The Outlast Trials
The Outlast Trials
Game
Game2026
Sintopia
Developer Piraknights Games
Manage Hell. Manipulate the Overworld. Build the resurrection business of your dreams! In Sintopia, you’re tasked with managing the bureaucratic administration of Hell: “re-educate” the sinful, generate profit, play god and expand your hellish empire. All part of a day’s work at Hell Incorporated. From the Steam store page
317 reactions from 4 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Lemmy, Mastodon) · newest Oct 31, 2026 · last updated Nov 5, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
73
Fresh
196 positive · 73 negative
95% range 67–78%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 196 | 73 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 10 | 0 | 20 |
| Lemmy * | 1 | 0 | 11 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 1 | 5 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
568 of 701 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
73% recommend · 193 yes, 70 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 263 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Very Positive (893 of 1,106 positive).
Players praise the game as a nostalgic blend of classic Bullfrog and Lionhead god sims. [1][2][3] Some find the overworld tedious and the campaign missions lengthy. [4][5][6] The game is described as a challenging automation and management sim, not a pure city builder. [7][8][9]
Liked
Representative posts
- [4]
The game itself is great and scratched the itch for this style of game, however I would wait for updates to buy this game. There are currently two big flaws at the moment that don't become appearent until you hit the 4th campaign that prevent me from suggesting this game. 1. The logic gates have a tendency to brake, leaving your souls just standing there. This is a game breaking bug since this can compleatly ruin a …
- [7]
This looks like a city builder but it's more of a circuit builder. Souls trudge through hell on programmable paths. Most of the game is about dealing with bottlenecks and trying to deal with the souls as efficiently as possible. It's fun! You can cure their souls or encourage them to be evil, at which point they turn into a demon corresponding to their respective sins (which you can then hire). You can also switch …
- [8]
I like this game quite a bit, though it won't be for everyone. Contrary to the the appearance, this is mostly NOT a god game. This is also not a remake of Afterlife (somebody should do that tho). This is a game about automation and setting up pathways and circuits and filters and optimizing. Setting up a well-run Hell can be very satisfying. A lot of the negative reviews are justified (aside from some generic …
- [12]
I bought this thinking I would build a powerful, efficient, well organized hell. What I actually built was a barely functional disaster held together by panic, bad decisions, and emergency rearranging. And somehow… I love it. The game is much harder than it looks. At first it feels chill and funny, then suddenly you are managing disasters everywhere at the same time while trying to optimize buildings you placed 3 …
- [1]
It's basically Black & White + (LucasArts) Afterlife (Hell-only) + quasi-factory game + Dungeon Keeper's campaign structure, combined with its own unique twists and mechanics. And yes, it is good. If you like '90 unique Bullfrog management games, you will love this one.
Summarised from 34 of the 312 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 12, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
Sintopia sits at 73% positive across 269 opinionated reactions from 4 sources. Fresh or rotten — where do you land?
Reactions
60 of 317 · most liked firstThis looks like a city builder but it's more of a circuit builder. Souls trudge through hell on programmable paths. Most of the game is about dealing with bottlenecks and trying to deal with the souls as efficiently as possible. It's fun! You can cure their souls or encourage them to be evil, at which point they turn into a demon corresponding to their respective sins (which you can then hire). You can also switch to the mortal world where it turns into a fun little god game. You don't…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's basically Black & White + (LucasArts) Afterlife (Hell-only) + quasi-factory game + Dungeon Keeper's campaign structure, combined with its own unique twists and mechanics. And yes, it is good. If you like '90 unique Bullfrog management games, you will love this one.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game itself is great and scratched the itch for this style of game, however I would wait for updates to buy this game. There are currently two big flaws at the moment that don't become appearent until you hit the 4th campaign that prevent me from suggesting this game. 1. The logic gates have a tendency to brake, leaving your souls just standing there. This is a game breaking bug since this can compleatly ruin a run if you are not paying attention and fix them fast enough. 2. The overworld…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sintopia, a hell city-builder/management game x evil god game hybrid (with an independent overworld where you can cast spells), releases demo on Steam. cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/27804175
neutral · AI labelView post →Sintopia, a tycoon x god game hybrid, where you manage the bureaucratic administration of Hell to build a resurrection business of your dreams, released on Steam.
