Impressions may not be the biggest name in the computer-game industry, but they've had their moments. One of their more notable efforts was Caesar from a few years back. Since technology and games have progressed quite a bit since then, and since Caesar was a popular titles, they decided it was time to update history with Caesar II.
The first thing that went through my mind, and rolled off the tongues of my colleagues here at IE after seeing C2 for the first time, was "This was done by Impressions?" This attitude stems from the fact that I think Caesar II is far and away the best thing Impressions has done, and it's one of the better city sims in general I've ever seen. The player is put in the role of a Roman governor at the beginning of the Roman Empire and, through proper building and management of cities and provinces, works to be promoted through the ranks and eventually become Emperor himself.
Caesar II has two modes of management, the city mode and the provincial mode. It's possible to play just in city mode but the full game uses both modes, which is the way that Caesar II really comes into its own. At the city level you build roads, nurture businesses, and make sure there's enough entertainment, education and city workers. Sound familiar? It's almost exactly like SimCity2000 except with Roman equivalents. C2 gets in closer to the city and has SVGA graphics that are some of the most gorgeous you'll find anywhere. It looks so good, it's fun to just watch someone play. There are impressive palatial private dwellings, beautiful marble-tiled forums, magnificent stone coliseums and lots more. And for special events throughout the game, C2 has very nice 3-D rendered animations which highlight any special events. Even without considering any of the gameplay features, C2 is like having an interactive, ever-growing piece of art on your PC.
As impressive as it is to look at, C2's design, particularly in the area of real estate, is very well done. The main growth factors are land values, which are increased or limited by the location of the land. A house's value increases when it's close to entertainment or educational facilities, but its value becomes limited when it's placed to close to a marketplace or a business. It takes lots of attention and consideration to get everything just right. As much as it may be compared to SimCity2000, I personally think there's a little more depth and sophistication to city design in C2.
Your city is just part of a larger province which, in full-game mode, you have to manage as well. There are areas where you can establish industries, such as farms, mines or quarries, that will generate products that can be sold in your marketplaces and exported to other provinces. There are also smaller cities in your province that you don't have any control over, but can hook up to your main city which will help out both cities by increasing trade. Ports and shipyards can be built on coastlines which increase trade to other lands and provide products to sell which may have otherwise not been available. Forts can be built for your soldiers, and provincial walls can be established to help protect your population from all those barbarians just outside the gate.
What really sets this apart from a simple "grow-a-city" type of game is the inclusion of combat. Through allocation of resources you can establish a cohort, a military unit which is used to drive back those groups of raiders, barbarians and rebels which love to pillage and plunder your province. When an enemy force is infringing on your territory you can send your army out to meet them. When the enemy has been met, the player is given a choice whether to personally lead the attack or to let a subordinate carry out the dirty work. If the player decides to directly command his troops (and what would the fun be of combat if he didn't?), a screen showing all of the troops from both sides pops up and the player can position his soldiers wherever he wants on his side of the battlefield. Once the army has been set up the battle is set into motion as the troops carry out their orders. The battle can be paused at any time and new orders given, or commands can be given in real time. Basically the player watches as the battle unfolds, commanding his troops to take up column or line formations and moving to certain spots. I wish there was a little more involvement or sophistication in combat mode, but it's fun nonetheless
Holding everything together is one great interface. In all aspects of the game, from city and provincial management to combat, C2 is very easy and intuitive to control. City mode has an icon-oriented interface, with all the basic functions like building roads or establishing educational buildings laid out on the right side of the screen. Certain functions involve more than one choice, so if you choose the water icon, a menu pops up with a choice between reservoirs, aqueducts, fountains, wells, and rivers. An information bar keeps the player updated on what the currently selected item costs, and a tool bar above all that let's the player move easily between city or province mode, and allows access to the forum.
The forum is where all information about the city and province can be obtained, and the forum is also where the player can keep in contact with his Roman superiors. A handsomely drawn screen of the inside of a Roman building represents the forum, with the different advisors standing around the room. These advisors give the player information on how well the city is moving along, let the player set taxes, manage the work force and army, and communicate with the Emperor, which usually consists of sending him a gift of some sort. Each advisor can be accessed by clicking on their picture or the player can click on the menu of the advisor's areas at the bottom of the screen.
Adding a real "gaming" element into C2 is the fact the player has to meet certain goals in each province. The player has to complete a certain number of provinces in order to become the Emperor, the criteria for the completion of a province being developing your province to an acceptable level in four areas: empire, peace, prosperity and culture. So if the culture percentage needed is 30% and you only have 25%, you need to add something like entertainment or educational buildings to your city. When your province has exceeded the set percentages in all four areas, the Emperor offers you a chance to move on to a new province. If you accept you start all over again, but you do have a choice of playing the existing province as long as you want, with the Emperor reviewing your percentages every 10 or 25 years thereafter.
The only feature that really drove me through the roof was when I tried to rotate a building in order to place it where I wanted. The Circus, for example, is an oblong arena where the Romans go to watch chariot races. Since it is longer than it is wide, the player needs to be able to rotate it to fit it into the city like he wants. Caesar II does let the player place these buildings however he wants, but instead of letting the player rotate the building, the entire map itself must be rotated to the correct angle. Trying to do this proved somewhat confusing since my whole frame of reference just got a 90-degree adjustment. But it won't ruin the game because the problem doesn't present itself very often, but it boggles my mind that the designers didn't look at each other and say, "You know, instead of moving the entire world to fit the building, why don't we rotate the building to fit the rest of the world?" The fact that this is a super game simply makes this one design flaw stick out.
It seems like we've been seeing a wave of games lately that are shattering our impression of the "best." For a few years now SimCity2000 was the reigning champion of the city-simulation genre and it didn't look like it was going to be toppled for some time. It looks like that time may have come in the form of Caesar II. It takes everything that SC2000 does and does it better and, dare I say it, more fun. If you're the type that just wants to deal with building a city you can do that, but if you want more, if you found SC2000 fascinating but a bit boring in the long run, Caesar II's multiple levels of game play and control make it something you should go out and buy right now.
