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REVIEWS

Caesar. This name alone is a synonym for leadership, courage and greatness. The men who bore this title reigned over what is arguably one of the greatest empires the world has ever known. Rome brought unprecedented peace and well being to its citizenry, but not without cost! "Barbarians" were enslaved, peoples conquered, taxes paid, government corruption occurred, and eventually the population had to be satiated with increasingly brutal entertainment (sound familiar?). Inevitably the Empire decayed and fell, but its golden age was truly awe-inspiring. Sierra has attempted to bring us a glimpse of the excitement of this era in two previous releases: Caesar and Caesar 2. Frankly, I wasn’t impressed with either release; however both games had enough sales to warrant a third installment – Caesar 3. Is the third time the charm for this series? The answer is a resounding YES!

In its third installment Sierra has put together more than just a city building game. They have infused the game with atmosphere, improved the economic system of its predecessors and put together an adequate, if not simplistic, combat system and everything occurs on the same map. In addition, Sierra doesn’t force the player down any particular road. If all you want is a city construction kit (my favorite part), you can simply build cities according to your own goals and desires. I particularly like trying to get a city to function as efficiently as possible. If you want to play a campaign with set goals – so be it! In campaign mode the Emperor gives you your goals and assignments and it’s up to you to carry them out as efficiently as possible. Yet, even here Sierra doesn’t directly force you into a mode you may not want. You can choose between peaceful and dangerous assignments, so you can, for the most part, avoid any military conflict if you so desire. (The same choice between peaceful and dangerous sites is found in the city construction kit.) I personally don’t care for the combat system in Caesar 3 after playing the Great Battles of Caesar, so I appreciated the choice of opting for a peaceful route and concentrating on economic development.

Caesar 3 is a true thinking person’s game. Anyone rushing headlong into this one without reading the manual and trying various strategies using the city construction kit, is in for a rude awakening. When I jumped right into the game and starting building a city, my structures started collapsing. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. No riots were occurring. The people seemed happy. The city was prosperous. What was going on? After reading the manual I found out that I needed to build several Engineer’s posts. Without them, city structures will not be maintained. I also had a hard time getting a fishing industry going. It was only after reading the manual that I discovered that I needed a Wharf and a Shipyard. Docks are for trade only, not for fishing. There are a large number of these types of relationships and while everything is in the manual, I would have appreciated a chart showing all the relationships.

In addition to the relationships of various industries to producing desired products, the city layout is particularly important. Put your houses too close to unpopular sites (e.g. farms, industry, markets) and your housing will never develop to its full potential. However, put the house too far away from these sites and you will still handicap your housing developments. Your people are not easy to please. They want to be close to work and markets without being so close that they have to live with the undesirable by products of these places. For example, everyone wants to be close to a market but no one wants to live next to the noise that a market produces. Once these relationships are understood, city planning becomes a little easier, but as your city grows don’t be afraid of doing a lot of urban renewal! Other items that go into city planning are: a water system, health care, education, entertainment, religion, government, a tax collection system, trade and a military infrastructure. All of these systems, with the possible exception of the military in peaceful scenarios, must be in place for your city to prosper. Fortunately Caesar 3 provides a great deal of help. There are several overlays that you can place on top of your city that will show you such things as gaps in your water system or tax collection. If you click on a building, it will usually give you information that will help your planning. You can micromanage warehouse and storehouses by building ones that accept only certain types of goods. Finally, you have a host of advisors that are more than willing to tell you what the city needs and wants.

One of the things I didn’t appreciate in the game was the handling of religion. There are five gods (Ceres, Neptune, Mercury, Mars, Venus) that you MUST keep happy. Each has their own realm and failure to keep them happy can result in anything from sickness to storms at sea. Build a temple to one and you must build one for all the others. Hold a festival for one and you better plan on holding 4 more or the "spurned" gods will take revenge. I would have preferred to have religion act more to promote happiness and well being for the citizenry, much like education or entertainment, rather than having these gods be "real’. After all, they were only gods of man’s own making, having no real form or power. Even so, it does add some interesting game play and for the most part act like random "weather" effects would have. At least you have some control over these elements.

As you might gather from the review thus far, the economic and city modeling in Caesar 3 are its strong points. The battles, while greatly improved from earlier releases, are simplistically modeled. Not that they aren’t fun or add to the flavor and spice of the game, it’s just not a strong point. If you are looking for a game with a lot of military flavor the Age of Rome expansion pack for Age of Empires will meet your needs better than Caesar 3. If you want a purely military treatment of the period, with no city building at all, you can’t do better than the Great Battles of Caesar. However, for a strong city building game with an excellent economic base, Caesar 3 has no peers.

Notes: Be sure to checkout the Sierra Caesar 3 site for an assignment editor and other goodies.

Reviewed by Alan C. Fusco

Summary
Pros: Excellent city building game with a strong economic model. A campaign mode gives the game a role playing aspect and set goals that are usually lacking in games of this type. The graphics and flavor of the period are excellent. Cons: Simplistic military model. The game is difficult to jump right into and requires a considerable about of thought and planning. (Note: I consider this a PRO even though some may consider it a CON). No multiplayer support. Path finding AI could be improved.
Interface : 9	Gameplay : 8	Graphics : 9
Audio : 8	Multiplayer : NA	Overall : 9.1

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