neutral · AI labelView post →Tycoon god game Sintopia is Black & White above, Dungeon Keeper below, and it's releasing in April. Sintopia is a god sim parked on top of a management game - cleanse the souls of mortals so that they can resurrect on Earth without sparking a demon invasion.
neutral · AI labelView post →Sintopia, the management sim that smashes together Dungeon Keeper and Black & White, will stand before Steam's pearly gates for judgment in April. Team 17's Bullfrog-like strategy game releases next month. Steam link (thanks to @[email protected]): https://store.steampowered.com/app/2213700/Sintopia/
neutral · AI labelView post →Was a lot of fun at first but as the missions progressed the overworld became more tedious than fun for me. I didn't feel like i was influencing the overworld but rather babysitting a civilization that was constantly on the verge of death and had no intention of helping its self.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The gameplay is fantastic. Big props to the gameplay team. A super cool concept and very fun. Unfrontunately a lot of optimisation needs to be done. Its super laggy once have more than 30+ buildings operating (which happens quickly), and a few crashes on top of that (VRAM out of memory cited, which ive never seen befor). Looking foward to these being fixed. Recommend buyers wait until further optimisation. Ill go positive when that happens.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not what I expected. I was looking forward to a fun "city builder" where you rule hell and a kinda God Simulator on the overworld. Turns out this is a very tedious management games where you need to be constant aware of stats and building one way roads to make sure certain souls go certain ways and micro manage every single building/humus (human)/road etc. So just be aware. If you wanted a city builder this is not for you. If you want extreme micro management this might be worth a look.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game has a great sense of style and theme, the campaign cutscene shenanigans were entertaining enough that I didn't instaskip them for once. But the game leaves me feeling a too constrained to really recommend it, especially at the full price ticker. The hell management side of the game doesn't have that many buildings or options on how you handle things. It's crazy how much of your research is spent on +10% bonuses instead of interesting ways to handle problems you might be having.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Monia Rises Once Again! This week we have a Monia Choice game of Sintopia! Lets choose gluttony! Speaking of, I'm hungey, and I want more food force fed by all of you, it's Elden Ring You lose you stuff! Then finally I show off my jiggle and new pounds on the blue site!
neutral · AI labelView post →Feels like the concept is wasted compared to what I was expecting. This isn't really an immersive simulation but more of a campy, small-ish, and somewhat poorly implemented take on the earliest Bullfrog titles for its own sake. I was hoping to have some more control, some more lore, but its more like an intense focus on micromanaging path building and where to place buildings in relation to your path. So I'd say it's kind of a puzzle game, almost reaching toward tower defense than it is a…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I wish there was a "meh" review option. Sintopia is just okay. I feel like the upkeep system is too punishing to allow administrators to spread their wings and trying new things, because if you mess up it starts a doom spiral that is hard to recover from. Sintopia is trying to be Two Point Hospital and Black & White and not doing great at either.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great game. I loved the humor, meta commentary, and attention to detail in all of the buildings (There are an insane amount of easter eggs). The automation in the underworld was really fun and combined with the black and white aspect of the overworld it makes for some interesting gameplay. If there is any negative I can think of is there are only 8 story missions, which I finished in ~35 hours. However there are plenty of challenges to keep going. Also I really wish the overworld had a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Wanted to like it, runs well, great visuals, but is too rigid to allow any creativity or fun. You simply lose unless you have the exact optimized path and logic gates. This is more of a puzzler than anything, some might like this
