While I'm not a big "game" player, I have in the past found myself addicted to sim games of all sorts. However, this is the first time that I can justify the addiction.

Zeus: Master of Olympus, goes along the basic line of sim games, but then takes it to the next level. You have the familiar parts of building your city: As the mayor of a Greek city, you must provide housing and structures, roads and marketplaces, culture, and a simplified system of government for your people.

You'll also have to provide for your city's residents with protection from invaders by building walls and towers. Then, you have to provide food and materials for your residents and for export profit. For this you will be able to build, depending on the location, dairy's, vineyards, olive groves, sheep carding sheds, fisheries, timber mills, masonry shops and more.

You can stick with basic city building and maintenance using the "sand box" games, which there are three of. Or, you can try your luck at the "adventure" games, where you will be required to meet certain tasks and specification to proceed. For example, you'll have to reach population milestones, meet a certain profit for the year, build so many temples, fulfill specific quests or slay specific monsters.

While it took me about a week to figure out the ins and outs of this game, I found that it's not very difficult to comprehend. Everything you need for controlling your civilization is available from a control panel on the main game screen, along with important information and the announcement of events. A Pan-Hellenic map is included, too, so that you can keep tabs on your neighbors and set up trade relationships.

The mythology of the game is not overwhelming. You don't need to understand the stories of the gods or the interaction within mythological tales. In accordance with the goals of the various missions that make up the campaigns, you'll build your city in ways that will either please any of the twelve gods you're supporting, such as Zeus and Artemis (by building sanctuaries dedicated to them), or attract certain heroes (six total), such as Hercules and Perseus (by building Heroes' Halls). The Gods can provide you with wonderful bonuses, such as curing your city's illnesses, increasing the fertility of the land or providing extra military defense, however, if you offend them, the gods can cause real problems for your city. The heroes are useful for defending your city against the great monsters.

Zeus is a sim game with adventures that take your city from a basic settlement to a significant city, including dealing with gods and heroes and establishing new settlements.

Once you've played and mastered the basics of the game, you can have some fun with the little known Cheat Codes

In the game press [Ctrl][Alt][C] and type in:
Code Result
Delian Treasury - Add 1000 Coins
Ambrosia - Win Scenario
SoundFrags - Unknown Effect
Fireballs from Heaven - Strike a Particular Piece of Ground
with Fireball
Bowvine and Arrows - Towers Shoot Cows Instead of Arrows
Cheese Puff - Dairy Workers Put on Cheese Suits

Minimum System Requirements
Pentium 166 MHz
32 MB RAM
Windows 95/98.ME/2000*
410 Mb Minimum Install size
100 Mb Swap File on your Windows drive.
4X CD-ROM
Video card with at least 2 Mb of Memory capable of 800x600 resolution at 16 bit (High color) color depth.
DirectX 7.0 or higher
The Zeus installer will install DirectX 7.0 if necessary.
To reinstall, run \DIRECTX\Dxsetup.exe from the Zeus CD.


Recommended: Yes