Caesar™ IV

Firstly, don't be put off by the cramped and somewhat difficult tutorial maps. The main campaign gives much more room to breath. Technically the GOG version works flawlessly including widescreen. (I run at 2560x1440). For a 10 year old game the 3D graphics have aged VERY well and are still crisp and appealing. The 2D UI elements are a little blury but don't detract much from the game. The gameplay itself is decient if you enjoy city builders heavy on resource management. It's got a few irritating quicks, particularly building placement on the very fine grid with ocasional invisible blockages. However once you get past that it's a fun game that still holds up well against more modern titles in the genera such as Anno or the more recient Settlers titles, which frankly have their own share of annoying quirks.

I was among those begging Gog to bring Caesar IV to the line-up, and I'm so pleased they listened! Anyone who had to give up Windows 7 lost the ability to play this. This is a wonderful addition to the Caesar series, which has done away with the frustration of ''walkers'' providing the city with services. Shocker -- if your people want to go to the market, theater, or colliseum, they actually leave their houses and go! Each building has a range of effect, and it's up to you to place buildings strategically for maximum access to services for the citizens. The ability to build in a way that aesthetically pleases (those walker-friendly layouts sure were ugly!) and use every inch of map space to your liking is a serious boon. I like the way that Caesar IV has made it possible to pan the camera around, such that you can zoom in and watch individual citizens as they go about their business, or zoom straight out to marvel at the little ant colony you've got going. The music and graphics are top-notch. So great to have it back!

This game is the best of it's genre that I've played. Graphically it's dated - especially compared to the beautiful, but less enjoyable Anno series. It's a challenging game though, so if you just like mindless city-building it may not be for you (or turn down the difficulty). Also, you can pause the game and build while paused if you're feeling overwhelmed. This game is old-school and, unlike the Anno series, you CAN lose a scenerio, so don't expect to win each map on your first try (without a strategy guide). Speaking of which, check out http://caesar4.heavengames.com/ for some good strategies.

First thing: I read the review about small map size and found that somewhat true for the initial tutorial maps. When you start the actual campaigns, the maps are adequately large, and indeed get bigger as you progress. All the maps have enough space to easily accommodate the population requirement for the specific map. The game is somewhat unpolished. The interface seems inappropriately proportioned, controls are problematic and not streamlines, the view angles are limited and difficult to manipulate, there is no continue savegame button, the tutorials are inadequate and you need to figure-out most things on your own. That said many of the coverage problems of Caesar 3 are fixed (for example houses no longer need to be near their employment buildings). The graphics. This is an old game so the graphics are pretty much minimal, but its still playable since there aren't any excessively blurry textures or ugly blocky models. All actor models are sprites. In terms of content this is a decent city building game set in Ancient Rome. If you like games set in Rome then this is a decent game but there isn't nearly enough material and Rome specific content in it. A lot of stuff is generic, even much of the vocabulary used is generic: weapons, armor, wine, furniture, schools, libraries, Trade Depot etc. You do however get a small number of classic Roman buildings such as Aqueducts, Colosseum, Theaters, Circuses, Forums, Bascilla, Prefectures and Baths. City-building aspect is ok. You have to manage the economy of your city through exports and taxes, you have to provide infrastructure and goods to keep your people fed, equipped with basic goods like pottery and clothes. Higher classes require more stuff like luxury goods, exotic goods and services like education and entertainment. There is a choice between peaceful maps(require higher ratings) and military maps(lower ratings but you get nagged by numerous invasions which you have to deal with).