Play God: 12 Best God Sim Games, Ranked

Highlights

• Many god simulator games take a wide, sweeping approach to humanity management by giving players power over whole planets or even galaxies
• Management god sims like
  War For The Overworld:
  allows players to be evil, giving them the ability to command minions, make sacrifices, and enjoy dark humor in warped situations
• Games like
  Spore
  ,
  The Sims
  , and
  From Dusk
  put a more intimate spin on the genre by allowing the player to directly control or interact with their creatures

In many faiths throughout time, it is said that a god or the gods created humanity in their own image. Well, the modern miracle of video games has come, and humans have returned the favor by birthing virtual universes ruled over by gods of every stripe, from the benevolent to the downright evil, depending on who holds the controller or moves the mouse.

For players who wish to have the power of the divines at their fingertips, god sim games are likely the closest they will get to true omnipotence. While there are plenty of games that allow the player to step into the shoes of a god-like protagonist, only a handful give the player a people to lead, a cosmos to shape, and heretics to miraculously evaporate into fine, brimstone-scented mist.

Updated on March 15, 2024, by Mark Smith: Many believe that the golden age of god simulators is now far in the past, but a recent pantheon of game studios have descended to the mortal plane to remind gamers that performing miracles for worshipers punishing nonbelievers and playing with omnipotent power can be a heavenly time. Some of the best god games have been modern titles, such as WorldBox, Deisim, and The Universim, which might be enough to restore the faith of those who feel that their favorite genre has abandoned them.

12 Rise To Ruins

An Addictive City Building Classic

• Rise To Ruins offers challenging top-down tower defense gameplay mixed with settler-management elements
• Gods managing these villagers will need to get their heads out of the clouds as situations can get complex fast

Who ever said that being a god was easy? Rise To Ruins offers a challenging, top-down village management experience in which the deity of the village (the player) must protect their people from a malevolent cosmic entity known as “The Corruption.” Not only do villagers have to fight against the elements, but also undead monsters that rise again each night.

The game has a pretty pixel presentation that looks deceptively simple. The game itself can be tricky to learn, and a few hours in, management can become intricately challenging. However, Rise To Ruins offers a high level of replayability, thanks to some ingenious emergent gameplay loops, especially for fans of the tower defense genre.

11 Crest

A More Indirect And Experimental Approach To Godhood

• Other god simulators offer players incredible power as a deity, but the influence players have in Crest is much more subtle and indirect
• Followers can misunderstand or warp divine messages, leading to prosperity or disaster, which is all part of the fun

This self-styled “indirect” god sim game is niche and may not be for everyone, but it does scratch a particular itch that some gamers might have when thinking about the possibilities afforded to them by godhood. This experimental title addresses the contradiction running at the center of the genre: god games are about bestowing ultimate power on players, but deities in most (if not all) cultures and religions indicate that while there are sometimes miracles, divine power is rarely felt indirectly but is instead intuited.

Players experience faith from the other side in Crest, as the only way to influence the world is by sending followers vague and limited commandments that are ripe for misinterpretation. As followers are not the brightest bunch, this will happen often and can sometimes lead to catastrophic misunderstandings. Seeing unintended consequences play out can be frustrating to some players, but watching commandments get warped and misunderstood is all part of the fun and accurately reflects what divine communication might be like in the real world.

10 The Sims 3

For A More Intimate Connection With The Mortals

• Players can have a more personal relationship with their creations, being privy to their hopes and fears
• The open world and high level of customization of the Sims 3 gives players the highest degree of omniscience (if not omnipotence)

Godsims can often feel a little impersonal, with the player hanging miles above the heads of their followers. The Sims series offers a more intimate relationship. Players aren’t omnipotent and can’t perform miracles (without using cheat codes, at least), but they can peek into their sims’ minds, knowing their wishes and fears with the click of a mouse. In The Sims 3, thanks to its open-world design, they can fly high above the entire world or, at least, the neighborhood.

