
War for the Overworld is an unholy union of Dungeon Management and Strategy that rewards all those villainous thoughts you’ve been having. Craft your own perilous dungeon and defend it against pesky heroes who keep exploring it and taking your stuff.
Evil Genius 2: World Domination
WHY THIS
Shares an atmospheric mood with Empires of the Undergrowth.
Reviewers of Empires of the Undergrowth cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Strategy and Simulation with Empires of the Undergrowth.
A satirical spy-fi lair builder where YOU are the criminal mastermind! Construct your base, train your minions, defend your operations from the Forces of Justice, and achieve global domination!
Cheaper alternatives
Games in the same vein priced at least 40% below Empires of the Undergrowth at current Steam store prices.
Garry's Mod
WHY THIS
Priced ~83% under Empires of the Undergrowth on Steam right now. Shares Simulation with Empires of the Undergrowth.
Garry's Mod is a physics sandbox. There aren't any predefined aims or goals. We give you the tools and leave you to play.
Stardew Valley
WHY THIS
Priced ~50% under Empires of the Undergrowth on Steam right now. Shares Simulation with Empires of the Undergrowth.
You've inherited your grandfather's old farm plot in Stardew Valley. Armed with hand-me-down tools and a few coins, you set out to begin your new life. Can you learn to live off the land and turn these overgrown fields into a thriving home?
Bloons TD 6
WHY THIS
Priced ~53% under Empires of the Undergrowth on Steam right now. Shares Strategy with Empires of the Undergrowth.
The Bloons are back and better than ever! Get ready for a massive 3D tower defense game designed to give you hours and hours of the best strategy gaming available.
People Playground
WHY THIS
Priced ~67% under Empires of the Undergrowth on Steam right now. Shares Simulation with Empires of the Undergrowth.
Shoot, stab, burn, poison, tear, vaporise, or crush ragdolls in a large open space.
Balatro
WHY THIS
Priced ~60% under Empires of the Undergrowth on Steam right now. Shares Strategy with Empires of the Undergrowth.
The poker roguelike. Balatro is a hypnotically satisfying deckbuilder where you play illegal poker hands, discover game-changing jokers, and trigger adrenaline-pumping, outrageous combos.
Don't Starve Together
WHY THIS
Priced ~50% under Empires of the Undergrowth on Steam right now. Shares Strategy with Empires of the Undergrowth.
Fight, Farm, Build and Explore Together in the standalone multiplayer expansion to the uncompromising wilderness survival game, Don't Starve.
Sid Meier's Civilization® V
WHY THIS
Priced ~75% under Empires of the Undergrowth on Steam right now. Shares Strategy with Empires of the Undergrowth.
Create, discover, and download new player-created maps, scenarios, interfaces, and more!
Kerbal Space Program
WHY THIS
Priced ~67% under Empires of the Undergrowth on Steam right now. Shares Simulation with Empires of the Undergrowth.
In Kerbal Space Program, take charge of the space program for the alien race known as the Kerbals. You have access to an array of parts to assemble fully-functional spacecraft that flies (or doesn’t) based on realistic aerodynamic and orbital physics.
Free alternatives
Free-to-play games that recommended players of this title also tend to enjoy.
Ultimate Custom Night
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it.
Welcome to the ultimate FNAF mashup, featuring 50 selectable characters and custom difficulties!
Magic Archery
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Simulation with Empires of the Undergrowth.
Train a commoner to become the greatest archer in this short incremental game! Increase your stats, gather wealth from quests, buy upgrades, and infuse your arrows with magic.
The Lab
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it.
Welcome to The Lab, a compilation of Valve’s room-scale VR experiments set in a pocket universe within Aperture Science. Fix a robot, defend a castle, adopt a mechanical dog, and more. Still not sold? It’s free!
Landfall Archives
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Strategy with Empires of the Undergrowth.
Break into the Landfall Archives to steal and play previously unreleased games, demos, interactive slide shows, and even an unreleased version of Totally Accurate Battle Simulator from 2017!
SuchArt: Creative Space
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Simulation with Empires of the Undergrowth.
Paint on any surfaces with numerous tools in Creative Space — a free sandbox version of SuchArt: Genius Artist Simulator. Create masterpieces, complete commissions, and decorate your studio in the most advanced artist sim!
The Riftbreaker: Prologue
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Strategy with Empires of the Undergrowth.
The Riftbreaker: Prologue allows you to experience the events taking place before the story campaign of the main game. Explore an entirely new world. Gather resources. Build up a base. Defend yourself from thousands of alien creatures.
Jigsaw Puzzle Dreams
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it.
Beautiful Multiplayer Jigsaw Puzzle game where you can design the room you play in!
The Last Sovereign
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Strategy with Empires of the Undergrowth.
Explore a world torn between armies of lust and purity in which everything is more complex than it seems, deciding the fate of nations through might, politics, and finance. Every decision matters in an intricate saga that tracks thousands of variables.
Narrow it down
Head-to-head comparisons
Frequently asked about Empires of the Undergrowth
- Does Empires of the Undergrowth run on Steam Deck?
- Empires of the Undergrowth is rated Playable on Steam Deck — it runs, but expect some manual adjustments (control remapping, text size, or graphics settings) for the best experience.
- How much does Empires of the Undergrowth cost?
- Empires of the Undergrowth is listed on Steam at 29.99 USD (current store price; Steam sales may reduce this temporarily).
- What games are most similar to Empires of the Undergrowth?
- Based on Steam play patterns and shared genres/tags, the games most often recommended alongside Empires of the Undergrowth are Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic, Against the Storm, Cataclismo.
- Who developed Empires of the Undergrowth?
- Empires of the Undergrowth was developed by Slug Disco and published by Hooded Horse, Slug Disco.
imho.run ranks Steam game alternatives using a mix of collaborative filtering (ALS / iALS / EASE / LightGCN), content scoring over genres, categories, Steam tags, developers, and publishers, plus AI-extracted vibes mined from review text. The page above is generated in seed mode anchored on Empires of the Undergrowth.
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