Project Zomboid
Project Zomboid
Game
Game2024
Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic
Developer 3Division
Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic is a 2024 city-building and construction and management simulation developed and released by the Slovak game studio 3Division. From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
406 reactions from 4 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Lemmy, Mastodon) · newest Nov 5, 2026 · last updated Nov 5, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
87
LovedLoved
293 positive · 45 negative
95% range 83–90%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 293 | 45 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 20 | 3 | 35 |
| Lemmy * | 2 | 0 | 6 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 2 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
8,658 of 9,637 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
86% recommend · 235 yes, 38 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 273 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Very Positive (25,126 of 27,551 positive).
Players praise the game's deep complexity and rewarding logistics, but note a steep learning curve. [1][2][3] Many find it more a nation-building logistics sim than a traditional city builder. [4][5][6] Some reviewers criticize the poor UI, lack of tutorials, and frustrating bugs. [7][8][9]
Liked
Representative posts
- [8]
Game is super fun in general, but ruined by horrible UI, horrible building placement, and lack of QoL. I think I spent more time being frustrated than having fun, unfortunately. I really love the concept of realistic mode: that bringing resources and people to the construction site is a logistics challenge. Unfortunately realistic mode basically makes the game's problems way more glaring. Also: the mechanics of …
- [1]
Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic is a personal favorite for all time among computer games. Encompassing way beyond a city building genre, it is extremely addictive and complex as I find solutions to engineering challenges. It is a spreadsheet-driven game where data fuels the game playability and problem solving. Technical support on the game is phenomenon – you can send a copy of your game to the developers and …
- [2]
I tried this game for ~20 hours early this year after craving a city builder. I found it intimidating, overwhelming, and frankly a little too much to wrap my head around. There are so many systems interacting with each other, and despite playing all the tutorials, I couldn’t really figure out what I was doing wrong and it felt like fighting against the game itself rather than an intended challenge. I didn’t think …
- [17]
Most city builders ask you where you want a railway. Workers & Resources asks you who is mixing the concrete. Six years later you'll have a mighty gravel industry and a housing shortage, and will have imported a bulldozer to build the road to deliver the bulldozer that will build the concrete plant that will build the railway. Meanwhile you'll forget to upkeep your sewage pump in town. Turns out comrade Ivanov and …
- [3]
Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic is a city-building and economic simulation that unapologetically targets players who value depth, realism, and systemic complexity over accessibility. Set within a fictional socialist republic during the Cold War era, the game challenges the player to construct and manage an entire planned economy—from raw material extraction to citizen happiness—under a rigid, interdependent …
Summarised from 34 of the 326 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 9, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic sits at 87% positive across 338 opinionated reactions from 4 sources. Fresh or rotten — where do you land?
Critics, per Wikipedia
Workers & Resources received mostly positive reviews from both critics and players during early access; some criticized the game's lack of tutorials in the early stages.
From the “Reception” section of Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Critic context only — not part of the audience score.
Reactions
60 of 406 · most liked firstThe 'negative' review comes with a LOT of caveats. I found the game to be an intriguing concept, and as it was on sale I figured "why not?" I wasn't wrong in that it is a very interesting and well thought-out game, theoretically. I particularly enjoy the musical score and overall thematic elements that really make you feel like what I assume living in the Soviet Union to be like. My primary issue is that, for me, the game is very dense, and I found the learning curve to be…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hey folks, added Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic to my curator page, a game that is part city builder and part logistics sim. Be the big communism builder you always dreamed of! Incredibly satisfying just seeing all the trains go wheeee! store.steampowered.com/app/784150/W...
positive · AI labelView post →Are you autistic and also ethically correct? Well then there are few games more appororiate than this. Trains and Communism. It is the game we deserve. And it's a game I love. It's the train-sim, city-sim, econ-sim that satisifes the need for 'realism', as the game can be stark and saddening (since I assume you're an adult who only plays 'ironman' modes or similar, as we adults should) as the game not only will never forgive you for your failures it will punish you, and when you go to…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I love this game, but I love this game for what it could be, not what it is. I've played 200 hours, and I wish there was an option for "maybe recommend" because there's a few caveats that I would want people to know. The reality is that the developers of this game fundamentally have an idea of how the game should run, but if I am being honest, that idea doesn't always fit into making the game understandable, transparent, or manageable at larger scales. You should only play this game if you…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So, what'd everyone pick up in the Steam sale? I got: Cataclismo ahead of its 1.0 launch today Asylum, the new game from the developer of Scratches Neon White, which I've been meaning to play forever Workers & Resources DLC 'cos I wanna make a soviet Ireland How bout you?
