Caesar

• Platform: IBM PC Compatible
• Release Date: 1993
• Genre: Simulation
• Style: Empire-Building
• Similar Games: Sid Meier's Civilization (Macintosh), Sid Meier's Colonization [DOS] (IBM PC Compatible), SimCity (Super Nintendo Entertainment System), Sid Meier's Civilization (Super Nintendo Entertainment System), SimCity (Commodore 64/128), SimCity Classic (Hybrid Windows/Mac), SimCity (Atari ST), SimCity (Commodore Amiga)

Game Description

As governor of a Roman province, your goal in Caesar is to create a flourishing city rich in culture, prosperity, military defense, and happy citizens. Many aspects of Roman life are depicted in Caesar. You must purchase land, establish military fortifications, build roads at both provincial and city levels, as well as construct buildings for commerce, entertainment, and societal amenities.

You must also employ soldiers for defense and citizens for labor. Seven advisors lend you their expertise: financial analyst, military, treasurer, political, industrial, administrative, and a Tribune of the Plebians. If you succeed, your wealth and recognition increases, and you are given more provinces to manage with the ultimate reward of becoming emperor.

Caesar uses its own monetary system (denarii), a complex economic model, an ongoing measuring tool that tracks progress in four major areas (peace, culture, size and prosperity), and a real-time environment to challenge your management skills. The game tests your ability to design, implement and maintain a smooth running city at several levels while balancing many diverse aspects of ancient Rome.

Roots & Influences

With the success of one of the premier city-builders SimCity in the strategy genre as a benchmark, David Lester, designer of Caesar, improved the model considerably by adding a defense requirement and the added strategic step of requiring expansion and control of more than one city as a prerequisite for winning the game, thus eliminating the seemingly open-ended aspect of other games. By publishing a stand-alone separate game Cohort II which interlocks with Caesar, Impressions Software provided a further step in game evolution by creating a means by which battle-minded players of Caesar could expand the military aspects of the original game.

Review: Overall

Following on the heels of Maxis's popular city-builder SimCity, Impressions Software's Caesar takes the idea quite a bit further with enhanced and more diverse game play and several welcome options. As history has shown, it's difficult to build an empire without some sort of "enemy at the gate" threat lurking. This empire builder addresses that problem by providing more than a dozen barbarian forces eager to trash your Roman city. While combat is not the most important aspect of Caesar, it acts as a simple diversion or insurance against monotony. Impressions Software developed a separate game, Cohort II, as a companion title to Caesar which allows an avenue for the battle-inclined player to conduct full scale warfare as an adjunct to the game.

The heart of designer David Lester's Caesar lies in the empire-building aspect. As a rising star in the Roman political structure, you serve as governor of one of many provinces. The Emperor himself judges your progress and performance in four major areas including peace (keeping citizens happy and barbarians away from the gates), culture (public venues such as hospitals, schools and temples), prosperity, and empire size. Many factors go into creating and maintaining a viable city and you need to pay attention to a full complement of available advisors (political, military, financial, treasurer, administrative, industrial and a tribune of your cheap labor force, the Plebians) . Roads, decent housing, easy access to water sources such as wells and fountains, reservoirs, public buildings (e.g., coliseums, bathhouses, plazas, theaters, hippodromes) , sufficient defense (military, barracks, walls, towers), and markets are just a handful of the plethora of basic city building blocks which must be learned and managed successfully. Unlike SimCity, Caesar invokes a much deeper sense of accomplishment since to be successful, you don't stop with just one city. As your ratings grow and your rewards (wealth and recognition) increase commensurate with your success, you are given additional provinces to manage, starting from scratch in each. The ultimate reward will be ascension to the title of Emperor. Failure to consistently maintain order by providing for the well being of the populace in all areas will result in riots, disgrace, censure or even the humiliation of exile.

Caesar employs a superb point-and-click interface for building all facets of your evolving city from roads to buildings and action is fast paced as the game is played in real time. Three main map views are available, each progressively more detailed, at Empire, Province and City (where most action occurs) levels. Lack of a "bulldozer" option is annoying but not critical. Expert management skills are required to successfully control provincial growth through astute taxation and balancing of all crucial factors. Winning Caesar is less important than the reward of satisfaction that comes with seeing your investment of hours and days of careful thought and planning pay big dividends as your cities grow and flourish. Playing Caesar successfully lends credence to the old adage that "Rome wasn't built in a day".

Review: Enjoyment

A game that will eat hours out of your life if you're not paying attention. Caesar is definitely not a cinch to win as it takes perseverance, attention to detail and a solid set of multi-task management skills.

Review: Graphics

A step up for Impressions Software compared to their earlier games. Small animation sequences lend life to the city although the sheer volume of buildings can cause confusion. Effective use of pop-up on-screen icon identifiers helps game play.

Review: Sound

Repetitive uninspired music is one of the few detracting features of the game. Ambient sound effects as you scroll around your city add a touch of realism as water gurgles and the sounds of construction and crowds are evident.

Review: Replay Value

Nearly unlimited replay value due to the vast array of choices and methods of approaching the city-building simulation including the choice of three difficulty levels. End results can vary drastically based on in-game management choices.

Review: Documentation

Absolutely excellent. A 29-page technical supplement and tutorial in addition to a fact packed and totally comprehensive 135-page manual. Also includes a reference card with icon definitions at City and Provincial levels.

Production Credits

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Caesar and Cleopatra	shirley caesar
caesar 3	caesar iii pc game