Zeus Updated Preview

Sierra's City Building series has produced some memorable strategy games in the past, in particular Caesar III, which was a perfect combination of open-ended city building and goal-oriented scenarios set in a colorful historical period. Sierra is hoping that it can continue the success of its history-based builder games with Zeus: Master of Olympus, the latest brainchild of developer Impressions Games, who is responsible for the City Building series as a whole.

The City Building games are very similar to Maxis' legendary SimCity series, except that they are set in an ancient historical period. The Caesar games were set in Rome (of course), while Pharaoh and its expansion pack, Cleopatra, moved the action to ancient Egypt. Zeus takes place in ancient Greece and expands upon the universe of Greek myths to create a unique city-building environment that will evoke the heroic deeds of Odysseus and Achilles while you build your own metropolis based on the dictates of terrain and your own personal vision of an ideal city.

There are many tasks before you in Zeus, and some interesting additions specific to ancient Greece have been made to the established builder system. All the familiar city-building gameplay is there. You must build housing to attract people to your city and then continuously build structures to support and expand your settlement. Roads are vital to keeps workers and goods flowing to areas where they are needed. Farms and hunting lodges provide food, while structures such as fountains and maintenance offices protect your buildings from fire or collapse. When basic needs have been satisfied, there are a host of higher goals to achieve. Let philosophy flourish by building an academy, and encourage your own Aeschylus or Sophocles by constructing a drama school. All the while you can't lose sight of more mundane matters like collecting taxes. Zeus is played in real time as in the previous games in the series, and gameplay is a nonstop series of building decisions and monitoring of your food, money, hygiene, and unrest levels, as well as the flow of traffic throughout the city.

Managing the city is more than just making sure the plumbing doesn't get backed up. There are mythical monsters that roam the land, and you can summon heroes like Perseus or Herakles to do battle with them. You'll need to build temples to satisfy the gods, and if you're prosperous you can trade with neighboring cities or make war on them. You can even construct a stadium and host an Olympic Games, although unfortunately you won't be able to sell the TV rights.

One of the biggest sticking points of the City Builder series has been its difficulty. The missions and campaigns in Caesar III were notoriously difficult to complete, and Pharaoh was just as hard to finish successfully. According to Sierra, Zeus has been specifically designed to be easier than its predecessors. When combined with its nonviolent, constructive theme, Zeus makes for an appealing game to all ages and skill levels. This is accentuated by the popularity of Greek mythology in many forms of popular culture, which range from movies to literature. Zeus takes these familiar icons and transforms them into a dynamic game that's more accessible than Impressions' previous city-builders, but one that still retains the pedigree's depth. One of the improvements to Zeus is better citizen AI and pathfinding, so that there isn't as much need to constantly monitor your streets for congestion and traffic jams, which can impede the flow of needed goods and hamper everything from firefighting to food distribution. This makes Zeus a bit less of a micromanagement exercise and closer to the ideal of a city construction set. There are still plenty of decisions to make, though, and poor city planning will lead to ruin.

Sierra announced earlier this week that Zeus had gone gold, so it shouldn't be long now before the game hits the stores. When it does, you'll be able to see for yourself just how well Greek mythology translates to this long-running series. We'll have a full review posted as soon as the game is available.