neutral · AI labelView post →Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic is a personal favorite for all time among computer games. Encompassing way beyond a city building genre, it is extremely addictive and complex as I find solutions to engineering challenges. It is a spreadsheet-driven game where data fuels the game playability and problem solving. Technical support on the game is phenomenon – you can send a copy of your game to the developers and they will respond in a few days. The community is very responsive as well…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game is super fun in general, but ruined by horrible UI, horrible building placement, and lack of QoL. I think I spent more time being frustrated than having fun, unfortunately. I really love the concept of realistic mode: that bringing resources and people to the construction site is a logistics challenge. Unfortunately realistic mode basically makes the game's problems way more glaring. Also: the mechanics of inflation and varying prices is pretty great. Some examples: - Lines are…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There's two sides to this game: Non-Realistic Mode and Realistic Mode Non-Realistic Mode scratches the itch for those of you who frothed at the mouth when Cities Skylines: Industries rolled out. It's a really fun game of connecting industry buildings and optimizing logistics while also managing the needs of your citizens. The difficulty doesn't come from cheating the numbers or making your citizens more and more demanding of the same goods, but instead from the complexity of different systems…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I need to get back to playing Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic at some point, though I'm probably gonna have to re-do the tutorial, that game is dense
neutral · AI labelView post →For 10 schmuckos (as of writing this) it's a steal. If you like Factorio and Cities Skylines, then this game is for you. I was always afraid to play because realistic difficulty is talked the most about and it's this games unique selling point. Having to manage all of these systems (Electricity + Fuel, Water & Sewage, Garbage collections & disposal + demolition of construction and sorting of the waste produced by that; police stations, courthouses & prisons; global events affecting your…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →> Start new republic > Spend hours designing cities, industry, railways, ... > Realises massive logistical mistake > Not even fixable > Start new republic > Makes exact same mistake 10/10 game. Yeah, it's hard to make money, especially early on, but on the other hand the train system is very addictive.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Think simcity was difficult... Welcome to hell. This game is so intricate that I am 1150 hours in and am just now getting the hang of it... kinda... mostly... ok fine, still only mediocre. Wife walked in at 4:30 am and asked me why the heck I was still awake when I had to be up for work in only a few hours... Just buy the game. Seriously, buy it. It is addictive...
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Updated Review: Nvm this game is not a city builder, ITS A NATION BUILDER. I have been patiently playing through the campaign, and this game teaches you step by step on how to build infrastrure for a pre-Industrial nation, and industrialize it into an age of glorious socialist revolution. I placed every single powerline, coordinated every single logistic supply line for every single facility. It takes A LOT of patience, but it is so satisfying. I'm addicted. This isn't a video game, it's a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Mechanically, there are basically two different games in here: the standard mode and the realistic mode. And both work well for what they are. Standard mode plays at a somewhat similar complexity level to most good city builders out there. Realistic mode adds many limitations that, in practice, means you have no option but to engage with the more complex underlying systems of the game. You can't, for example, simply build stuff with money (you need a full construction industry), your…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I tried this game for ~20 hours early this year after craving a city builder. I found it intimidating, overwhelming, and frankly a little too much to wrap my head around. There are so many systems interacting with each other, and despite playing all the tutorials, I couldn’t really figure out what I was doing wrong and it felt like fighting against the game itself rather than an intended challenge. I didn’t think I’d revisit it, but here we are. I've put another 110 hours into it since then,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I got this game awhile back since I am an avid Cities Skylines enjoyer and expected Cities Skylines with a Soviet flare. This IS NOT Cities Skylines. My first 210 hrs of gameplay was literally just me going chronically broke. I built big, spent millions and set up wasteful industries. Auto building everything like CS will just make you fail over and over again. Eventually I finally started a new East German state and after all the failures I finally build my own buildings with most of my own…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Gameplay-wise, this