Caesar IV is a city building, combat and trade experience that takes place in an ancient Roman setting and in turn allows players to try their hand at recreating one of the most well known ancient civilisations of Earth. Developed by Titled Mill Entertainment and released in 2006 for Windows the game is one of many released in the city building genre by this developer and obviously the fourth in the Caesar franchise. With other titles including the likes of Children of the Nile and SimCity Societies city building orientated gamers are in experienced development hands.
In Caesar IV players are in charge of administration matters and building the historical city of Rome from an early to mid point in Roman progression to ensure that there is plenty of depth to create your own specialised Rome. For the first time in the series the game uses a realistic 3D engine making for some realistic and truly spectacular graphics that were well ahead of the curve at the time. Importantly these graphics also aid the building aspect of the game and really let the player take control of the large game space that is available for your expansion plans.
One of the great game features of Caesar IV in particular is the ability to place buildings at various angles to make a more realistic feeling city rather than one that is dominated by right angles like you might find in a modern era city builder. This means your Rome will be more dynamic and feel less like Rome on a grid which ties in perfectly with the historical nature of the game where not everything may have been perfectly planned by a central government and zoning laws.
To Tilted Mill’s credit the game of Caesar IV does try to keep the lifestyle of the Roman people as accurate as possible which adds to the realism and is a nice touch although will go unnoticed by most players as the game’s emphasis is solely on the building aspects. Those that do occasionally stop to watch the Roman’s going about their business though will find that market visits, the local bathhouse and different classes of Roman citizens quickly become apparent. In total there are over 70 notable characters that add significant story and diversity to your average strategic city building title.
Supporting these gameplay hours Caesar IV offers a decent length campaign which is split up into 3 different and unique sections (1 of which is the tutorial) for players to develop. During these campaigns you can either push military or peaceful solutions which will impact on your assignments and objectives for each campaign mission which all link back to the core city building element. These assignments also introduce a greater focus on the combat and economic portions of Caesar IV which are equally varied as the city building core.
On top of these campaigns you’ll have access to several sandbox scenarios to play and with the available level editor there are plenty of user made scenarios around the web if you want more. Like similar games those players that can create their own adventures through sandbox will see the greatest value out of their time with Caesar IV.
Summary:
- Create your own Rome experience as you span kingdom, empire and republic stages of Roman growth.
- Great campaign length that adds the elements of war and economy to manage.
- Mixture of military and peaceful options that all link back to your city progress.
- Utilise all the tools of a Roman empire to build your ultimate city from over a hundred structures.
- Sandbox modes and level editor add lots of gameplay hours beyond the initial Roman campaign.
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Review Platform: PC