A Dynamic World-Builder that Challenges the Standard Procedure
There’s something of a comfortable rhythm to most city builders. You gather resources, place structures, optimise layouts and gradually watch a settlement of your vision evolve into something efficient and self-sustaining. It’s a formula that works because it’s fairly predictable.
Overthrown, however, has very little interest in playing by those rules. Instead, it grabs the genre by the collar, throws it into the air and quite literally lets you hurl it across the map.
Developed by Brimstone Games, Overthrown takes the familiar bones of a kingdom management sim and fuses them with physics-driven sandbox gameplay and fast-paced combat. To me at least, it feels like someone has taken the bones of Minecraft and blended them with an accessible kingdom builder. The result is something that feels fresh, chaotic and at times a little rough around the edges. But crucially for modern gaming, it’s rarely boring.
A Crown of Power
The premise is simple enough. You play as a ruler who comes into possession of a magical crown, one that grants an immense roster of powers. This isn’t just a narrative flourish that leads into recognisable menus, it actually defines the entire gameplay loop. From the moment you step into the world, you are not a distant overseer issuing commands from above. You are on the ground, sprinting through forests, leaping over terrain and physically shaping your kingdom with your own hands.
This changes everything.
Instead of slowly harvesting resources, you can rip trees from the earth, scoop up bundles of logs and carry them to where they’re needed. Rocks can be plucked from the ground and deposited into construction sites. Entire buildings can be lifted, repositioned or, if you’re feeling reckless, thrown somewhere entirely inappropriate and against real world regulations.
It’s a mechanic that immediately sets Overthrown apart. There’s a joy to interacting with a tangible world in such a direct way. Mistakes are never permanent because nothing is fixed. If your layout isn’t working, just pick it up and try again. It removes the rigidity that can often define this genre and replaces it with flexibility and experimentation.
Building Without Boundaries
At its heart, Overthrown is still about building a functioning settlement. You’ll need to establish resource chains, construct homes, assign jobs and ensure your citizens are fed and protected. That all too familiar loop is all here, just filtered through a more dynamic lens.
Villagers will arrive and begin contributing to your growing economy, taking on roles such as farming, crafting or defending the settlement that is now their new home. There’s a light management layer in ensuring that jobs are filled and resources are correctly balanced, though it never becomes overly complex or annoying. This isn’t a game about spreadsheets or min-maxing. It’s about momentum.
Construction itself is refreshingly immediate. Once you’ve gathered the required materials, buildings spring to life quickly, allowing your settlement to expand at a brisk pace. The ability to reposition structures at will means you’re never punished for poor planning or accidental placement, which lowers the barrier to experimentation. You’re encouraged to try things, fail, adjust and try again.
That said, this simplicity can also be a double-edged sword. While the accessible systems make the game easy to pick up, they can lack long-term depth. After several hours, the loop of gathering, building and expanding can begin to feel repetitive, especially once you’ve unlocked a good portion of the available structures.
Combat with a Twist
Where Overthrown really differentiates itself is in its combat. This isn’t a passive city builder where threats are abstract or handled automatically based on a spreadsheet of code and automated dice rolls. Danger comes in the form of bandits, creatures and hostile forces that actively encroach on your territory, and dealing with them is very much a hands-on affair.
Your ruler is a powerhouse on the battlefield. Combat is fast, fluid and deliberately over-the-top. You can dash through enemies, unleash spinning attacks and chain together aerial strikes in a way that feels closer to an action game than a management sim. The same physics that govern building and resource gathering apply here too, meaning you can pick up enemies, environmental objects or even entire structures and use them as weapons.
It creates a kind of controlled chaos that is immensely entertaining. One moment you’re carefully placing farmland, the next you’re hurling a watchtower at a group of raiders. The game thrives on these tonal shifts, never letting you settle into a single mode of play for too long.
However, the combat isn’t without its flaws. While it’s enjoyable in short bursts, it can feel somewhat shallow over extended play. Enemy variety is limited, and encounters can become repetitive once you’ve seen most of what the game has to offer. There’s potential here for something a lot deeper, but it hasn’t quite been fully realised…yet.
A World That Pushes Back
The game world itself plays an active role in shaping your experience. Maps are procedurally generated, offering a range of environments to build within, from open plains to more rugged, uneven terrain. This variety helps keep each playthrough feeling distinct, even if the core objectives remain the same.
Seasons introduce an additional layer of challenge. Winter, in particular, demands significant preparation. Crops become harder to maintain, resources scarcer and survival more precarious. It’s during these moments that the game leans more heavily into its management roots, forcing you to change your management style to proactive not reactive.