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →My Review So far. After completing Campaign 3. The first level there is a HUGE bottleneck if you make even a slight mistake. I had to wait forever to get enough cash to build the required buildings to pass the first level. I was out of cash and magic points so I had to wait for my Humus to die of old age to get enough cash to buy the buildings i needed. 2 and 3 went much smoother and the game play mechanics started to shine. I think of the hell section as almost a tower defense game with some…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sintopia is a refreshing blend of god game, management simulator, and dark comedy that puts you in charge of Hell's bureaucratic machine. Rather than focusing on endless destruction, the game challenges players to efficiently process souls, expand infernal infrastructure, and maintain a delicate balance between punishment, resource generation, and demonic politics. The result is a surprisingly deep strategy game wrapped in a delightfully irreverent presentation. Inspired by classics like…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The tutorials don't fully prepare you for how to actually play this game. There are things that aren't fully explained and it makes this game not fun to play. Having important things like sorters/distributors not working like expected, and long lines in Hell and tutorials lasting long enough to ensure you don't refund via the 2 hour window is a problem. They have not done any hotfixes or acknowledged anything. Would not recommend this game in this state.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →We are SO back! Finally a good god game for the modern era. This feels like something right out of Bullfrog or Lionheads playbook and I am so here for it. Absolutely loving it so far.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It sounds a lot more fun than it actually is. Very stylized, the humor is hit or miss. Imagine playing two games at once; one a less streamlined Factorio and the other a hands-off rts, neither very satisfying.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I like this game quite a bit, though it won't be for everyone. Contrary to the the appearance, this is mostly NOT a god game. This is also not a remake of Afterlife (somebody should do that tho). This is a game about automation and setting up pathways and circuits and filters and optimizing. Setting up a well-run Hell can be very satisfying. A lot of the negative reviews are justified (aside from some generic whining). This justified negativity is a result of how very, very poorly the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →People are sleeping on this game and I don't know why. Combo tycoon/god-game, both genres that people complain there's never anything good in. Spread the word, please! ---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☐ Beautiful ☑ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---{ Audio }--- ☐ Eargasm ☐ Very good ☑ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ I'm now deaf ---{ Audience }--- ☐…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you want Black and White 2 at with the base management of Evil Genius and don't mind some lengthy campaign missions for the sake of padding, then this game is for you. It's definitely for me...
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is absolutely amazing. Even after more than 100 hours, I’m still having a great time and constantly coming back for more runs. The atmosphere, mechanics, and progression make it really hard to put down. That said, there are still a few things I’d love to see added to improve the overall experience even further: the ability to save boon page presets, so we don’t have to rebuild them every time, adding many more conditions to the Soul Dispatcher, such as: checking whether a soul has…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun game, definitely a learning curve to get past. The story was enjoyable, usually I skip most stories but this was entertaining enough... and I was worried they'd slip in important info in there (I was struggling as it seems most people were early on lol...) I think it's kind of crazy the reviews are kind of bad, like it's hard at first but that's what makes it enjoyable once you figure it out lol?
