Caesar 3 Review and Strategy

A classic city building game, Caesar 3 is another masterpiece by Sierra. The game begins with a few tutorial stages to show and explain the basics and then has you on your own attempting to fulfill the target goals - a certain culture rating, a certain favor with Caesar, a target population, etc. After each successful stage completion your income and rank rises - beginning at Citizen and concluding at Caesar.

Once the tutorial mission has finished and you learned how to build houses, farms and other basics you'll be given a choice of economic or military mission. Economic missions require more advanced city building as you need to meet higher Culture, Prosperity, Favor and other goals. Military missions will have you come under attack from Barbarians and other enemy forces including the Carthaginians. As a result your goals will be easier but at the same time harder as you need to raise an army and counter the threat. The best way to play is to choose all peaceful or all military scenarios, run through the game and then play again choosing the opposite option. Of course once you complete a mission you are always presented the choice of peace or war so the decision is always yours to make.

Game play itself involves managing a budget, keeping the gods, Caesar and your people happy. As all your services create walkers who walk by your houses, evolving them as they provide services, proper organization is key. If your roads have too many intersections the walkers could go the wrong way and not service the house. For instance a market provides food, pottery and other goods you grew, manufactured or imported and the lady that walks by each your houses makes a random choice at an intersection. The goal is to minimize the randomness as the person has a limited range and you don't want to waste time and resources in the wrong direction.

Roads, houses. reservoirs and fountains, farms and granaries form the basics for any city and how you organize it is up to you. Farms and industry can only be built in certain places. City management at it's finest, the game offers a challenge especially when you throw in the favor or anger of the gods.

On a final note, if you completely piss of Caesar in the scenario, he will send Roman soldiers to your city and wipe you out, which is actually funny to see. Best of luck in your city building. This game offers hours of enjoyment and I only described a small sample of what's inside.

There are also several Caesar 3 cheats but those are for another time. Should you find yourself looking for another Sierra game to try, I'd recommend Civil War Generals 2, that is if you can find a copy.

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