Anger
Terracotta Army
Posts: 20
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I picked up this game on impulse last night. I'm not the greatest fan of citybuilding games, but when the mood strikes I can really enjoy them. The purchase was whimsically justified, I admit, but I'm still a little excited by it's potential. As the game mixes in elements of Civilization, I find myself hoping it will be the first citybuilder to really grab me. Then perhaps someday I'll understand the huge appeal of these games. I read great reviews for Children of the Nile, and played it for all of twenty minutes. I digress. On to the brief, first play session review:
Playing the campaign, the basic idea is that you're just starting out as a Roman civil engineer. You get a voiced mission briefing with some video, and then you start to play. The voice acting isn't terrible, which is a plus, but I don't think it'll be winning any awards either. Before you click PLAY at the mission briefing, there are a couple tabs you can check out that will explain the structures you'll be using, or give you hints.
Once you start to play, it's basically any other citybuilder. You plop down a town center and some buildings, and your little dudes start doing their thing. Housing is the name of the game here. Each dwelling can get promoted (hovel to shanty, or whatever) to new types once basic needs are met. Inhabitants are only willing to travel so far from their homes to see their needs met, so the trick is finding a layout where houses are close to wells, butcher shops, tunic makers, et cetera. Each promotion means higher tax revenue. Each promotion also means that more requirements will need to be met before the next promotion. Thankfully, the radius that inhabitants are willing to travel increases with each upgrade. So, for example, the most basic of dwellings just needs to be close to a well. Once it upgrades, it needs to be close to a well AND a food source, and so on. I had to restart the third or fourth mission several times before I figured out a layout that really worked, and the problem solving aspect was fun.
I will say that it could be more polished. I've encountered nothing game-breaking as of yet, but I do have some minor annoyances. The most frustrating design flaw for me is if you've clicked on a building or citizen to see their info (which appears as a window in the bottom of the screen) you have to actually close that little info window before you can open anything else, like a building menu, or overall status report. The game locked up on me once, but I was furiously clicking menus at the time (trying to figure out the previously mentioned problem). You're also able to place roads diagonally yet unable to put any buildings on them, as buidings are placeable with only four facings. For some reason that just drives me crazy.
Religion, research, wonders, and some war/combat are in the game, and I'm excited to get to them, but I haven't reached that stage in the campaign yet. I'll be playing it some more today, if anyone's interested in me continuing this review, I'll do so.
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