Man, this game is a large and heavy chunk of nostalgia, and it is a nice quality game too, if only it had a larger community.

Say, you're playing Age of Empires. You create a villager, and that's it. That guy goes to collecting food, maybe farming, or maybe mines gold, but he's your average villager guy at his best, and has no indiviuality or distinction from the others.

But Cultures takes a way different approach. You want to create a villager? You don't create him, you literally need a female villager who is married and lives in a dwelling with surplus food stored, to bear a child. And as that guy/gal is born, he grows up, and becomes a "Civilian", and then, you're free to do what your heart desires with him.
But of course, the way that Villager works is not just in a very abstracted way that you just send them to mine stone or cut wood. Say, you want him to be a potter? Now that's possible, assuming you had some clay extractor somewhere and he is skilled enough to be a potter. Or maybe you already have another potter. Then you can train him at a school, otherwise, you have to make him go through the dirty work too. Clay extracting, I mean.
As the game says, "every Viking is unique!". Every single one of them has different skills, and your Vikings will become even more proficient in their, well, "proficiences", as they work or fight.
The game also has a nice combat system if you ask me, it is not bulk "spam soldiers and go fight", but you can also work wonders with a few soldiers fully equipped with longswords, plate armours and a few amulets on them.
Building a village is really fun and the very definition of comfy, it might get a bit repetive, but that speed-up button serves that purpose quite well if you ask me.

If you like strategy games, but bored of usual way the things go, you should try Cultures. It is some different approach out here, and hell, it is very cheap here on Steam! It's almost a no-brainer grab, do give it a try.

My original review is below, but since then, given I've now become a living, breathing, functioning member of adult society, I wanted to write something more mature and intelligent.


Cultures: 8th Wonder of the World is the 4th instalment in a series of 2000s European city builders made by a German development team.
The game features an isometric camera angle (I'm not copying the wiki, I just wanted to brag that I just now learned what an isometric camera angle was) and focuses on exploration, discovery, and--you guessed it--city building. The art is cute and attractive and there is something more... Visually forgivable about the pixel graphics in use here, compared to modern, artistic titles like Stardew Valley and Terraria. From a distance--and on a CRT--these games almost look realistic, even if slightly Chibi-ish in design.

I love this game. I played it laboriously as a kid back in the mid-2000s when my parents too Descent II away from me because it "made me angry" and fell in love with it's depth and, for want of a better description, it's niceness. The look, feel, sound and gameplay of 8th Wonder just feels cared-for, thought out, meticulously loved and expertly polished off, not unlike the doughnut that I'm polishing off while I write this. While not the world's most complex city builder compared to titles today - I'd suggest calling this game a 'casual' or 'starter' builder thanks to it's slower gameplay and less intensive Sim depth, more like a mobile game than a PC sim (and, lo and behold, you can play this on Android--ask me how I know!) - I firmly believe it still holds some interesting tricks and unique elements that will pique the interest of most players. (Note: there's a difference between 'stone' and 'quarrystone' child me!)

Most of the game's elements run at either 16, 32 or 64 FPS, depending on playing at x1, x2 or x3 speed. You'll likely find x2 to be the easiest to look at and more of a speed us Fortnite Tik Tok Zoomer gamerz are used to. Apart from some outdated controls (right-click is your main action button, left handles a select selection of selection services) the game makes visual sense and has features you'd not expect in a 2000s game, like a live, reactive minimap and dynamic(ish) middle-mouse drag-to-scroll. There's a bug that's existed in this modern Windows port of the game since it arose over a decade ago where alt+tabbing out restores the game into a flickering, half-width pink mess, but if you can stomach the drug-bent rave show for a few moments, the mouse still works where it should, and you can navigate to the options on the left --> Video tab --> toggle to any other resolution and back again. This gets your display back without having to save and quit while still looking at said squashed pink drug-rave mess.

The Vikings you play with are cute and enjoyable to watch. The men perform all your work tasks, though sadly, the women of this day and age aren't very useful (they hadn't invented girlboss back then, sad-jontron-meme.mp3). Buildings are quite complex and fascinating (if a bit timeless - not sure they'd invented metal silos or curving stone staircases back then but prove me wrong) and exploring is rewarding, if a little time waste-y, depending on your game mode. It's a colourful, enjoyable world to inhabit and reveal, and I like that you get an illuminated minimap as a reward for completing a stage.

Despite being an audio and OST nut myself, I played the game locally as a kid without speakers - somehow, we got it installed on my G3 iMac (ours was purple) without the disk - which meant no CD audio, and as such, I prefer my game without any music. That said, the OST is very good and topical for it's climate and deserves a listen on YouTube while you clean the bathroom. The SFX are wonderful, if a little lacking in dynamics, but equally as endearing as the characters.

Ultimately, Cultures: 8th Wonder of the World may be a piece that isn't particularly impactful in this day and age, but it is a beautiful, fun, endearing and positive piece of entertainment. it's cheap, stand-alone, and harks back to a simpler, more innocent age, where upgrading dwellings, sending hordes of soldiers through teleporters, and dispatching Heroes to open chests adorned with magical sounds--and full of groups of 5 women, apparently?--were all we wanted out of life.

