Caesar 3

As the title states, this game is truly a masterpiece. There has been a slew of "city-builders" released at around the same time (essentially same games with different themes ie Zeus, Pharaoh, Emperor) but Ceasar III really stands out. It's polished, the systems make sense and function as expected, in all my time with this game I've barely had any issues, and none of them bigger then minor annoyances. If you're a fan of city-building and games that are more about managing the economy as opposed to fighting. Although there are times when you'll have to get your hands bloody in this game as well, but when you're given a choice of provinces there's usually a peaceful one to pick. At this point (2013) Ceasar IV may be a better option. It's got a 3D engine so it's capable of much more realistic looking environments, though the game does lose some visual charm, CIV is not as colorful as this game.

One of my all time favorite games. The old style graphics and entertaining sound track create a great sense of immersion. Caesar 3 has a great balance in which building any kind of city is possible but not easy. The only weak point I would point out is the combat system- it is much too fast paced compared to the rest of the gameplay and feels out of place, however it's not enough to bring down the 5 star rating this game deserves.

I've played SimCity [the 2014 release], Anno, Grand Ages, Tropico, Children of the Nile, Dawn of Discovery [Anno 1440], and still find this gem to hold up for it's graphics and standards. It has a nice vibe, and goes into the gameplay very fast.

The game might seem to be a little too hard at first since even relatively stable cities can fall apart in minutes due to the seemingly slightest mistakes. Maybe Caesar3 punishes beginners like me too hard, but once you have figured out the game mechanics the game becomes rather easy. If you don't have the time or the patience to learn how to play this game then you should skip this. If you like challenges and city builder strategy games you should give it a try. (Note that this was my first city builder game so I cannot benchmark it with other city builders.) Also note that in the GOG version I had problems with controllong the audio in-game.

I had this game as a child (and likely still have the CD somewhere too!) and I loved the editor to just mess about in and never really played the campaign. Now I'm playing through the campaign and I love the challenges it brings. People who like old school mechanics will find them here and their charms are here to enjoy for those looking for that particular vein of gameplay! One thing which is really nice is how well it ported to macOS by using Porting Kit, when playing on Windows 10 there were a few minor graphical and sound glitches, nothing that got in the way of gameplay but were just a bit annoying. However on macOS it plays absolutely perfectly, I can only assume the wineskin wrapper automatically fixed the compatibility issues which I never bothered looking to sort on Windows. Overall, it's just great.