Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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72 of 74 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pharaoh lets you live forever... and you may need to!, March 14, 2000
Where, oh where to begin? I dug Caesar III to the point where it caused me to lose sleep and affect my health. Being a huge fan of Egyptian history, I was salivating for months while Impressions developed Pharaoh.I was not disappointed. The graphics, while not your latest 3D-Accelerated Zing-Boom flavor, are slick and very nice to look at. The gameplay is all we remember from the Citybuilding series, plus a bunch of new surprises. There are many differences in the way you build a Roman city vs. an Egyptian city, and it's refreshing to see that Pharaoh goes for accuracy in the little details. This is a detail-oriented game, after all. Floodplain farming, the lack of groundwater in the desert and monument building are some of the interesting differences between Pharaoh and Caesar III. Management of religion is improved somewhat, though I still find myself constructing "temple row" somewhere out of the way just to make sure all the gods are equally appeased. The biggest stumbling block, ironically, is also Pharaoh's greatest triumph: the accurate and detailed process it takes to build monuments. You don't just say "Oh, I wanna build a pyramid" and plunk it down. No, first you must build the infrastructure; guilds must cut and lay stone, peasants must prepare the build site and haul stone. Carpenters must build ramps, etc etc. The process of building a pyramid is excellent, and most fun to watch... when it goes as planned. Unfortunately, the damn things take FOREVER to build! You may have met all your victory requirements for a given mission four hours previous, but you're stuck waiting for that Pyramid to build. Sometimes carpenters just don't come build the ramps, and your stone haulers are left stacked up waiting to deposit their loads (that stuff gets heavy after a few months!). Game lengths aside, Pharaoh is as fun and addicting as any strategy game I've played, and the city-building style is always a refreshing change from the "Gather>Build Units>Destroy Enemy" formula that most RTS games employ. In Pharaoh, if you don't make your city work, or plan, or listen to your people, you'll be one unhappy city manager. This game rocks
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54 of 56 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best I've seen!, January 2, 2000
This game is in every way as good and if not better than Caesar III. I own both games and I have to say they are two of the most addicting games I've played. They are so much alike and Pharaoh, though not a sequel or an add-on, adds more to the alreay masterful Caesar III.There are many different perks in Pharaoh that make it very unique and fun. There are gods to worship, more industrial structures, more military units, combat on land and sea, you must make sure your citizens are happy, healthy, and fed enough, provide them with entertainment, law enforcement, and the best of them all, the construction of monuments. This game has pretty much all you could want and it is very easy to learn. The built in campaign teaches you how to play as you progress into the game. You can even interact with your citizens and see what they think of your wonderful city. But you better keep them happy because if you don't, they could revolt and turn your wonderful riches into worthless rubble! If you haven't been able to grasp the concept of city building games or have never been very good, I suggest you try this one out! I'm sure you won't be sorry! I was never any good either, and look where I ended up, I can't put in down!
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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This one's definately a keeper!, July 14, 2000
As I moved closer to age 40, I began looking for games that were comprised of more than just shoot-em-up as fast as you can and keep-your-heart-racing-until-your-chest-explodes! During the last few years I've played SimCity 2000 & 3000, Civilization II, Civilization Call to Power, Settlers III, Caesar II and Caesar III.Above all, my absolute favorites are Caesar III and Pharaoh (and soon to add Cleopatra Expansion pack). Not only does one have the option of designing a beautiful city, but to succeed must learn to make things work as well, solving problems along the way to make the city run smoothly and properly. Living conditions play a major role in how the game goes along. If they deteriorate, people are going to physically leave, moving out of the city before the player's eyes. Of course, an exodus like this can cause major problems in providing employment to much needed services. If people have no food or taxes too high they are likely to resort to crime or even rioting. The "god" effects (though optional--can be turned off) are absolutely astounding! Keep them happy and the rewards are great--anger them and suffer their wrath! Other features such as fires and collapsing buildings can be frustrating at first, but once one learns how to handle them soon become a thing of the past. That's all part of "learning" how to build the best city one can--after all, fires and falling down buildings have always been a reality. The player learns to depend on trade for revenues to keep the city functioning, and it's fun to watch the donkey caravans stopping at storage yards to buy and sell goods. If city-building isn't a player's strong point and military is, that option is included as well. Along the military path winning criteria for each mission varies greatly from the more peaceful missions. Monuments are less grand, thus less time- and resource-consuming to build. Culture and Prosperity rating requirements are lower, giving the player the time and resources needed to concentrate on keeping their city safe rather than the epitomy of Egyptian society. (After all, at times just keeping a city is more useful to Pharaoh than if it contains the highest level of entertainment attainable.) Since there is no "set" path one has to take in the game (you can inter-weave peaceful missions with military ones), and the fact a scenario editor is available from Impressions by downloading (and will be included in the new Cleopatra expansion), this game has great re-playability. There are also several websites available where one can download fan-made scenarios and get help for just about any predicament one would find themselves in. I've been playing this game since I finally got mine in January or February, and I really can't see myself giving it up any time soon. :o)
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