Zeus First Impression

The City Building series from Impressions Studios is one of Sierra's most successful strategy franchises. The venerable Caesar series and the recent Pharaoh game all were part of the City Building line. All have been strategy-management games in the vein of SimCity, but with historical settings and a scope that sometimes reached just beyond civic works. In Caesar, for example, there were military units to create, and in Caesar II, there was even a tactical battle map in which you waged war against rival city-states. And Pharaoh threw in the annual flooding of the Nile to add greater nuance to your strategic planning. However, both series of games were still too complicated at times for some gamers, and so Sierra and Impressions have created another game in the City Building series that Sierra touts as "the easiest of the City Builders."

This next game is Zeus, and it moves the series to a Grecian setting. It also simplifies a lot of the gameplay from the previous games. However, the general premise is the same. You start out with a bare plot of land, and you must build a city there and make it thrive. Various scenarios, called adventures, have set victory conditions such as raising the population to 500 or drawing enough heroes to stem the invasion of a medusa. In this aspect, the game is like Pharaoh: You have a series of scenarios to complete, thereby giving you a sense of accomplishment and an obvious way to measure your success throughout the game. You can build various types of buildings throughout the terrain, but you must resort to a build order to support the different buildings. For instance, you need to build roads first before you build houses, because the houses need to be connected to the other buildings in the city. Such interconnection between buildings is not new to games of this ilk, but in Zeus, it is less complex. As in previous games, you need workers to support certain buildings, but in Zeus, you no longer have to ensure that you have an unobstructed road from house to building in order for that building to be staffed with the proper number of workers - just having enough houses and workers does the job. If the goal is to make the game easier for newcomers, then this simplification indeed helps.

New Features
There are a variety of buildings you can construct, which are organized into different groups like housing, public works, sanctuaries for worship of the gods, and so on. Although the game appears to be heading down the road toward more-simplified building, there are still a wide variety of buildings to construct. So while the game might be easier, it won't sacrifice any depth to get there. In addition to a streamlining of the game, there will be new features. For instance, the gods will now walk among your citizens. The benefits or penalties that will result from this feature remain to be seen. Monsters, such as hydras and medusae, will sometimes wander your city, complementing the usual assortment of disasters you would find in such a game. Even though nearly a dozen monsters can wreak havoc in your city, you'll be able to attract heroes to defend your city to counter these monstrous rampages. Summoning such heroes will be difficult though, as you'll need to meet certain conditions before they arrive.

There will also be a more robust world map to let you interact with and trade with other cities in the Greek empire. Greek politics and world events will play a big role in the game, unlike in the previous City Builder games. In fact, Zeus has many new enhancements, in addition to its switch to an easier difficulty setting. The interface as well should receive enhancements, which will make it more informative and more intuitive.

Of course, Zeus' graphics and AI should also be improved. If Zeus were easier for all skill levels, and if it had mythological creatures, gods, and city interaction, it would have more gameplay. Thus, it would be more fun than its predecessors.

The build we have right now is in an alpha stage - it does not have all the features that are promised in the final game. We'll be receiving a preview build in a few weeks, and at that time, we'll bring you a full preview discussing the different buildings, disasters, gods, and monsters of Zeus. No doubt, many of the enhancements and features in the game will be working in the upcoming beta build, so we'll get to show you exactly how Impressions and Sierra plan to improve this respected series of strategy games.