80%Excellent matchOld World
84%4k84% positive reviews, Very Positive across 4k reviews·Grand Strategy · 4X
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A retro 4X game inspired by classic versions of the genre. Lead your people from a small nomadic tribe into a globe-spanning space-fairing civilization. Can your empire survive the Crucible Of Time?
Crucible Of Time
SteamRe-experience a classic 4X civilization building strategy game with the best modern features of the genre. Discover the optimal army composition for conquering the world with your military might. Or use cunning Diplomacy to manipulate your opponents using soft power. Advance your civilization through the ages, past the modern age and into different possible future scenarios.
Units fight together in groups; so that army composition matters. Units with different roles can cover each other to boost their effectiveness. Archers are more effective with a front-line. Front line units have high HP but lack DPS. Siege weapons are glass cannons.
Construct a vast trade network to supply your citizens' every want and need. Combine natural raw resources into more powerful manufactured goods. Use these goods to equip your army with the latest technology and disrupt enemy supply chains during wartime to cripple their ability to fight.
Loot ancient ruins, harass local villages, or conquer local warlords to uncover powerful artifacts. Artifacts can be placed inside your cities to boost their output or placed inside your throne room to boost your whole empire. Combine lower tier artifacts of the same type for higher tier ones and trade with other civilizations to maximize your empire's power and prestige.
In other 4X games the AI has plenty of ways to express their distaste for the player. The player however has no way to express their distaste back! Our diplomacy system uses a unique Integrity system that dissuades both players and AI from using sneak attacks, while still allowing for them to happen if the player or AI is willing to take the hit to their Integrity.
The actions that you and other civilizations take throughout the game shape your future and push you to different end game scenarios. Build a doomsday device and decide if you want to tell the world about it. Pursue a science victory by reverse engineering alien technology. Attempt to achieve world peace with your diplomatic prowess or unite the world under your ideology.
Steam data © 2026 Valve Corporation. Trademarks are property of their respective owners.
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The best games like Crucible Of Time are Ozymandias: Bronze Age Empire Sim, Old World, Galactic Civilizations IV, Hexarchy, and Sid Meier's Civilization VII.
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