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31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful game, but you may have to upgrade your machine, March 1, 2007
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
For me, there's nothing wrong with the game; it installed without a problem; the graphics are glorious and the play is fascinating.
Unfortunately, they did set the system requirements on the box lower than they should have. You need a better machine than they say you do to use all the features. I can get by with a solid playable version by turning off a couple of things, but the game is really, really good. The last game Tilted Mill did, 'Children of the Nile,' frankly had too much make-work in it that did not really apply to the projects you were completing. The game-play on this one is excellent; it's so excellent, in fact, that I'm seriously considering buying a bigger and better video card so I can use more of what's available.
I know that there is a temptation for manufacturers to put requirements on the box that will sell the maximum number of games, but I wish they would warn you that these requirements are not the optimum configuration; it would be even nicer if they would say what the optimum configuration is, so that there is no possibility of a nasty surprise.
It is a genuinely good game, though, and a work of art. If you have bought it and have been unable to play it properly, I would advise you to hang on to it; in the normal course of things, it'll probably play perfectly on your next computer, and it'll be worth the wait.
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
I really wish this was worthy of a higher rating!, January 17, 2007
Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars
As I said in my title, I really wish this game was worthy of a higher rating (I'm giving it 4 for fun and 3 overall) but because of overall unwieldiness of the controls I'm sorry that it isn't.
I'd lost track of the City Building Series since Emperor so was really surprised to find this "treasure" on the store shelf last fall. Being a lover of the series since Caesar 2 I had to give it a try.
I totally enjoy that the developers tried to take it back to the base Caesar 3 game and at the same time try to make the game more enjoyable and less frustrating. Unfortunately they didn't succeed in the frustration level in a couple of vital areas.
One major complaint is how unweildy control of scrolling and rotating the map is. Rotation can only be accomplished with the right mouse button and if you're not careful you've gone several 360-degree turns before you know what's happening.
The other biggy is trying to lay out a city that's both aesthetically pleasing and functional. I know it can be accomplished--I've seen plenty of screenshots to prove it. Unfortunately I don't want to take the time to count out the tiny tiles for exact road placement (I'm not a bean counter by nature). I want to get into the nitty-gritty of city building and have everything fit nicely and work out as I go along.
The roads themselves take four tiles, with most buildings taking nine or more tiles (with the exception of the few smaller buildings). Since the roads are multi-tiled and it's difficult to count the small tiles it's extremely hard to place things in any type of sensible layout.
Another thing that bugs me is that way too much of the city information is only available through the advisors (Zeus and Emperor both spoiled me with info available with one mouse click). As mentioned previously, very little info on trade is accessible through the trading stations. Unless I missed it somewhere if you want to know how much of a good has been shipped so far in the current year, that info can only be accessed through the Kingdom Map. I find myself spending about half my play time clicking through the Advisor menus for information. I don't mind micro-managing but this goes beyond that.
Another major sore point with me is the lack of messages when you're stockpiling goods to fulfill a request. Unless your memory is keen those requests could go unfilfilled without even realizing it. There should have been another message once you've reached quote for sending shipment.
I have to say the graphics in the game are quite striking. It's awesome to pull out from the city and look into the distance and see a somewhat faded view to give a more realistic look of perspective. Thankfully, though, the day and night feature is optional. I found it very annoying and distracting to have my city once a year go so dark I could barely see what I was trying to do.
A note to the person having problem with Prosperity rating: Prosperity isn't just how much money your city earns--your citizens have to reach a certain level of prosperity in order to reach those points. In other words, their housing has to evolve to a certain level to meet the win conditions. The actual numbers are a bit too complicated to go into here.
Overall I'm not sorry I bought the game, but I am sorry I paid full price for it instead of waiting a few months until the price came down because I don't feel it was worth it.
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Initial fun at returning to Caesar gameplay disappears quickly , October 26, 2006
Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars
I was very excited when I heard that Caesar 4 was in development. When I heard that it was realeased, I immediately picked myself up a copy. After playing for a week or so, the game is already uninstalled. I got to the third empire mission, and couldn't make myself play any more. The reason is that the initial "fun factor" wore off, and I began to find the game tediously boring.
Many of the flaws of the game have been discussed already. Yes, it is true that the interface is cumbersome and that enabling shadows in the graphics options will likely bring your system to its knees. The thing that killed the game for me was the lack of variety in the missions. After you've played about 4 missions, you've seen everything the game has to offer. The only difference in missions is the geography, Caesar's requests, and the necessary ratings to win. I've played all of the city builders.....Caesar 3, Pharoah, Cleopatra, Zeus, Poseidon, Emperor, Children of the Nile, and now Caesar 4. There is practically nothing new in Caesar 4, and it omits many things that made the previous games addictive. Sure the game is in 3D and people get what they need rather than have it delivered, but that's about it. There are no cool monuments to build (why couldn't the Coliseum be a construction project?), so every mission ends up feeling the same......look at the world map to see what you can export, set up some houses, their infrastructure, shrines, and industry for export goods, and you're off. The rest of the mission is spent tweaking the city to get the ratings needed to win the mission.
The supply "pull" system sounds good since citizens don't have to wait for goods to be delivered. They go and get what they need. However, this system has a tendency to be a pain in the neck when it comes to supply houses, granaries, and markets. Instead of crops being delivered to a granary, the cart pusher at the granary goes and collects crops from all of the fields. Warehouse and market workers do this also. What ends up happening is that granaries and markets are usually low on food because their cart pushers are running all over the place obtaining goods.
I have already mentioned the thing that really kills this game for me, namely the lack of wonders/monuments. In my opinion, that is what really made the previous city builders fun...building pyramids, the Great Wall of China, temples to Zeus, etc. After getting to do those things in the previous games, it feels like a big part of the fun is missing in Caesar 4. The game suffers for it in my opinion and rapidly becomes tedious.
If you have all of the previous city builders, give this one a shot. If you don't, pick up one of the previous games. They are almost all funner than this one in my opinion. I think that Zeus and Children of the Nile are the best of the series. If I listed the games in order of enjoyment I had out of them, it would be Zeus-Poseidon, Children of the Nile, Pharoah-Cleopatra, Emperor, Caesar 4, Caesar 3. (The lack of roadblocks in Caesar 3 puts it at the end of my list.) That's not exactly a stunning endorsement of Caesar 4.
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