Pharaoh + Cleopatra

Before I start I want to mention that I played this game when it first came out and it is the only city-builder I have played. Now having said that, I will mention that I have played this game on and off in small burst for 20 years. I honestly don't feel like I have gotten any better at it. Admittedly, city-building games are not really my thing but I do love ancient history and I have to say this game is drenched in a wonderful aesthetic and even unloads a lot of history. The game is filled with a wonderful amount of small details like employees complaining about their bosses and the Nile flooding low lands. The game is charming, has great attention to detail and even gives the feeling of transporting you to ancient Egypt. The game is also packed with content and has good replay value if city-building is your thing. However, as a game I find it far too difficult despite reading the manual and watching Youtube videos. It seems like this game has a problem the paths the workers take and the use of roadblocks. Either that or the game it too vague about what it wants the player to do. Also, combat and religion in this game seem to exist to punish the player and suck out the fun. Thankfully combat can be avoided for the most part but the religious aspects cannot. Again, perhaps because I am not skilled at city-building games but I found it difficult to manage all the various needs of a city and its economy and worry about fickle gods that wreck your handy work. Overall I would recommend this game to people who like city-builders, especially very skilled players of the genre. People with less skill in the genre should be warned that this game has a huge learning curve and may find it too difficult to develop very advanced cities. My subjective rating for this game goes as follows: 1 star for the charming look and feel of the game. 1 star for the great attention to detail and history poured into this game. 1 star for having lots of content and good replay value.

I have Pharaoh on CD Disk and still dust it off every now and then and still enjoy playing it. I never got round to getting the Cleopatra expansion so I am quite willing to pay my hard earned cash to buy the digital versions of both games.

I didn't own this game as a kid in the late 90's but had the demo that came with Sierra's Homeworld. I swear I played the Demo more than the game I actually bought. This is the title that got me into the city building genre. This and Caesar III are tons of fun and full of charm that a lot of modern games are missing. Give it a shot if you've never played it.

I loved this game in my chilhood. Can we have a Linux version please ? And why language is only English ? This game was in many other language. French will be very appreciated E)

YES! YES! I have been waiting for Gog.com to release this game! I played it so much when I was younger and I'm so excited that I can play it again!