GameSpot may receive revenue from affiliate and advertising partnerships for sharing this content and from purchases through links.

CivCity: Rome First Look

The creators of Civilization and Stronghold team up to create a new ancient city-building game set in Roman times.

1 Comments

Firefly Studios is best known for its Stronghold series of castle-building strategy games, but the company is veering into new territory with CivCity, a collaborative effort with Firaxis that looks to combine ancient city-building with the flavor of the best-selling Civilization strategy series. It's an intriguing combination, but how does it work?

Who said Rome wasn't built in a day?
Who said Rome wasn't built in a day?

If you've played Civilization, then you know that cities are the key to winning the game. The more cities you have, and the more developed they are, the better your overall situation. CivCity basically narrows the focus down to giving you control of one of those cities, and it's your job to develop it, much like you would in a typical city-building game. You put down roads and different types of buildings (such as houses, temples, farms, and more) to create a balanced life for your citizens. However, where CivCity differs from earlier ancient city-building games is that it ties in Civilization concepts, such as a technology tree and wonders of the world to build.

Basically, your job as a Roman governor will be to take various Roman cities and make them flourish. You'll do this by placing down hundreds of buildings designed to make life in your city easier for your people. Like all city-building games, your citizens have basic needs that have to be met, which means that you'll need to put down buildings that meet them. The idea is to make a city that's self-sustaining, and that can provide for all of its needs internally. To help, you'll be able to research new technologies on the tech tree that will let you unlock new structures that can address issues such as sanitation, health, religious needs, and more. And you can construct various ancient wonders of the world--assuming you've stockpiled enough materials--to generate special bonuses, just like wonders of the world grant bonuses in Civilization.

Though it was never meant to be an educational experience, Civilization proved to be a popular tool for teaching history, and it appears CivCity is looking to do the same. A detailed "citypedia" will provide thousands of facts about ancient Roman life, which should make the game appealing to younger gamers (and their parents). You'll also be able to follow your citizens around town and look at what they do, as well as peek inside the buildings.

 City building and Civilization: Two great tastes that taste great together.
City building and Civilization: Two great tastes that taste great together.

While Firefly is the main developer on the game, it is collaborating with Firaxis on this. And while the studio itself doesn't have much of a history beyond making Stronghold, key members of the development team previously worked on the Caesar and Pharaoh games, which gives them experience in this field. The combination of city-building with the Civilization brand is tempting, but we'll see how it comes together as the game progresses. As it is, we can expect CivCity: Rome to ship sometime this summer.

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com

Join the conversation
There are 1 comments about this story