Caesar 3 was wonderful, but it had flaws that made it hard, but also great at the same time. Pharaoh fixes most of the original flaws, and offers A LOT more variety. Special mention to the monuments like the Sphinx and the pyramids. However it's less combat oriented than Caesar, and there is no equivalent of the charismatic Cesar. The game is on the whole easier, and feels more like a succession of unrelated maps, rather than an epic campaign in which you climb the ladder like in Caesar.
Ok, this is a heavyweight among the city-building games. This game is not a casual game like the Sim City series This game is for the purists, the perfectionists. It will reward you for good urban planning, but it will punish your mistakes very hard. You can play for hours and hours on a city, just to realize this wasn't a good strategy on that map, and you have to start the map over again. Sometimes frustrating, but when you accomplish a mission, it was because of YOUR hard work, and you feel so proud ! Possibly the best of the series (Caesar/Pharaoh/Zeus) by a tiny bit.
