Pompeii: The Legacy is easily one of my most anticipated games of 2025. It combines my love for ancient history and city builders into something new, where you take control of the once-doomed Roman town of Pompeii and give it entirely new life. While Cities Skylines 2 and Civilization 7 keep being improved, Pompeii: The Legacy is shaping up to be a true contender to the strategy throne. With a temporary playtest earlier this year, you can finally dive into Pompeii’s all-new demo, which developer Siscia Games has plans to keep improving.
20 years after Pompeii was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, you’re tasked with rebuilding the iconic town. As the head of a Roman family, you need to oversee construction across the generations, meaning you’ll build structures, manage roads, ensure there’s clean water, and cater to the lives of your people. If you’re a fan of city builders, then Pompeii: The Legacy has what you need.
With over 200 years of history at your fingertips, you’ll also need to work with the emperor to curry favor and earn rewards. You can also leverage trade routes from across the empire for goods and wealth, but heavy competition means the market can often be volatile. As this is the height of Rome, though, you’ll also have technology and philosophy research branches to progress through. These can help you unlock new buildings, bonuses the transport, and improve overall governance.
It’s not all peace and prosperity, however. Regular catastrophic events like volcanic eruptions, fires, locust swarms, and earthquakes can grip your city, and require quick thinking and swift leadership to be kept under control. Pompeii: The Legacy asks a lot of you, but that makes it one of the most promising city builders I’ve ever seen.
If you just can’t wait for launch, the new demo is finally here. It comes with more than two hours of gameplay, and after the last playtest it has improved map visuals, an updated UI, and some general polish.
That’s not all though, as Siscia Games has plans to improve the demo as well. On Friday June 6 there’ll be more quests expanding on the early game, an unlockable sandbox mode, the Mediterranean trade system, dynamic in-game hazards, wine and olive oil production chains, and new decorative options. Then, on Monday June 9 another update is coming that’ll add performance optimizations, a new citizen health system, and improved tutorials.
Siscia Games is releasing Pompeii: The Legacy in 2025, but you can try the new demo on Steam now. Just head right here.
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