Call it reminiscent value; call it rose-tinted glasses, or just call it liking a fun old game - but I can't recommend 8th Wonder enough. Get it for your kids or to kick back with the SO on the couch on your Deck or Big Picture, and enjoy the benevolent repose that this wonderful slice of tranquillity will bring you. Pick it up for a buck or two and it'll be worth more than most other matchingly-priced games on Steam!

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Would I love this game this much if it didn't have reminiscent value to me? Probably not. Would I still, if made to play it, fall in love with the characters, be drawn into the simple yet intricate challenge of village growth and conquering objectives, and be awed at how a 2003 game looks and functions so well even today? Abso-viking-lutely.
These games are worth the dollars, but currently on sale, there has never been a better way to spend $1 in all of Steam, ever. Kick back and enjoy this beautiful world.
Notes: co-op works through a simple Hamachi (or similar) setup, reported to support steam remote play, and also now on Android! (It's a straight port, tap=click, so your mileage may vary.)

10/10 would assign a civilian as an extractor of quarrystone again.
10/10 would send Bajarni into a fight and risk loosing the whole mission.
10/10 would DRAGONS, OH MY GOD THE DRAGONS
10/10, love this game.

A major nostalgia trip. The Cultures series is one of my absolute favorites and I still hold out hope for another; a modern game. Nothing has really changed about the game except the resolutions supported, and maybe the music quality, but I'm not sure about that one. I've sought games similar to Cultures and have never found anything that I have felt quite the same about. It is a great series, pure and simple.

My only real disappointment is that FUNimation has STILL not publicly released the REAL scenario editor. The one that comes with the game is extremely limited in function and has always been that way. I really don't know the reason why some people are allowed to have it and the rest get the dumbed-down version. It's been over a decade since this game was released! Why don't we get to breathe new life into it?

Cultures will remain an important part of my gaming history; it is the series that piqued my interest in RTS/Strategy/Economic games. Managing my economy and trade were my favorite activities, and are important functions that I look for now.

This game is worth far more to me than $5, and I'm really grateful that 2 of the games landed here on Steam.

I still have my disc for the original Cultures game and seriously love the whole series. I'm so glad there's now a legitimate way to get Northland and 8th Wonder in Australia because they were never released here. I played 8th Wonder last night and got sucked into it again for 3+ hours. The games are sort of a mix between age of empires, the sims, banished and anno. There's production lines but everything is a little more personal as you have to sort of micromanage the Vikings, including telling them to get married, assigning them jobs and dwellings and telling them to have children etc. Unlike Anno there is a little bit of fighting with several types of 'soldiers' etc but I tend to play on Free Play and just focus on building big civilizations. I still like the graphics style now and the music/sounds aren't too bad either. Overall still love the games and look forward to playing more!

This game is a yes all the way. It's a combination between town building, real time strategy, RPG, micro-managing and economy managing. I've played every game of the series for over 100 hours. While 8th Wonder of the World is technically just a small upgrade from Cultures 2 and Northland, it's definitally worth the try.

And if you feel like the game could use more maps, there is a Scenario Editor included and you can find hundreds of user made maps on the internet. :D

Sadly does not even load for me on Win10. Game complains that it requires DirectX7 and won't start.
Have tried all compatibility modes with no luck and not much about the error when I search online.

Cannot recommend for people on Win10 64bit.

Still, only cost me 80p or something so there's that.

The game of my childhood...Bought it on steam to walkthrough for one more time. And i don`t regret buying it. I would say that if this game would`ve got more attention in the past it could`ve been another great game on the same level as Age of Empires is right now. Hope that ewentually it will get the remaster or something like that. Idea is great, the story is superb.

P.S Visit https://culturesnation.pl/ if you want an additional content for the game made by its players(new maps, mods).

The overall engine for Cultures 8th Wonder (aka Cultures 4) is nearly identical to Cultures 2 & 3, so it plays more like an expansion than a sequel, however it's certainly great to see this type of game available on Steam. Having been out of gaming for a while, I had missed the release of Cultures 3 and 4.
The only drawback is that the game doesn't enable the player to play any of the other cultures in the Free Play mode. Not a game-killer, but a bit of variety would have been nice.
It's a big time killer for people who enjoy micro-management (even down to population creation!) with combat being a bit kluggy and an afterthough (having to choose every bit of equipment for every soldier makes raising large armies very time consuming).
Overall, a great game that follows a good control base and, at the price it's being charged on Steam, it's practically a steal!

I grew up playing cultures2 and even learnt german doing so. When i saw Cultures on steam i didn't even hesitate for a second.
A must have game in your collection!

Bought this game in Germany in 2004 and obviously it was only in german. Spent many hours trying to understand but i was just a little kid. It was pretty exciting to see it here on steam and in english. I already have 20 hours and i'm extremely grateful of how engaging it is. What a pleasure to revive old childhood memories :)