Four Tribes vs Sublight Empire
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Four Tribes
Lead your people to victory as a god, flattening land for settlements and unleashing disasters on rival tribes. Guide your peasants to build and harness their power to dominate the competition.
- Lead your tribe as a god
- Flatten land for settlements
- Build settlements
- Unleash disasters on enemies
- Compete against rival tribes
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As the God of your tribe you must protect and lead your people to victory over the other three competing tribes. Flatten the land so your peasants can find space to build settlements, and with the power that they give to you rain down disasters on your enemies' heads. For the latest news on all of my games follow @SeansGames on Twitter!
Sublight Empire
Experience a unique 4X space strategy game where actions and events unfold over years due to the speed of light limitations. Explore, colonize, and conquer star systems to achieve galactic dominance.
- Relativistic speed of light mechanics
- Real-time command propagation delays
- Explore and colonize star systems
- Defend and conquer colonies
- Classic 4X gameplay
- Galactic conquest objective
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Einstein's theory of relativity states that nothing is faster than light. This also applies to this game. Information is radio signals propagating at the speed of light. These radio signals transmit your commands and the events you receive. Spaceships move at a fraction of the speed of light. So it takes years for a command or a spaceship to reach its destination. When a battle takes place, you won't know about it until years later. Apart from this, it is a classic 4X game. In the beginning you rule a single star system and you are exploring and colonizing the surrounding systems. Later on you will meet your opponents and you will have to defend and conquer colonies. To win the game, you must conquer 2/3 of all stars.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Sublight Empire at Free against Four Tribes's $1.99. Sublight Empire also leads on rating (5.0 vs 3.6). Four Tribes's advantage is ratings volume (13 vs 2) and iOS requirement (10.0 vs 15.0). On update cadence, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Sublight Empire is free to download; Four Tribes costs $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Sublight Empire holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Four Tribes has 13 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Four Tribes ships an update every 7 months, Sublight Empire every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on September 19, 2026 and September 20, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Four Tribes | Sublight Empire |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 3.6 (13 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 53.5% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 13 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 7 months | Every 6 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 10.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 15 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Sean O'Connor | Enrico Unger |
Customer experience
Four Tribes
Sublight Empire
Bugs and requests
Four Tribes
Reported bugs
32 issues- Regularly crashes
- Action takes place offscreen or is blocked
- Game runs slow when a lot is happening
- Recently started crashing
- Needs landscape mode for iPad
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- Cannot keep up with fast chip
- Lack of raising land on land
- Playing with just thumb is rubbish
- CPU is unforgiving
- Struggling to win level one on very easy
- Huge random element
- Not playable on Plus
- Cannot launch games on 6S
- Momentum scrolling is terrible
- Broken on iOS8
- Unplayable
- Cannot scroll beyond level boundaries
- Accidental volcanoes when flattening edge
- Save your money until new version
- Game crashes on title screen
- Does not open
- Refusing to load since OS4 update
- Choppy/slow performance
- Waste of time and money, does not load
- Restored phone and iPod touch because of it
- Won't even open
- Crashes at the very beginning
- Won't start up
- Level 13 crashes every time
- Game crashes on title screen
- Laggy on old devices
- Crashing issues
Requested features
32 requests- Landscape mode for iPad
- More introduction/tutorial
- Gentle pace for starting
- Build and flatten land
- Smarter AI for harder levels
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- Add sink holes or landslides
- Modern militaristic version (nukes, missiles)
- Drag to add land
- Add Demi gods
- Create own levels and share
- More levels
- Animated landscape changes
- LAN or GameCenter multiplayer
- Custom maps/user created levels
- Time speed up/slow down
- Better AI for troops and AI
- More textures (swamps, deserts)
- Reset game or more levels
- Freeplay mode
- Achievements
- Multiplayer
- Infinite mode
- Ability to control Knights
- Build water
- Raise mountains
- Add tornadoes
- Raise sea level
- Choice of enemy count
- Music/background sound
- Wizard character
- Different building types
- More attacks
Sublight Empire
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Four Tribes
No in-app purchases
Sublight Empire
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Four Tribes free?
Is Sublight Empire free?
Which has better reviews, Four Tribes or Sublight Empire?
Do Four Tribes or Sublight Empire have ads?
Which is updated more often, Four Tribes or Sublight Empire?
Other comparisons
