Caesar™ IV

I bought it (not on GOG) and throw it away after a couple of days, which I rarely do. I am (still) playing Caesar 3 and I love its mechanics. It lets you feel those ancient times and it also offers very challenging economy model. Caesar 4 is different however. Many game titles were screw up by adding 3D graphic into them (Worms being the best example). The same goes for Caesar 4. I was so tired by rotating my buldings and trying to properly choose build location for them. For me, this game is more about proper clicking and dragging than about designing and implementing your strategy. If you care more about gameplay than about graphics, this may not be the best choice for you.

Great underrated game. If funding and development hadn't been limited on the developers side I think this game engine would have gone far. Here's some tips: 1. You got to build up kind of slow with stability. All 3 citizen classes will be content with little as long as nothing is taken from them. Loss of access to food or goods they previously had will result in them leaving the city, pretty much all mass migration from your city early in the game is a result of this. 2. Try to keep raw materials and industry close together. Warehouses can also help, if making armor set a nearby warehouse to accepting 1/3 iron, 1/3 wool, and 1/3 armour. 3. Trade depots/ports are just big warehouses. If you need those goods in your city also, limit the amount of goods the depot is accepting in the building's menu and this will force workers to take the goods elsewhere. This applies even if you have set limits with the trade advisor. 4. As you build more farms you'll need more granaries. Granaries seem to work better if they only accept one food type. Also don't forget to build another market or two as your city gets bigger.

The core problem of this game has always been: it doesn`t work! The demands of rome can not be met and it could be the case that at a certain point, it is not possible to raise the value anymore and the game is stuck. At this point, you can not win anymore. Furthermore: you don`t have any control over the soldiers, they are running around in confusion and it`s neither possible to change their battle formation nor to stop them on a spot. When they`re fighting on a bridge, they glitch below it in the water. The scenarios are just too hard. Even when trading with two citys, it is not possible to gain enough money to keep permanently out of debt. I loved Caesar III, but this game is a total failure. It has never been finished and contrary to Caesar III, which worked perfectly in every way, this here is just a gameplay mess.

The dumb walker mechanics are gone though managing where your goods will be taken is still fiddly and intuitive. The building placement grid is also annoying as it's so easy to get something one small square off. I would expect better for something that came out today but for an old game it is still pretty fun and retains a lot of the old charm of the Caesars games.

I don't know why people say it's very bad, I happen to really like it like the other games in the series. Plus it has the boon that the graphics aged really well, so it looks really pleasing at HD resolutions. I give it a minus point because of the camera control which is terrible. But apart from that it is a great city builder with a degree of difficulty, which modern games like ANNO don't have. Bottom line, like roman cities? Played caesar 3 to death? Give it a try!