Eco

What it is

Eco is a 2018 survival, sandbox, and simulation game from Strange Loop Games. Players build a civilization while an approaching meteor threatens the world. The game models an ecosystem with plants, animals, resources, pollution, and interconnected habitats, so actions such as logging, mining, hunting, and farming can affect other parts of the environment. Players construct buildings and towns, grow crops, create infrastructure and transport, craft clothing, operate power plants, and research technologies. Specializing in a craft lets players trade goods with others. As society develops, players analyze simulation data and use it when proposing laws that can limit harmful activities without stopping technological progress. Eco supports single-player, multiplayer, co-op, online co-op, and LAN co-op. It is listed for Linux and Windows, with Steam features including achievements, in-app purchases, Steam Cloud, and Family Sharing.

What players like, and what they don't

Who it suits

Eco suits players who enjoy cooperative civilization building, survival systems, and simulations where resource use changes the surrounding ecosystem. It also fits groups that want to trade, make laws, and work toward a shared objective.

Eco centers its survival challenge on balancing civilization with an ecosystem that responds to player decisions. Its combination of cooperative building, trade, research, and environmental laws gives groups a shared management problem.