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →No Microtransactions? No Live Service? No Season Pass? Just a fun game? How dare you!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I bought this thinking I would build a powerful, efficient, well organized hell. What I actually built was a barely functional disaster held together by panic, bad decisions, and emergency rearranging. And somehow… I love it. The game is much harder than it looks. At first it feels chill and funny, then suddenly you are managing disasters everywhere at the same time while trying to optimize buildings you placed 3 hours ago like they personally betrayed you. The worst part is how easy it is…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very fun, so far. But, there is one thing I'd love to see changed. The problem In the lore of this game, the point is to cleanse the hummus from their sins. Then those who achieve sainthood should be an achievement, not a problem. You can't have a soteriological system where genuine attainment becomes a liability. And, at the same time, breaking their patience cancels the whole concept of achieving sainthood. The diagnosis They weren't saints. They were just blissed out with the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →VERY QUICK TLDR: I wish there was a inbetween option but overall the price pushes it over the edge to no for me but the game is good in a lot of ways but also needs help in others. there is so much creativity with this game and I would love to see the full potecnal of it. this game dose a lot of things good, others not so much, my main complaint is balance, npcs tend to have to much helth and the cost of spells is to much for what they tend to offer and with little veriety and it being hard to…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There are two sides to this game, the underworld where you have control and the overworld where you don't. The underworld works much like a themepark game where you can "figure out" and design something that works, balancing cost, profits and sin capacity. In the overworld you can try to influence the agents by cycling through leaders (using spell mana to kill them) and perhaps you'll get one that'll build a barracks, then just not recruit any where near enough soldiers, and those that…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Feels like a game Bullfrog or Lionhead would've made many years ago if they where still around, the gameplay and humour is amazing, fun and funny. The voice acting is very good the campaign is also very fun. At times it reminds me of Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim, which is another amazing game i miss. This game is as if Majesty, Populous and Black & White got remade into one game. This is THE best god sim i've played I love this game very much and am very very happy with it and it's price.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Having played all the playtests coming into this, it is one of the few games I have been actively excited for a release date for quite a long time now. Quite a fun tycoon game with frequent indirect management making things a little more fun, with every action and modifier having benefits and negatives, a great balancing of trade-offs that makes me quite happy indeed. Campaign has been a blast, voice acting is quite wonderful. Replayability should be strong and present with mandates and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Your letting me, a demon of gluttony control an entire afterlife? Well, you know what I'm going to be doing!!! Join me in a Monia's choice game of Sintopia! Lets see how gluttony coded we can make this world! www.twitch.tv/pandaemoniavt
neutral · AI labelView post →Tycoon god game Sintopia is Black & White above, Dungeon Keeper below, and it's releasing in April. Sintopia is a god sim parked on top of a management game - cleanse the souls of mortals so that they can resurrect on Earth without sparking a demon invasion.
neutral · AI labelView post →I’m genuinely impressed with this game. I played Black & White 1 and 2 back when they released, and like many others I was disappointed with the direction Lionhead Studios took with the second game. It leaned more into RTS instead of the god sim feel. Still a good game, just not what I wanted from a sequel. Sintopia gets surprisingly close to the feel of the first game. You’re not micromanaging villagers, you’re guiding them, while managing their sins and running hell to keep things balanced.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A wonderful throwback to the old bullfrog games. The writing makes me laugh out loud, the characters are great for a game about managing hell and I adore the voice actors who give it their all. Highly recommended
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Quite enjoy so far. Was refreshing the steam page to get the game. Voice acting is very good, Art style is great and the even better part, no AI. Yipppeee
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sintopia, a hell city-builder/management game x evil god game hybrid (with an independent overworld where you can cast spells), releases demo on Steam.
neutral · AI labelView post →Many have said it: I wanted to like this game. But the powers in Overworld are weak, and the gameplay feels slower than it was meant to be while also being somewhat unintuitive. There's a good game down there, but I don't have the ability to invest the time needed to dig it out.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sintopia, a tycoon x god game hybrid, where you manage the bureaucratic administration of Hell to build a resurrection business of your dreams, released on Steam.
neutral · AI labelView post →An absolute gem for every city-/base-builder lover. Massive kudos to the entire team, especially the writers: all the punk, little jokes etc. are just awesome. Planning and laying out all the paths and routing souls is sometimes quite tricky, but this also what I've been missing in e.g. Two Point Hospital.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm going to leave an early review, since the game just came out. So far it's really good! Feels a little like an older title which name I can't remember anymore...okay has been some 20 years ago or more I think. Mixed with classical god game elements and a "Two Point" kinda humor, this really feels promissing!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sintopia is a great optimisation puzzle game with a wonderfully charming art style and a (generally) enjoyable gameplay loop. I particularly enjoyed the campaign mode which highlighted the enjoyable characters, fantastic world-building, along with great voice acting to boot. There's such an incredible level of detail to every corner of this game which make things feel alive. This game scratches the 'Type-A' itch in my brain, giving a satisfying reward when things flow and automate perfectly.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is empty and has almost no content. You make 2 lines of automation and have maybe 3 tech unlocks that do anything. To obscure this, they made your impotence in the overworld maddingly important. Enjoy listening to alarms for things you have no power to change for a few hours, so you don't notice how shallow the game is
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Good premise, but you can only build in "hell" as the topside is automated with some player influence/guidance over priorities. The underworld is just a single conveyor belt, split into different "factories" to reduce sin points for the humus. I like the humour and the effort in the games narrative, but the mechanics are something that are quite bland.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I jumped into the management god game Sintopia, only to have all my devil workers go on strike because I spent too much money on punishing sinners.
