Zeus + Poseidon (Acropolis)

I first played Zeus+Poseidon on my aunt's computer way back in the early 2000's. I had been thinking about it lately and was so excited to see that GOG.com had it along with all the others in the series, some I had never even played before. The game is just as I remember it and I dare say better! All the components such as the invasions, story lines, godly visitors, and natural disasters make it so that the game is ever changing and interesting. I was convinced that my city could run fine without my support, walked away to get a snack, and then came back to pandemonium that took two hours to fix. I had to restructure half of my city but it was a fun challenge and kept me on my toes. It's difficult to get bored with all that can go on at one time as you have control over quite a lot and the Gods demand as much of your attention as your citizens! There are several difficulties that allow players of all kind to play at their own pace and the gaps between difficulties aren't too severe so it's easy to learn to play at a higher difficulty if you want. The ambiance and character of the game are well done, whether you play the missions or just sandbox it, and add to the overall charm of the game. It's something you can pick up and play for 15 minutes or 5 hours. I would say definitely pick up this one and Rise of the Middle Kingdom as they have the best UIs and are just good games overall.

Ah, fond memories... I had to fax the NDA to the devs and wait for them to send me the dvd. xD And I remember being upset that I wasn't put in the same testing pool as my friends were. Being a fangirl of Greek mythology this was my second favourite city builder game from this company. The art was pretty (but not as pretty as Emperor) and the game play fun. Seeing the deities walking around was a bit of an oddity since none of the previous games had it.

I had an old CD version of this classic game that I loved as a teenager, but I just couldn't get it to open successfully in Windows 10. This version does work perfectly though :)

Has replayability value after more than 15 years for me. It's slightly easier than Pharaoh, but the gameplay, graphics and the overall user experience here is much better. The RTS part is very simple, almost not mention-worthy, but the city building and economics part is yet to be bested. It can even teach you something about old greek legends!

I have played a lot of city builders in my time: Caesar Series, Pharaoh+Cleopatra, Tropico Series, Sim City Series, Banished, etc. However, I always find myself coming back to Zeus even in 2015. The reason being is you rarely feel that you just need to sit and wait for whatever to finish building, resources to stock pile to whatever goal, or just for your town to get populated to build the next building. Path finding is excellent especially when pathing is used in conjunction with road blocks to keep walkers were they need to be and those who need to pass through do. The plot is entertaining no matter what story you choose to play. If you are looking for a great city builder with excellent models this is it, it blows things like Children of the Nile and Banished out of the water in terms of graphics even though is is quite a dated game. I cannot speak for the gameplay variance of Children of the Nile vs. Zeus as I have not played it, but I have seen it's garbage for graphics and would pick Zeus any day to look at something prettier. I hope this helps you make your choice.