Which Management Simulation games' break from the gameplay loop that is common in the genre?

[NobleGamer]

I don't see much broader discussion about games here, with a search revealing only one thread EVER posted here on asking for recommendations of mgmt sim games in general.

 

But I want to get much more specific with this post...

 

As someone who has played Mgmt Sim games since the original PC SimCity way back on a 286-12 processor, it seems that the core gameplay loop of most Sim Mgmt games is:

• Build
• Wait
• Manage
• Repeat from the top

In the past several years for various reasons, this doesn't appeal to me as much with rare exception like Frostpunk, which I would say is a mgmt sim game uniquely driven by humanly civilization-is-at-stake narrative scenarios. Two Point Hospital was another rare exception since the setting was very unique, though I did tire of the core gameplay near the last location/scenario.

 

Now when I just started playing Two Point Campus, a college management, it didn't get as high of a Steam user rating as its hospital predecessor of for various reasons, but then I saw some complaints about the gameplay loop above, and I just thought to myself "Well what else do you expect? That's been the core gameplay loop of the mgmt sim genre for literally decades."

 

So, I'd like to pose that and related questions to others here:

• What do you expect from mgmt sim games' gameplay loop other than build/wait/manage?
• What games in the genre break that mold?
• Do we have to look at sub-genres (like colony mgmt) for breaking that mold, or do many sub genres of sim mgmt have the same core gameplay loop?

Thanks for reading and any replies - I'd much rather engage fellow gamers here than on other social media sites used by gamers.

[DeerDK]

You can look at rimworld, its colony management with combat, killer robots, giant insects and occational cannibalism and hillarious accidents (like the time some bounty i got for solving a quest landed in my armory and started a fire. Bullets was going off in every direction). Modding it is plug and play but a bit of a rabbit hole.

 

It breaks the mold compared to your top list as it expands to:

* build

* make sure to fulfull basic needs

* fight off the raiders

* build a prison

* save colonist that got trampled by a gazelle they tried to tame

* build a lazaret

* buy some rifles from a passing trader

 

you get the picture

 

What I have grown to like is the RPG elements in such games where you can see the developments and follow individuals.

Ive also tried and seen a few zombie survival city/colony builders and post apocalyptic city/colony builders where you have to put more work into foraging and defending which adds some tension and action to the mix.

 

Edit: Uhh, and Manor Lords is slated to be released in not so long. Thats a medieval citybuilder with some light "total war ish" combat. People who tried the beta seem generally very positive about it.

 

Or, if you wanna step back a notch and look at country management, Victoria 3 may scratch that itch.