game has a few rough edges, but it's still a near top tier logistics management game / city-builder. If you want a game that is as mechanically tight as can be, you might want to look at Factorio instead. However, the game really makes up for it with its rich historical theme, where it shines bright. It's also one of the rare games where I wasn't compelled to turn off the in-game music in favor of my own, so that's a plus. Any game that has you playing through…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →...Comrades, forgive me but while I genuinely enjoy this game a lot, it just caused me so much frustration I simply feel the need to leave a negative review... Positives: - Graphics are fantastic - Sound design feels really good - Management ideas are amazing along with the production lines automation systems and import-export mechanics. - With the steam workshop it has support for assets of all sorts, giving the player even more freedom of choice - The general idea of the game is fantastic,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It makes all other city builders and logistics and transport games look like polished children toys. The depth is impressive. Also great to play a game that is not focussed on building American-style cities (e.g. one can make a true pedestrian-city - no cars necessary) and the setting of a state-led economy makes so much sense for such a game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've played over 9 hours, and about 6 or 7 of those have been sat with it on pause / running aimlessly in the background whilst watching youtube videos of how to get things to work. I've done everything expected, connected water wells to pumps to treatment centers to switches to substations, and yet buildings within 10 meters don't have access to drinking water. But everything is 'flowing'. So why. This game really does a bad job of explaining anything, I'm a huge city builder / supply chain…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Most city builders ask you where you want a railway. Workers & Resources asks you who is mixing the concrete. Six years later you'll have a mighty gravel industry and a housing shortage, and will have imported a bulldozer to build the road to deliver the bulldozer that will build the concrete plant that will build the railway. Meanwhile you'll forget to upkeep your sewage pump in town. Turns out comrade Ivanov and his neighbors have been drinking sewage for 2 weeks, and suddenly your…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm giving this thumb down despite finding this game very interesting. It is honestly an incredibly deep game that could be one of the best management games ever but it's an incredibly frustrating game! The UI & UX is absolute garbage from hell. It's so bad I suspect it's malicious, devs want us to suffer. There are countless extremely tedious steps, unexplained mechanics, annoying tools, etc... I'll take that one example but that's one of MANY: Installing utilities really really suxs. Let's…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →it's like being a mother but you have 6840 children and they all want cars and TVs and heating and power and food and water and school and work. very punishing, but rewarding.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I wanted to like this game and the depth in management so bad, but the game feels very clunky around so many core mechanics and in general a little soulless. Building infrastructure made me ask for a refund in the end. Things just don't seem to want to line up or connect without a ton of space in between them, which makes everything feel spread out and empty. On top of that I can not stand the use of AI for things like portraits, especially when it's not clearly marked as such. This game has…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Feels like some sort of combination of Tropico, Cities: Skylines, and OpenTTD. Despite its slower pace and steep learning curve, fans of those games are likely to enjoy this game. At maximum realism, the systems are quite a bit more complex/involved than any of those titles, but on the easier settings it fits snuggly in between all of them. One last thought: a lot of threads I read indicated to skip the tutorials (which are very dry and encyclopedic) and do the campaigns instead (which act…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This has got to be one of the best and most underrated city builders out there. It's $40 regularly, down to $20 on sale sometimes. It is easily worth both prices in my opinion. I am not a super city builder aficionado but I dabble a fair bit. Three main things make this game stand out from other city builders I've played or seen: The unique premise/setting: it's not a medieval survival city builder where you have 20 residents and get attacked by raiders, it's not a futuristic utopia where…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →tl;dr: Lack of polish makes its price somewhat steep. The sort of game where you have to build a travesty of a city like Chicago or San Francisco (or Moscow even) a few times until you understand what went wrong. Factorio but with a healthy layer of slavic jank and a bigger emphasis on city planning then exclusively logistics planning. I'll rattle off a few things I feel about this game: I'm not super invested in the communism setting but it is a convenient backdrop and makes for a good game.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Begin your journey through history in Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic with the Early Start DLC—launching May 22. Build from the 30s, master coal and steam, and explore two new real-scale maps. Check out the newest trailer: https://youtu.be/NCimoy3Oahw
