Posted February 16, 2023
Hi, I wanted to give my initial impressions (no pun intended) and feedback on the game. While I like it, some things seem a but rough around the edges. I'm not a new player, been playing Impressions- and its alike games for over two decades, but I'm be no means a pro-player. Plus I have a high games on UI/UX, as I think its a major source of frustration for the player if not done right. I don't want to deal with an UI that makes me feel I fight the interface more than the actual game (transperency disclaimer: I work as a UI programmer in the games industry, so I think I know a bit more about those things than your average player, but I'm also sympathetic to the problems - as I probably encountered most of the at some point ;)
I played for about 2 hours, so don't expect anything on later missions. I also have not yet encoutered a battle, so no feedback yet on the new system.
I bought the game on GOG (because DRM is always bad), so everything I write refers to that version. I posted it in GOG and Steam forums, as I noticed that especially smaller devs often overlook the GOG forums.
While I like the new UI (although I'm not used to it yet), there are a couple of things missing, buggy or not ideal:
* Messages can get really annyoing, and there does not seem to be a way to set priorities. In the Original I could set message to only appear small and in Zeus, I could set messages to be displayed full/small/off. Always stopping the game for every minor blessing seems unncessary. It seems already technically in the game, like the nile predictions. "Just" let me set that for other messages types as well and I'm good ;)
* the Messages list lacks a feature to delete specific messages, I could only manage to clear it entirely, which is not ideal.
* Add a way to hide the currently goal at the top, having it kinda stare done on me at all times is a bit unsettling. Plus it takes quite a bit of space and does not disappear
* I often use the tooltip over the palace to get a quick glance of the most important information of my city. But it seems buggy, often times it does not appear at all and if, it disappears very quickly, making it almost impossible to read. Always opening the advisors for a quick glance is quite annoying.
* I like the new encyclopedia, but some of the text (in german) could use some line breaks for readability. Plus some texts in german are drawn outside of their textboxes, like some villager quotes.
Some technical comments and issues:
* the game does not properly support 21:9 resolutions. Instead, I get big black bars on the sides. But scrolling is done at the actual edge of the view port. I often times flick the mouse to the edges, expecting the cursor to be caught and stuck in the window. But it doesn't help here, I have to exactly hit the one or two pixels that trigger scrolling. That gets annyoing quickly. I got used to use WASD over the years as more and more games provide it as an option, but thats not the Pharaoh way ;)
* there doesn't seem to be a way to rotate the camera. Am I blind or is it really not included? Being able to rotate the view of the world, even in 45° angles is very helpful in isometric games. The original had is well as every follow up.
Couple of bugs, but non critical. I could "fix" them by rebuilding buildings or restarting the mission or in extreme cases, the game
* in the very first mission, I wasn't able to see roads until I build a building next to it, which left me quiet confused. Fixed by restarting the game.
* sometimes transportation doesn't work. In the very first mission, I had the issue that meat was stuck at the hunters and not transported to the granary. Later I had the same issue with barley, being stuck in the world map while breweries had none left. It got to fix it be deleting and rebuilding the breweries, at least to finish the mission. Not an ideal solution, as it also wasn't transported to storage.
* I once had the issue that scrolling was offset. Usually, its at the edges of the view port (I use a 21:9 monitor, which results in the view port being surrounded by big black bars), its was an the very left side, and then about 80% of the view port to the right. It seems like it was offset, instead of using the view port as "edges", those were moved to the left. So everytime I wanted to build something, I automatically scrolled to the right (I hope this description is understandable, its a tough problem to explain). Was able to "fix" it by resetting screen settings (set from borderless to windowed and back to borderless), but that is not an ideal solution.
I played for about 2 hours, so don't expect anything on later missions. I also have not yet encoutered a battle, so no feedback yet on the new system.
I bought the game on GOG (because DRM is always bad), so everything I write refers to that version. I posted it in GOG and Steam forums, as I noticed that especially smaller devs often overlook the GOG forums.
While I like the new UI (although I'm not used to it yet), there are a couple of things missing, buggy or not ideal:
* Messages can get really annyoing, and there does not seem to be a way to set priorities. In the Original I could set message to only appear small and in Zeus, I could set messages to be displayed full/small/off. Always stopping the game for every minor blessing seems unncessary. It seems already technically in the game, like the nile predictions. "Just" let me set that for other messages types as well and I'm good ;)
* the Messages list lacks a feature to delete specific messages, I could only manage to clear it entirely, which is not ideal.
* Add a way to hide the currently goal at the top, having it kinda stare done on me at all times is a bit unsettling. Plus it takes quite a bit of space and does not disappear
* I often use the tooltip over the palace to get a quick glance of the most important information of my city. But it seems buggy, often times it does not appear at all and if, it disappears very quickly, making it almost impossible to read. Always opening the advisors for a quick glance is quite annoying.
* I like the new encyclopedia, but some of the text (in german) could use some line breaks for readability. Plus some texts in german are drawn outside of their textboxes, like some villager quotes.
Some technical comments and issues:
* the game does not properly support 21:9 resolutions. Instead, I get big black bars on the sides. But scrolling is done at the actual edge of the view port. I often times flick the mouse to the edges, expecting the cursor to be caught and stuck in the window. But it doesn't help here, I have to exactly hit the one or two pixels that trigger scrolling. That gets annyoing quickly. I got used to use WASD over the years as more and more games provide it as an option, but thats not the Pharaoh way ;)
* there doesn't seem to be a way to rotate the camera. Am I blind or is it really not included? Being able to rotate the view of the world, even in 45° angles is very helpful in isometric games. The original had is well as every follow up.
Couple of bugs, but non critical. I could "fix" them by rebuilding buildings or restarting the mission or in extreme cases, the game
* in the very first mission, I wasn't able to see roads until I build a building next to it, which left me quiet confused. Fixed by restarting the game.
* sometimes transportation doesn't work. In the very first mission, I had the issue that meat was stuck at the hunters and not transported to the granary. Later I had the same issue with barley, being stuck in the world map while breweries had none left. It got to fix it be deleting and rebuilding the breweries, at least to finish the mission. Not an ideal solution, as it also wasn't transported to storage.
* I once had the issue that scrolling was offset. Usually, its at the edges of the view port (I use a 21:9 monitor, which results in the view port being surrounded by big black bars), its was an the very left side, and then about 80% of the view port to the right. It seems like it was offset, instead of using the view port as "edges", those were moved to the left. So everytime I wanted to build something, I automatically scrolled to the right (I hope this description is understandable, its a tough problem to explain). Was able to "fix" it by resetting screen settings (set from borderless to windowed and back to borderless), but that is not an ideal solution.
Post edited February 16, 2023 by Sok4R
