Most mobile city builders are painfully boring. They hand you a perfectly manicured plot of land and basically just ask you to collect digital rent. That isn’t an adventure. It is a chore.

If you want to actually feel the weight of building a civilization from absolute scratch, this game totally flips the script. You aren’t a mayor. You are a literal castaway who just survived a brutal shipwreck, and now you have to keep your crew alive on a completely uncharted, mysterious island.

CARVING A CITY OUT OF THE WILDERNESS

You start with absolutely nothing but a tiny, pathetic encampment.

From there, the entire map is yours to aggressively explore. You hack your way through the dense jungle, uncovering crazy hidden secrets and bumping into some genuinely interesting characters along the way. It isn’t just about farming, either. You are constantly hunting down long lost cargo from your wrecked ship, digging up fabled treasures, and occasionally dealing with a few notorious pirates who want to ruin your day. Slowly, you transition your desperate little survivor camp into a massive, thriving township. Columbus seriously wishes he had it this good.

They also just dropped some fresh updates that make the grind way more rewarding. You can clear out three entirely new types of debris to score better loot, and there are always new quests popping up to keep the momentum going.

CLIMBING THE TEAM LEADERBOARDS

Playing solo is a blast, but the real meat of the game is the Team Challenge Seasons.

You don’t have to survive alone. You can build up a heavy hitting crew and jump into massive, competitive challenges every single weekend. It gets insanely competitive. You work together, pool your resources, and fight to drag your team to the absolute top of the global rankings to earn some seriously valuable rewards.

THE FREE TO PLAY REALITY CHECK

Let’s talk about the business model really quickly.

You can download the game and start hacking through the jungle completely for free. But, like almost every other mobile game on the market, there are optional in app purchases sitting in the store if you want to skip the grind and buy special items with real cash.

A quick heads up for parents, too. The game does plug into social networking sites and has direct links to the wider internet, plus some in game advertising. Because of that, it is strictly designed for players who are at least thirteen years old.

Stop playing those boring, passive city managers. Wreck your ship, grab a machete, and start building your own empire from the dirt up.