neutral · AI labelView post →When I first picked this game up, I played for about 20 min, and immediately put it down for about 5 years. This is because I was wrong about what this game is, at it's core. I thought it was a city builder, like a soviet City Skylines. While you do build a city, this game is much closer to Open TTD, or other transport tycoon games, except where you control every aspect of production. Factories, mines, workers, etc. are your's to place, and then you also make the transport lines that connect…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Communist Factorio but way more difficult. I don't understand how 95% of the game works but its still my favorite. Worth every penny
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic is a city-building and economic simulation that unapologetically targets players who value depth, realism, and systemic complexity over accessibility. Set within a fictional socialist republic during the Cold War era, the game challenges the player to construct and manage an entire planned economy—from raw material extraction to citizen happiness—under a rigid, interdependent framework. It's not a traditional city builder. It is an industrial and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Yeah, the new Workers & Resources steam era DLC is phenomenal! I'm building on a St. Petersburg map right now, with a 1930 start date, and it's been one of the most memorably beautiful city-state builds I've ever done in any game. #citybuilder #sovietrepublic #steam
positive · AI labelView post →A true city builder! A must play for those who like to micromanage everything and love production chains. Unfortunately the game is quite bad at explaining how things work so it requires a lot of trial and error or many hours of Youtube videos to grasp the logic behind it. If its your first time i would not recommend realistic mode with waste management for demolition turned on as that means if you screw up you can't just remove the building/roads, it has to be demolished in stages by the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This week on the podcast, with Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic emerging out of early access, I assembled an executive committee including @jonbolds.bsky.social, Sin Vega, and @donoteat.bsky.social to figure out who this game is for. (The answer is weirdos like us.)
neutral · AI labelView post →To my knowledge, Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic is the only city builder that lets you build a fully self-sustaining industrial state in anything close to a realistic way. You are not just zoning houses and waiting for numbers to go up. You are harvesting raw resources, refining them, manufacturing goods, transporting them, staffing the industries, supplying the workers, and slowly turning an empty map into a functioning planned economy. It is less a traditional city builder than a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Undeclared AI art assets, on top of a game engine that is begging for death. Originally a helicopter flight sim, the devs have stretched it's poor old engine over a citybuilder game design like skin over a drum. The result is pure jank, with no redeeming qualities. The game advertises itself as a soviet city builder but also clearly detests communism- yeah sure, building universities isn't for educating citizens, it's for "party loyalty", uhuh. The transit systems are nonfunctional, people…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've been playing for a few hours, which means I've finally figured out how to pave a dirt road without accidentally bankrupting the entire republic. It's a game where "a few hours" is basically the blink of an eye, but I'm slowly but surely getting the hang of this game. I'll be putting a few more hours of my time into this game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Was looking for a cities skylines replacement and it did not disappoint one bit
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →One of the most complex logistics and economic sims out there, with deep production chains, detailed transport systems, and a fully simulated supply chain that you actually have to think about rather than just slap roads down and watch it work. From designing efficient power and resource networks to handling realistic production and distribution, the logistics system here feels more intricate than nearly any other game in the genre. The historical Soviet-era setting was what I was most…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Best city builder, based on my own personal bias.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →...how have only 1.3% of players made a functional society with 25k population? What are all of you doing in the game instead?! That's like the first 5 minutes of Cities/Sim City! Also, who else plays Workers & Resources?
