Homer would be proud!
Written: Jul 08 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Sim City type of game with a good sense of humor and more specific goals.
Cons: Can be frustrating.
The Bottom Line: If you even remotely like games like this, try the demo, because you'll probably want to invest some time with the game.
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| grimjack2's Full Review: Zeus: Master of Olympus for Windows |
This game is much more than just "Sim City" during the ancient Greek times.
"Zeus: The Master of Olympus" was made by Impressions, who also created "Caesar III", "Cleopatra" and "Pharaoh". But all four of these games are very similar. Each game can almost be considered a sequel to the previous game.
Like a Sim City type of game, the majority of game time is spent trying to build up your city. In Zeus you need to attract workers with available housing and build various farms and catch fish to feed the workers. Workers are needed in mills, mines, armories, infirmaries, maintenance buildings and etc.. You also need workers to act as water carriers, soldiers, athletes, philosophers, actors and more. Some of the buildings you had access to are similar to Wonders of the World from the Civilization games. A temple dedicated to Hermes could give your workers advanced speed. A temple to Athena could give you combat advantages, and etc..
In the previous games, the individual control of your workers involved a lot of micro-management. Usually when a game simplifies itself, it takes away some of the enjoyment. Not here. In Zeus, workers automatically fill up available buildings in a logical pattern. They will travel to work in any building that can use them, as long as there is a road leading them there. You definitely don't have full control of everyone and everything they do.
Zeus has excellent graphics, for what they are. I don't want to sound like I'm criticizing the game, but it's just that these type of games normally don't require graphics that would tax a three year old system. What could be mere static representations of various buildings are instead well animated, and very amusing to watch. In the theater we see an actor with a winged costume spinning as he is held aloft over the stage. At the infirmary we see doctors trying to hold down a patient trying to avoid some unnecessary surgery. Even the sounds are clever. The voices are actually rather modern sounding, while making puns on the Greek world it inhabits.
The individual people wandering around are very interesting too watch too. And aside from the superior animation, if you click on them they would often have funny things to say, although primarily worthless to the game.
It is unusual for a game of this type to be pretty fun just by sitting back and watching. The animations were good enough that I had friends who normally don't play these games come over just to watch and listen.
The game actually owes much more to Greek mythology than it does Greek history. We see heroes, gods, and monsters within most of the Quests. You don't necessarily play one of the specific Greek polis' (city-states) like Athens or Sparta. That would be a whole different type of wargame.
Although the game has a sandbox mode, where you can just build a city and watch, the real pleasure of the game came from its set adventures. There were ten total, and most of them involved many Quests within it. Some quests simply demanded you build more things, which usually meant having to acquire the proper materials. Other quests might involve your raiding enemies, or attracting an ancient hero to rid the lands of a monster.
The game is very clever in the way that once you finish a mission, you may start the next one with the exact same city, but with different goals. This can be made more or less difficult depending on how you built your city in the previous Quests. The game is perhaps more interesting this way, but everyone hates a game where you may have to jump back and replay a few levels, just to finish the one you just started!
There is some combat in the game, but it is pretty hands off. You really cannot control too much of what is going on, other than leading your soldiers in the right direction. Most of the strategy involves creating the strongest force possible, and knowing when to attack. Although the A.I. is good for most of the game, the computer did a very poor job of handling my own troops in the earliest battle. The combat is there, but this is still primarily a game of building and expanding. Not fighting.
There are enemy cities that are often part of the adventures, but they only really make a difference in terms of finishing each Quest. I don't think you would ever want to pay them off, and certainly not surrender to them. They seem to exist in order to be an unnatural timer to complete a special building before they do, or else to raise an army strong enough to successfully defend yourselves when they inevitably attack.
Casual gamers beware! This is definitely a long game. Even when you are constantly speeding up the action. I spent about five hours just finishing the demo. The game doesn't seem as long as it does, because you are always accomplishing something. This was the equivalent feeling for me as the 'just one turn syndrome' is for the turn based games.
One big complaint that I had about the game was how you have to protect your buildings with maintenance buildings sporadically placed around your city. If a building catches fire or collapses, it becomes debris that nothing can be built on until you clear it. I didn't always know that it happened, and when I found the rubble, I wasn't always sure what building it was that I now had to rebuild.
This is certainly not a perfect game, but I'm sure if I spent even more time with it, I could learn all the intricacies to properly manage it from start to finish. Figuring that out can often be the most enjoyable aspect of a game like this.
The game probably doesn't hold a huge amount of replay for most people. There is a sandbox mode, but the adventures are so clever and challenging, that you probably won't be able to enjoy just the freeform mode of play.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
grimjack2
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Location: San Rafael, CA, Marin County
Reviews written: 181
Trusted by: 124 members
About Me:
Film is my favorite art form. I live a life of constant amelioration.
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