The Sims 3 also offers the most customizability, allowing players to shade, shade, and color the world (decor, clothes, and sims themselves) exactly as they see fit. Sims live, prosper, or die according to players’ whims and will even throw their arms up and look to the sky in despair when things really get bad. While there is no “afterlife neighborhood,” it’s up to the player to decide whether to make their sims’ lives heavenly or like Hell or Earth.

9 War For The Overworld

The Perfect Spiritual Successor To A Classic Keeper Game

• This game is for all those would-be evil gods who take pleasure in performing wicked acts
• Successfully managing a dungeon and its minions requires some involved minion micromanagement

This one is strictly for evil deities. War For The Overworld is the spiritual sequel to Bullfrog’s legendary Dungeon Keeper 2 and puts the player omnipotently in charge of their own vile lair deep beneath the earth, at least in the beginning. As the Overseer, the player is tasked with commanding minions, expanding their influence throughout the underworld, defeating rivals, and raking in massive hoards of gold.

Rather than the “sit back and watch” approach that many god simulator games take to gameplay, War For The Overworld requires hands-on work, including keeping vicious minions happy with entertainment, teaching dark magic to magic users, and digging out the shape of the lair. The dark, irreverent sense of humor returns from the classic Keeper games, thanks in great part to the dulcet tones of Richard Ridings’ excellent delivery.

8 Reus

Take Control Of The Natural World

• Beautiful graphics and a great soundtrack put magic and mystery into this god sim
• Reus offers a stripped-down, relaxing, and vibrant 2D take on godhood

If being a god sounds like there will be too many complicated variables to mess with, Reus simplifies human management with its clean, minimal UI and beautiful 2D worlds. That’s not to say that the game is simple. Later stages can become increasingly complex, but the game does an excellent job of easing players in at the start.

Since humanity has in-game free will, divine intervention is a touch more indirect, as the player controls nature via elemental giants that shape humanity’s environment either with small tweaks or broad strokes. It’s up to the player to help or hurt humans, who can be rewarded or punished depending on their behavior (or the player’s whim).

7 Spore

From Single-Celled To Interstellar Star Sailors

• Players get to watch their creations grow from one-celled lifeforms to members of a star-spanning empire
• Each guided stage of development takes cues from other gaming genres, including RTS and grand strategy

From the building blocks of creation to the final frontier, Spore gives players a chance to watch their weird little lifeforms go from stem cells to the interstellar empire. Players can shape their traits and appearances in intimate detail as a player’s creature evolves and progresses through various states of survival, sentience, and then civics.

Rather than watching from the clouds, players take direct control of one faction of the life forms at each stage in a journey of “guided evolution.” While each stage is a more simplistic take on other game genres (adventure, RTS, civilization builder, grand strategy), the sheer breadth of the experience makes it more than just the sum of its parts.

6 Deisim (VR)

A Rich, Deep, And Relaxing VR Godsim Experience

• This relaxing and hands-on god sim is VR-exclusive
• Players can dip in or out or spend long stretches cultivating their creations

Those lucky enough to own a VR headset will likely be familiar with Deisim, the ultimate VR god simulator. For those who aren’t, Deisim focuses on tile-dropping, creation, and miracle weaving. The player uses mana to fuel their creations, a resource that is gathered from a growing population of faithful believers. Heretics will try to turn the population away from their god, which in turn reduces faith.

Thankfully, the player has some “Old Testament” style tools to help deal with them. Scientists (who appear in the mid-to-late game) also reduce faith but are key to working towards the modern era, which brings prosperity to the population. Deisim can be played deeply or casually, but whether a session lasts seven minutes, seven hours, or seven days, it will no doubt be a relaxing VR experience.

5 Black & White

The Genesis Of Modern God Sim Games

• This incredibly ambitious title has inspired countless god games over the years
• Sadly, this divine relic is mostly lost to time due to conflicting ownership rights

With an invisible UI, a unique spell-casting mechanic, a memorable pet management system, and unlimited power, Black & White is probably the game that most players will think of upon hearing the word “god sim.” The title says it all, as the player is able to decide what kind of deity they want to be as they rule over the people who inadvertently created them.

