Caesar is a city-building computer game where the player undertakes the role of a Roman governor, building ancient Roman cities.
Released in 1992 on the Amiga, ported the next year to Atari ST, PC and Macintosh, the game was similar to SimCity. In addition to similar graphics and user interfaces, it also came with issues of micromanagement, including complicated city-planning requirements such as building the right number of schools, theaters, libraries, bathhouses, and other amenities, within suitable distances of residential areas.
Differences from SimCity
Lets Play Caesar III - 1 - Capua (Gameplay/Commentary) - It's Nostalgia corner on my block of the internet. And I bring forth to the table a game from 1998 made by Impressions Games on the PC. It's a birds eye view city build game based right from...
Notable differences of Caesar from Sim City included:
- Addition of a military aspect to the game.
- Simulation with detailed historical city themes and structures.
In Caesar the player was required to organize and fund armed campaigns against barbarians, and budget accordingly. The battles themselves were not featured in the original game, but the player needed to accommodate expenses such as travelling troops, billeting and provisions, as well as maintaining a road network to transport legions more effectively. SimCity eventually offered historical city graphics to overlay its game engine but the underlying user interface and growth simulation remained unchanged.
Sequels
Caesar was developed and designed by Impressions Games and distributed by Sierra Entertainment. Impressions developed another Roman-themed game at the same time as Caesar, Cohort 2, a game which allowed the player to direct Ancient Roman battles in a style akin to a crude precursor of the Command & Conquer series. Impressions included a feature in Cohort 2 which allowed players of Caesar to load their saved files and play out the battles from Caesar in Cohort 2. Later, Impressions released an updated version of Caesar which automatically launched a version of Cohort 2 whenever the player engaged in battle. This version was released under the title Caesar Deluxe in 1993.
Impressions released additional sequels Caesar II in 1995 and Caesar III in 1998. A third sequel, Caesar IV, was announced August 2005 by Tilted Mill Entertainment and was subsequently released on September 26, 2006.
Reception
Computer Gaming World in June 1993 recommended Caesar to SimCity fans who "wished for more buttons to push, knobs to adjust and wires to reroute". The magazine concluded that "Caesar provides that rare quality in strategy gaming â€" an experience whose rewards prove equal to its challenges ... [it] provides the serious player with a real lion's feast". A survey of pre 20th-century strategy games in the issue gave the game three-plus stars out of five, calling it "More of a game than a simulation, but it can be fun".
Caesar and its sequel were named, collectively, the 96th best computer game ever by PC Gamer UK in 1997. The editors wrote, "Impressions keep on keeping on with the likes of Lords of the Realm [...] but have never managed to regain the dizzy peak they climbed with their handsome brace of think-'em-ups."
References
External links
- Discussion of evolution of Caesar games by lead designer Chris Beatrice (on Internet Archive)
- MobyGames - Caesar
