City / civilization building games usually start with a land that is empty (or perhaps depopulated by the collapse of what came before).
Are there games where you start with a running (but deeply flawed) society and have to move it utopiaward?
@peterdrake it’s not exactly what you are referring to I think, but in the dlc for Rome total war, barbarian invasion there is something like that. 2 of the campaigns follow the western and eastern Roman empires and you have to essentially hold the pieces of the empire together and protect against the barbian invasion.
And I haven’t played it, but apparently the campaign in Atilla total war where you play as either empire is similar
@peterdrake Not exactly what you’re looking for, but… Terra Nil is a video game set in a post-apocalyptic future, with the goal of restoring an already collapsed environment, “balancing ecology rather than economy.”
https://www.terranil.com/