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Even after the eight year hiatus, Caesar is still one of the most influential strategy games. Caesar IV, developed by a new house made up of old Caesar developers, introduced 3D graphics to the series. The core gameplay is similar to previous games while adding enough wrinkles to make the gameplay relevant to the current gaming landscape.
In Caesar IV, you’re tasked with making Rome even more powerful and influential by building prosperous new cities. The game often starts you off with just an empty map, which you’ll have to mold to accomplish what you need to. From this blank canvas, you’ll eventually get a self-sustaining city, a key addition to the Roman Empire. To do this, you’ll have to sustain an army of workers, make sure they’re being taken care of and fed, hire engineers to build and maintain your buildings, manage housing, health care, food production, religion, and security (by building a small army to fend off invaders). Part of what makes Caesar IV so engaging is that your workers and citizens have needs as I mentioned above. If you don’t fulfill their needs (i.e. don’t have sufficient health care or a proper food production system), or even if you build industrial buildings near their homes, you won’t have anyone willing to do the work for you.
Not all citizens are created equal though. There were many classes of citizens in Rome and this is recreated in the game. The farther up the chain you go, the more needs you’ll have to fulfill. For example, the plebs (i.e. the factory and field workers) just require clothing and food. If you move up to the middle class (doctors, teachers, etc), they’ll require the basics plus the ability to buy some wine and furniture for their home. Moving up a bit more to the nobles, you’ll have to supply all of this plus luxury goods. Thankfully, the nobles also serve as an important source of income since you can tax them.
A big part of your success depends on having a strong economy. Caesar IV forces you to micromanage quite a bit to grow your economy, though you can eventually build one that is self-sustainable. Part of having a strong economy is building a strong trade component. You can trade with other cities as a source of income and getting goods you need, but also to keep Rome happy. In fact, the Senate will often demand that you meet certain thresholds. If you fail to meet those, your rating will fall, making it harder to win certain scenarios. If it falls too low, you may even lose your affiliation with Rome.
Carsar IV includes an online component. Most people will probably upload cities to the online Empire to create a more powerful Empire. For the hardcore, the game includes a Caesar’s Challenge mode that lets player compete on a number of scenarios, awarding points to the player who gets the highest score in a particular scenario. These include having the highest scoring city in a time period or simply earning the most money.
Caesar IV was serviceable 3D graphics—a sharp upgrade for the series—but nothing fancy. The buildings are quite varied and authentic looking and watching citizens move about the city is a sight indeed. Although nothing in the game is particularly great looking watching a city grow from a building or two to a bustling metropolis is truly a sight to be seen. The game does have some rather fancy lighting and weather effects, as well a dynamic shadow system that add a bit of shine to the game.
The game’s audio perfectly complements the visuals. The background music flows naturally with the game without become an annoyance. The sound effects are serviceable nothing too extravagant but get the job done. In addition, when you click on a citizen, you get verbal feedback that tells you how well you’re doing. It’s a nice touch that you end up using quite a bit.
Caesar IV is an engaging strategy game. There is a lot of content and many hours of gameplay to enjoy in the game. Although it isn’t perfect, the game will still end up sucking a number of hours away from your day. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Oct 24, 2006
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