Of course, in typical Lionhead fashion (the studio responsible for essentially creating the genre), the game hardly takes a “holier-than-thou” approach to humor, as the many islands are filled with crude characters and weird British humor. Sadly, due to a split between distribution rights and IP ownership, Black & White and its sequel are not available to buy anywhere online and will likely become another example of a great game lost to time, at least once the last computer with a CD drive breaks.

4 Universe Sandbox

The Ultimate Cosmic Plaything

• Gravity wells, gardens of gas giants, and galactic mishaps are all playthings in this cosmic toybox
• Players can manipulate the laws of physics to wreak havoc or create beautiful harmony in the cosmos

God sims tend to keep their players’ heads in or slightly below cloud level. This is probably to keep the player focused on humanity, ostensibly the player’s main point of interest. However, to really get the “divine destruction” experience far beyond the stratosphere and out in the heavens, it may be worth checking out Universe Sandbox, which puts players in control of their very own (realistic) cosmic playground.

While there aren’t any people to biblically bully around, watching the Earth slowly getting eaten by a black hole or witnessing the inevitable collision between the Milky Way and Andromeda is something godly to behold, especially on a super widescreen monitor, or even better (for those blessed enough to own a headset) in full-sensory VR.

3 The Universim

The Deity Sim That Dares To Try And Do It All

• This game uses a stripped-down, charming miniature art style to help smooth along the process of rendering a mini cosmos
• The gameplay in The Universim takes place across multiple ages, from stone to space

When it comes to being able to do (pretty much) everything, this game ticks all the boxes. The Universim takes humanity from small warring tribes to a modern-day society (if the player lets them, that is). The Universim isn’t just about global follower manipulation, as players can answer prayers for love, wealth, or vindictiveness if they so choose.

However, the gods of these miniature worlds are also able to sculpt cities, redirect planetary resources, perform spectacular miracles, and inspire wars whenever they see fit. Since The Universim takes place across a cosmic span, it does end up feeling a little long-winded, but hey, that’s just part and parcel of the immortality package.

2 From Dust

Mold And Rearrange The World Like Clay

• From Dust offers highly immersive, unique art design and compelling, terrain-moulding gameplay
• Players have 13 diverse and puzzling maps to work through and resolve, each requiring some lateral, god-like thinking to overcome

With a breathtaking art style and a compelling, dynamic ecosystem to contend with, From Dust pits the player against the natural elements. In their effort to help the hapless tribe members survive against Mother Nature herself, players must use their gifts of earth, lava, and water sculpting to shield, provide, and empower their followers.

Shaping the world and guiding the tribe is an immersive and beautiful experience that takes away the stat min-maxing and heavy, often cumbersome UI elements found in a lot of other godsim games, letting its players bask in a truly unique micro-cosmos made by some of the most talented creators in the business.

1 WorldBox – God Simulator

An Ambitious, Wildly Fun Arena Of Creation And Destruction

• WorldBox will appeal to both passive, indirect gods and megalomaniac deities with an obsessive eye for detail
• Colorful, zany, and endlessly surprising, there is an unrivaled level of replayability to be had

Don’t be deceived by the charmingly simplistic pixel art style. WorldBox is a story generator for those who like to sit back and watch and those meticulous civilization planners and builders who like to get down into the nitty-gritty without excessive micromanagement. Lands can be sculpted with sharp precision, or the whole world can be turned into an ashen husk in a myriad of ways (or at least enough to keep each subsequent apocalypse interesting once the population gets unruly).

WorldBox doesn’t exactly shy away from the more fantastical elements, bringing in sci-fi tropes (like UFOs and nuclear weapons) alongside orcs, elves, dwarves, kaiju, and the undead of fantasy. Each civilization records and produces lore, unique characters, artifacts, and stories that stay with players long after their playthrough. Since the developer still sees so much potential left in their creation, the game receives frequent updates, meaning there’s always a reason to return to the veil of pixelated tears.