Caesar IV (PC)

...building games comes back as Caesar 4. The first city building game I tried was Caesar 3, then Zeus, Pharaoh and Cleopatra. All of these games seemed to have almost the same style of gaming. This game which features some of the Rome's finest buildings and technologies of that time seems to be making an impact yet again, but it isn't as big a game, and there existed not much to choose from. For me, Zeus was still a better game with lot more options ...
...better than Caesar 3. Now Sierra Entertainment's Caesar 4 can be termed great because there is no real competition this time.

MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Intel Pentium 4 1.2 GHz or equivalent AMD Athlon processor or higher
Microsoft Windows 2000/Windows XP Home or Professional Edition (including Service Pack 2 or higher)
256 MB of system RAM
32MB video card (with hardware T&L including Pixel Shader 1.1 ... more

One of the best and the most popular city building games comes back as Caesar 4. The first city building game I tried was Caesar 3, then Zeus, Pharaoh and Cleopatra. All of these games seemed to have almost the same style of gaming. This game which features some of the Rome's finest buildings and technologies of that time seems to be making an impact yet again, but it isn't as big a game, and there existed not much to choose from. For me, Zeus was still a better game with lot more options and different ways of playing the game and it was better than Caesar 3. Now Sierra Entertainment's Caesar 4 can be termed great because there is no real competition this time.

MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Intel Pentium 4 1.2 GHz or equivalent AMD Athlon processor or higher
Microsoft Windows 2000/Windows XP Home or Professional Edition (including Service Pack 2 or higher)
256 MB of system RAM
32MB video card (with hardware T&L including Pixel Shader 1.1 or higher support)
2.0 GB of free hard disk space (additional space for saved games)
CD-Rom/DVD Drive
DirectX 9.0c
Keyboard and Mouse

THE RETURN OF THE GREAT EMPEROR
The game seems to have kept its usual style, as you are the governer of one of the colonies of Rome yet again and you will have to meet certain requirements in every game. If you think that you are your own boss, Rome may even think about expelling you or feeding you to some of those animals in the collesium. All these may sound good, but the problem with the game is that there is no real motive except for these requirements, and you will have to go through differet cities and you will have to start from the beginning every time. There are no cities which are already built or half-built so that we can learn from it, and there are no in-game quests or anything similiar to that. You may still have the major problems like fires, raiders, riots, plagues and also some famines in the city.

They seems to have tried to keep the game simple, but not perfect. Some people may still not be able to follow the game. There are three types of citizens in the game, Plebs for basic labour, Equities for medium level labour like water and engineering and Patricians do nothing, but pay taxes and also requires a lot of facilities. Only if the facilities are there, will they upgrade their homes. There needs to be a balance between these three so that the city can run smoothly and without much outrage with the help of a few advisors who won't be too much helpful as long as you don't gather some information about these things by yourself.

A FEW ARCHITECTURAL MARVELS
The major part of cities development comes from the goods with are manufactured, exported and imported. As long as you have a trade route opened, you can import much needed goods and export the excess goods you got. As you progress in the game, you will have more trade routes. These goods are distributed at the various marketplaces most of the time, as there are marketplaces for basic, exotic and other types of goods which are to be placed near the homes. The excess goods will be stored in warehouses until they are used. The raw materials as well as the finsihed goods from factories can also be stored here.

Entertainment and health are to major factors of development after we take care of the water problems. Making usre that the entertainment factor reaches everywhere, is a very difficult thing to do. The problem with water facilities can be solved with the effective use of an aquaduct, pumphouse, reservoir and a fountain. Health problems can cause people to leave city at a fast rate which makes it necessary to take precautions early. Better entertainment can increase the speed of people coming to your city, especially the Equites and Patricians. The Patricians doesn't even come near a place without enough entertainment, and even if they do, they abandon te place in no time.

ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROME
The religion factor is also very important in the game as the Gods can give you some bonuses and the festivals can be very useful too if you have enough cash. But the God-related things are not that much effective as it was in Zeus. The military is useful very rarely and they can consume lots of good and also the need for manufacturing weapons and armour arises. Only if all these are connected properly, will the city progress at a steady rate. Some beautification of the city will also contribute to the faster development.

The citizens look better and more intelligent this time, but you will have to try hard to keep the citizens happy as well as have a surplus of income over expenses. The sounds of the citizens as well as the music is pretty good through out the game. The graphics may be the best part of the game, especially with some buildings. The reservoir and water flowing through the aquaduct is a beautiful scene. There are other Roman architectectural marvels in the game, including the Roman circus, Collesium, Bath-house and also the other buildings built in the astonishing Roman style.

Caesar 4 doesn't have too much variety in the gaming because of the lack of quests and building a city from nowhere again and again will be a bit boring after some days. I would recommend this one only for the addicts of Caesar 3 as well as the people who love Roman architecture very much or have spent too much time reading about ancient Roman culture and other historical events. Otherwise you have so much spare time, you can just keep on building and building. There is nothing special about this game, but after all, its the sequel to a superhit game and may be it could make Julius Caesar proud next time :-)

Check out the game's official site at
http://caesariv.com/us/

THANKS FOR READING THE REVIEW AND DO CHECK THE UPLOADED PICS TOO :-) 

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