Zeus: Master of Olympus

The Good
Impressions fixed what I found to be the most annoying aspects of the earlier Impressions game Caesar II (and I would presume, Caesar III). In Caesar II, the land value of your houses could suddenly drop for no apparent reason. In Zeus, land value can still drop; however, land value does not play as large a role in Zeus as in Caesar II. In Zeus, distribution of goods and access to culture are the most important factors in housing levels. Goods can be produced in your own city, or imported from another city. Also, access to water, culture, and other services is more understandable in Zeus. In Caesar II, each house had to be within a certain distance from a well or fountain if it was to have water. In Zeus, fountains send out "water bearers" to deliver water to your citizens. You can see them walk and it is much easier to tell if a building has water access.

The Bad
Back to the water bearers. There is a disadvantage to them. They are not very smart, and unless you give them only a few choices (or better yet no choices) as to where to go, they may not go to the places that need water the most. Also, Zeus is not a very realistic game. Greece was not as Zeus portrays it, and this will be clear if you play it for a time and then think about it. However, I should point out that SimCity is for the most part, the only realistic game that I have played. For example, the game Civilization is unrealistic because the government does not build factories and banks or research everything.

The Bottom Line
Zeus is a city building game where you must manage all aspects of your city (you are the sole employer). You must make sure that your citizens have enough food, fleece, olive oil, water, culture, and jobs. You build and then you must manage, manage, manage.