neutral · AI labelView post →The tutorial does not provide ample guidance on how to play this game properly. I regrettably have over 2 hours of playtime and unable to get a refund for this. Never progressed past mission 3 in the campaign. The demo only lets you play the first two missions. Which suspiciously takes longer than 2 hours...
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Wanted to beat the game before I decided how I felt about it. The answer is "I should have quit at the third level". So many weird and bad decisions here. Like, the writing is meant for a child audience, too basic for even young adult - except your main adviser is a horny succubus who keeps mentioning orgies, and you hire a sex worker for an octogenarian. So, it's for kids, except it's not for kids. The gameplay gets in its own way. The minute-by-minute stuff is tedious even though I…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Dungeon Keeper, Theme Hospital and Black&White all rolled into one. This is a really good game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ready for another new game? We're checking out @team17.com Sintopia 😈 ❄ twitch.tv/2dkiri
neutral · AI labelView post →Cool concept.... though I agree with many people the overworld needs some work. The upkeep buildings are borderline useless because the cost of everything just explodes and it barely knocks off enough to make them useful. One mission got screwed over because the Rambo guy decided to randomly attack the lizard people on mission 5 when the city was still developing. There needs to be more direct control of some of those mechanics. I got stuck into a loop of the lizards rotating attacks and the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sintopia, a tycoon x god game hybrid, where you manage the bureaucratic administration of Hell to build a resurrection business of your dreams, released on Steam.
neutral · AI labelView post →Its a fun blend of Factorio and Black and White
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Been waiting for this for a while, it's fun so far. Kinda like an automation/puzzle version of Roller Coaster, but with more torture.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really wanted to like this game. A great concept with decent humor that reminded me of the Dungeons or Overlord games. However... The fundamentals are bad. Moving the camera around when placing objects is bad. Trying to create path logic for your souls is bad and works just as much as it fails. Every part of the management side of the game is like someone smashed it all together after a concept meeting and nobody vetted how any of the systems work and interact. You have no real power…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It took a bit to figure out the gameplay. You only have influence in the overworld and can only build in the underworld. I was hoping for a bit more of a Black and White style building game with magic, but overall I'd give it a thumbs up. It has some unique mechanics and interesting gameplay, though I think with some tweaks it could be a much more awesome game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is a fun concept that's sadly weighed down by a poorly explained gameplay loop, weird difficulty curve, and unlocks for the sandbox gameplay mode. Prepare to restart a dozen times because suddenly your setup doesn't work anymore due to increasing sin levels, and then you lose because something in the overworld happens that you didn't even know that you can influence because the game's tutorials are practically worthless. Sadly, even if you decide to play the sandbox where you ought…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great game, main issue I am having currently is the doom cycle of not being able to pay people. Even with micro to run them back, going on strike means you *cant* pay them afterwards since you are generating no money. Kinda a massive doomcycle. 0 Techincal Issues though.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sintopia slowly won me over. I was a huge Lionhead fan back in the day, they're one of the developers that got me interested in GameDev, as was Team17. Sintopia isn't Black & White, but it also isn't really trying to be. The God Game aspect of Sintopia is nice, nuanced, something you need to work up to by building a strong underworld economy. I see some reviews calling out that the game does neither mechanic (overland or underworld) well, and I don't think they understood the synergy between…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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