Welcome to my review of Power to the People on PC. Power to the People is a strategy simulation game where you must keep your cities power at a constant flow whilst maintaining, rerouting, and struggling to keep on top of all of what is going on. It is developed by Hermes Interactive (Automachef, Winds of Trade) and published by Crytivo (Universim, Hotel Magnate) and is available now on Steam.
Give The Power To The People!
Will Power to the People energise me to play more? Or would I rather sit in a blackout? Continue reading to find out. You can also read my previous review where I played Little Misfortune on the Nintendo Switch.
The Game
As always with games like this, we’re offered to play a tutorial. There are 3 tutorials in total which range from basic knowledge to the more advanced things to know about the game. Of course, you do not have to play any of these and can just jump in and learn the game for yourself. That’s if that is your tactic to games like this.
At first, you think “Oh this is like Cities: Skylines.”. It is not. It may look similar but it really is not. Your sole interest in Power to the People is providing, well, power to your people. You do not build anything inside the boundaries of cities other than substations and pylons. The things you do build outside of these boundaries are energy-related buildings. I like this take on the genre. Once you get to building the power/energy setup to your first city, you think “Well this isn’t so bad.”. It gets harder, a lot harder. But that’s a good thing otherwise the player would get bored if it was a breeze, right?

So as you can see in the above screenshot, I have some pylons and substations inside the boundaries of Jakobstad. My main power plants are up to the top right of this screenshot. I love the variety of power plants too. It ranges from green energy such as solar and wind farms to the more frowned upon nuclear power plants. There is a load of different plants to choose from and you have to ensure you have the best for your scenario, otherwise further down the population chain, you will have some hefty explosions, like below. This was a result of this substation having way too much power going through it to provide Jakobstad with energy.
This is the worst thing that can happen to you in Power to the People. Why? because you simply can not get power to your people, and if you can’t do that, your happiness rating goes down. The second you drop below 50% on this rating, it’s game over. There is no coming back from it unless you have a save in place of course. I do like the challenge that the game gives as it steadily increases in difficulty during each scenario.
That’s not all that can go wrong though. Natural disasters can happen such as trees falling down. Yeah that’s not so bad is it? Imagine that tree has fallen down and taken power cables with it… Now you’re panicking. Also, random events can happen in-game such as huge events like football matches or a popular TV show is being filmed in town. All of these events can add to your energy usage which if you’re not prepared for, will result in a big badda boom like below.
Big badda boom.
Everything can go wrong in this game really fast if you’re not paying attention. As long as you have enough routes from different power plants to feed your cities with power, you should be good. Just be sure to keep an eye on the power stats that display on your screen.
Look & Sound
The graphics of this game are actually very good. At first, you think “Okay, this does look rather nice to be fair”. But then you zoom in, and wow. The attention to detail whilst still keeping the game fairly minimal looking is astounding. Hermes Interactive has done a fantastic job here.

And as you can see below even the smallest of details on the pylons are visible.

We have the same situation in the audio department. There’s a nice melody playing away whilst you’re building up your power plants, pylons, and more. The sound effects in Power to the People are simple, but in my opinion, this doesn’t deflect from the quality of the game in any way.
Length & Replayability
There is a rather lengthy campaign for players to play through with fourteen missions that span across five continents which vary in difficulty. It doesn’t stop there though as there is a sandbox mode for you to jump in and have some intense and long sessions.
Conclusions
Power to the People is a fantastic game, if you’re into city builder-style games I highly recommend you check this game out. Whilst it’s not a massively difficult game, it can be challenging at times. This is highly welcomed as it certainly helps keep you on your toes and prevents the player from getting bored. I’d also like to personally thank Crytivo for providing the key for my review. I give Power to the People the highest score we give of 10/10!
A code was kindly provided for us to review this.