Caesar III

"A good strategy builder for it's time"

Notice I said the words 'for it's time'. This game was published in 1998, so it's aged a bit. Not to say that there haven't been great RTS games published in 98, and they actually surpass this game in my opinion. But I will be grading this game by today's standards, though I will cut it a little slack. Read on to get the rest of my 2 cents

Graphics 7/10
Pretty fair. It's pretty good by RTS standards, though there is quite a bit of size problems. I mean that there are things in this game that are way bigger or smaller than they should be. I realize that this is in pretty much all RTSs, but it's just annoying in this game. The people that walk around the streets are bigger than the houses and some of the buildings. The giant Coliseum is really small compared to what it should be. It looks like it could hold about 10 people inside of it.
The terrain is pretty varied and nice in Caesar 3, and it looks vary accurate. If you're in Africa it will be dry with sandy plains. If you're in Morroco it will be rocky with grassy foothills.
The units and people all look decent, and the animation is okay. Just okay, nothing really great to rant on about. There is a nice variance of color in here, and the different people all have pretty unique colored cloths.
The graphics arent anything really great, they just get the job done.

Sound 8/10
Nice music. It adds to the mood and is quite addicting. There is a moderate variance and they all are pretty good. There is a unique sound for pretty much every action you do, wether it order troops to attack or place a structure. All of the units have their own speech dialogue, and it's even affected by how the public thinks you're running the city. If they're pissed off about something they will let you know. This is very helpfull, as it lets you know what needs to be done.

Gameplay 8/10
This game is about building and maintaining your city. It's very addictive. You start out making houses and getting the basics, like water and medical help. And from there you start expanding and building new things. Pretty soon you will have a bustling city with lots of activity. When you decide to build a building, you have to take a number of things into consideration. For example, how it affects the surrounding populace. People will not be too pleased having a training grounds right next door to them, although they will like a garden or fountain. You then just select the building and click, the construction is insantanious. I kind of like having to build your structures, but this works out pretty well.
You have a number of things that need to maintain balance in Caesar 3, like work force. You don't want to few workers, or the buildings will be understaffed and not work as fast. But you really don't want to many workers, because there will be a ton of unemployed hanging around your capital begging for jobs. :)
You also have to keep up fire and engineering. A prefect will patrol the streets and fix any fire hazards he sees, and the engineer does the same. If you neglect these things you can expect your buildings to start burning and falling down.
There are a ton of other things in this game, and I can't go into all of them. It's just really in-depth and addictive.

Story 5/10
Caesar 3 is pretty much about the expansion of Rome, and there are some places and people that Rome really fought. There is also a small little story about you becoming Caesar, but it's pretty boring and I didn't really give crap about it.

Replay Value 9/10
There is a nice campaign with fun war missions, and half the fun is just playing a custom game. You pick the location and type, whether it be a war mission or a peace one. It will last you a good while, I played this for nearly 4 months on and off.

So
Graphics 7
Sound 8
Gameplay 8
Story 5
Replay Value 9

Overall 7
It's a good game to play, although it may be a bit outdated now.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/13/04