neutral · AI labelView post →Great game, wish the people could walk a bit more than 400m, but otherwise everything is incredibly detailed and interesting
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I’ve been playing Workers & Resources for years now, and somehow I never run out of things to build or optimize. For fans of logistics, construction, and economic micromanagement, this game is a gem. Free tip from a Dutch “kaaskop”: the only thing I really miss is a bicycle factory. It would fit perfectly with the raw materials in the game. Imagine exporting “Ukraine” bikes or “Aist” models, sturdy and functional! 🚲 Seriously though, a bike industry could add a whole new layer of depth:…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I built an apartment complex next to a fabric factory so that I would have more workers for it but then I forgot about setting up a fire station next to it because most of my apartment complexes were on the other side of the city. Then my building caught on fire and a kid died. Now I'm trying to set up domestic freight train infrastructure so that I can export coal. Fun game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A lot of my friends are intimidated to play Workers & Resources, & rightfully so, it's a steep learning curve. This setup is probably the best for getting to learn some of the complexities of the game without making you want to pull your hair out. I'd also recommend for beginners turning off cash
neutral · AI labelView post →The most realistic complicated and technical city builder going
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pretty much the hardest city builder ive ever played cant even think of one that comes close to it. Love how different this game is to any other city builder. 10/10 . communisim never looked so good loll
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Please please add some proper middle-20th Soviet music—not just bombastic COMRADES songs! For example, "Mr. Trololo" and things like that—the internet is full of great examples of Soviet music!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I think playing on realistic level is the only fun here. But I dislike the UI with passion. Everything is seemingly a bit random and the game is heavily leaning towards "learn from failure", because it really lacks good or even just consistent descriptions for how each thing works. Tutorial - absolutely pointless. Campaign - the actual tutorial. I'll say, I don't really care for the campaign, it's kinda boring and it doesn't teach the realistic mode (as far as I'm aware). So going custom,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is pretty janky, but has a lot of depth, especially if you use the realistic building mode. The crime system is pretty bad though, making you have to micromanage most steps of it
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is brutal. If you enjoy diving deep into a game and working out for yourself how majority of the mechanics work, this is great. If you want to watch loads of user made YouTube videos to work out how everything works, this is great. If you want to build a whole city then remember you forgot to put in an electric facility to power a water pump and watch half your civilians disappear, this is great. This is quite literally a city builder with dark souls vibe. Definitely do the training…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →GAME OF THE YEAR - #6 Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic Nearly every city builder since 1989 has been based on the same book, which sucks. Getting to build a city under a completely different economic system highlights how samey their philosophies all are.
positive · AI labelView post →Discovered that there's a youtube channel called City Planner Plays which is an American urban planner mostly playing Cities Skylines. He's now playing Workers & Resources and it's quite funny how he's bringing these unexamined, very American assumptions to the game and screwing himself as a result
neutral · AI labelView post →SimFest is here! And this year's theme is "Workers & Resources". 🛠️ I wonder which one of our game best fits the theme... Check out the event page and you might find a new simulation game to play like it's a second job. https://store.steampowered.com/sale/simfest2026
neutral · AI labelView post →It gave me everything I wanted in the city builder, transport genre. Nothing comes close, although it is far from perfect. The game has its flaws, but so far, after sinking more than 400 hours into it, I can strongly recommend it. Also the music slaps
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →You can play this as a lighter logistics-focused experience, something like OpenTTD if you had to manage cities to produce citizens for industrial jobs, or you can play this as in Realistic Mode as an ultra-granular complex management game where *everything* is accounted for, every brick, every bit of steel for a building coming either across a border or being produced domestically. The latter is something like Evil Crack for a certain kind of mind. I lose hours and hours and hours and then…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It'll consume your life, then you'll learn how train signalling works, and it'll consume even more. Absolutely one of the greatest and most challenging city builder/logistic sim/economic management games ever made.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Love this game even though it sometimes frustrates me a lot. Wouldn't recommend this game to people that are impatient or want to spend time into learning a game by trial and error. I haven't seen anything like realistic mode before, which in my opinion makes this game so special. Building a nation starting with nothing, just some dirt roads to lay down and some dirt parking spaces from which construction can be handled feels really satisfying, if... I manage to pull it off. Can't help but…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you: 1. are from a former Eastern Bloc country 2. live under a socialist-oriented government 3. live in a Third World dictatorship that is still trying to revive the good old days 4. are interested in experiencing the planning hell of a socialist nation with a highly centralized economy 5. enjoy watching and learning about the progress of modernization in the Second and Third Worlds 6. enjoy creating hell or heaven (depending on your vision of life) I can say this…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not for casual gamers. 100% recommended. The learning curve is pretty steep, but if you love city-building mechanics and are willing to spend the time to learn the mechanics, you'll never go back to other sim-city games.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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