There’s a satisfying tension in balancing expansion with sustainability. Grow too quickly without securing your supply chains and you may find your settlement struggling when conditions worsen.
At the same time, the game never loses its sense of playfulness. Even in the harshest conditions, the ability to physically manipulate the world keeps things from becoming overly stressful. If you need resources, you can often just go out and grab them in the most literal sense.
Co-op Chaos
One of Overthrown’s standout features is its cooperative multiplayer. Supporting multiple players in a shared world, it transforms the experience from a solo sandbox into a collaborative, and often chaotic, playground.
Working together, players can divide responsibilities, coordinate building projects or tackle threats as a team. Alternatively, you can embrace the inherent absurdity and simply enjoy the unpredictability that comes from multiple superpowered rulers interacting with the same environment.
There’s a unique kind of humour that emerges naturally. Watching a carefully constructed area get accidentally dismantled because someone misjudged a throw is sure to never get old. It adds a social dimension that elevates the experience beyond what the single-player mode can offer, and what is lacking in modern gaming.
That said, multiplayer also highlights some of the game’s technical shortcomings. Performance can become inconsistent, particularly when the action intensifies. Bugs and physics quirks, while sometimes amusing, can occasionally disrupt the flow of play.
Presentation and Personality
Visually, Overthrown adopts a colourful, stylised aesthetic that complements its tone. The world is vibrant without being overwhelming, and character designs lean into a slightly exaggerated, almost whimsical style. It’s not aiming for realism, and that works in its favour.
Animations are a particular highlight. The way objects move, collide and react to your actions gives the game a strong sense of physicality. There’s a real weight to everything, whether you’re tossing a pile of logs or launching a building across your settlement.
The audio design is competent, if not especially memorable. The soundtrack provides a pleasant backdrop, leaning into the game’s lighter tone without drawing too much attention to itself. Sound effects, however, do a lot of heavy lifting, reinforcing the impact of your actions and adding to the overall sense of chaos.
Rough Around the Edges
For all its strengths, Overthrown is not without issues. Perhaps the most noticeable is its lack of polish in certain areas. The user interface can be clunky, with menus that aren’t always intuitive. Tutorials are minimal, which can leave new players feeling a bit lost in the early stages.
Performance is another concern. Frame rate dips, occasional bugs and general instability can detract from the experience, particularly during larger or more chaotic moments. While none of these issues are game-breaking, they do serve as a reminder that this is a game still finding its footing. It took a good couple of hours of restarts and crossing fingers to be able to get past the first five minutes without a crash.
Something Different
Despite its flaws, Overthrown succeeds in one crucial area: it feels different. In a genre that often leans heavily on established formulas, it dares to experiment. By giving players direct, physical control over their world, it creates a sense of immediacy that most city builders lack.
It’s not about perfect layouts or optimal efficiency. It’s about improvisation, creativity and occasionally embracing complete chaos, which are aspects rarely explored in kingdom builders. That won’t appeal to everyone, particularly those who prefer more structured, deeply strategic experiences. But for players willing to engage with its systems on their own terms, there’s a lot to enjoy here.
Ambitious, but Currently Lacking
Overthrown is an ambitious and inventive take on the city-building genre. Its blend of sandbox mechanics, action combat and accessible management systems creates a unique experience that stands out from the crowd.
However, it’s also a game that feels like it is in its final stages. Technical issues, limited content and a lack of depth in certain systems prevent it from reaching its full potential. There’s a strong foundation here, one that could evolve into something genuinely special with just a tad of polish.
As it stands, Overthrown is easy to recommend with some caveats. If you’re looking for a traditional city builder, this probably isn’t it. But if you want something more playful, more chaotic and more hands-on, it’s well worth your time.
It may not be perfectly balanced or fully polished, but it delivers something far more important: a genuinely fresh take on a well-worn genre.
Important Links
Overthrown: Build, Battle, and Betray Your Friends in this Chaotic City Builder on Game Pass – https://www.thexboxhub.com/overthrown-build-battle-and-betray-your-friends-in-this-chaotic-city-builder-on-game-pass/
The Kingdom is Complete – Overthrown Leaves Game Preview & Early Access Today – https://www.thexboxhub.com/the-kingdom-is-complete-overthrown-leaves-game-preview-early-access-today/
Download from the Xbox Store, via Game Pass if you like – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/overthrown-game-preview/9mt5ksv3rcwd
