For the glory of Rome!
This is the latest addition to the popular Caesar series of empire building games which owe much of their features to the classic and pioneering SimCity. This fourth entry fixes some of the problems with Caesar 3 but also introduces some of its own, although they're not enough to get in the way of the entertainment on offer here. As with other games of this genre, you start out as a governor of a small Roman settlement and it's your goal to move yourself all the way up to the ultimate position of power: Caesar. You have complete control over all aspects of your town and you're responsible for financial planning, city building and expansion, establishing defenses, trading with other towns and so on. There are over 100 unique structures to design your town around, each with their own unique uses, along with heaps of tradable goods, different industries and more. Combat sees you directly in control of your legions so you'll need your best general's hat as well as your city planning one while you also have several modes to try, including campaign, sandbox, and standalone competitive scenarios. Caesar 4 might not offer a whole heap of new features to the genre but it gets just about everything right so that it remains highly enjoyable. Most of the various gameplay mechanics are implemented well so that there's a good level of challenge and variety on offer while the visuals are charming and detailed. The issues arrive with the maps which are often too small for the size of the structures but this isn't enough to prevent this from being a fine game.
