Caesar IV

The Good
You know there comes a moment in life for a veteran gamer that does reviews to really not start a game review with:

"Yep, better graphics".

Aww, come on. Not everyone one of us is a moronic teenager that buys games only after constant nagging to the parents.

The only other additional feature I noticed was the fact that now you can build roads and buildings "side-ways", not up-down-left-right. Adds some additional architectural skill, I might add.

Other than that, you have more graphical advisors with a little more detail. Never got so far as actual mass combat though, got bored. So I can't review the combat stuff.

The Bad
Yep, Caesar just died! I'm guessing this there won't be a Caesar V unless they fix up this mess, by Jupiter.

So how did Caesar die? By killing the 2 things that made Caesar a freakin award winning game:

• Managing citizen routes;
• Managing home improvements;
• Managing trade;
• Actually everything that has to do with Caesar III :p Managing Citizen Routes
  The most managerial thing about Caesar III was the fact that you had to control your citizens from moving into areas you don't want them to (via this no-entry button thingy which I forgot what it was called). Thus you could make citizen routes more efficient when it comes to supplying citizen needs such as food supplies, entertainment, security...the works. Now you don't need to do that anymore. All you have to do is place that darn building and you can see where that person actually travels. Its much more easier, but we don't play strategy games BECAUSE they are easier. User-friendly and Difficulty are 2 different worlds mate. The game did not become more user-friendly, it DID become more easier.
• Managing Home Improvements
  Once upon a time all rich folk came from poor folk that eventually worked hard enough to get rich. Not so in Caesar IV. Now you have Pleb houses, Elites houses and Preatorian houses. Each still evolve, but must be built separately. Again, the game became easier but not more fun. Once upon a time it was fun seeing the poor get rich and evolve. You had to work darn hard to see your citizens become more. Bah, now I'm was more preoccupied in keeping the rich - rich and the poor - poor.
• Managing Trade
  I remember trade was really fun in Caesar III. In fact, it was the really "real" source of income. Not taxes. In this version its the other way around. You have to rely on taxes, not trade. Not that I really care, but what I really do care is that the "sense" of money making is completely eliminated here. I remember having delight in seeing a merchant come in and buy my goods from the storehouse. There was also a supporting sound effect that indicated money was entering your coffers. No longer. You no longer notice a merchant entering your port. You don't even know why the merchant didn't buy all your goods. There's a lot it seems you don't know what going on in your city. Hmm.
• Personal Touch
  One little thing I noticed in Caesar III is that you can always click on the citizens walking around like idiots and hear what they think about your fine city. Here the citizens are smaller and the default speed is faster (although you can slower it down). Its much harder for you to click on the citizens since they are small and not cartoon funny looking like in Caesar III. --- I haven't played the game long enough (which is probably only 48 hours in my book...long is a week). After finishing the "mandatory" tutorial (which also sucks) and 2 scenarios, I got bored. Something really impossible I thought for the most freakin addictive game series I've played. See my Pharaoh review. I played that freakin game for 2 weeks non-stop. Now if a fan gets bored of the same game series in 2 days, it must be really that bad, no? Yeah. The game became just this superficial illusion of a city-building game. Actually this looks more like a clone of Caesar III than a sequel. Different developers maybe? Oh, yeah. I just checked. Different developer. They also created Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile, which by the way is the ugliest (gameplay wise) city-building sim I've played. No wonder Caesar died...
  
  **The Bottom Line**
  Why did they have to kill off this wonderful series, by Jupiter? Seriously Tilted Mill Entertainment, Inc., you really can't make city-building sims. Or at least the bloke who came up with the idea of "city-building simulation" which actually IS (or should be) "city-building managerial strategy" can't make city-building sims.