I finally got around to buying a couple of new games this week and I picked up Sierra/Tilted Mill's
Caesar IV. I don't consider myself a competent game reviewer type d00d but I thought I'd talk about it a bit because I seem to recall someone asking about it and the rest of the history sims that came out recently (CivCity Rome, Glory of the Roman Empire)
Good:- There's enough eye candy to satisfy without killing your rig. I have the settings on what amounts to "high" and it looks pretty clean, nothing earth shattering though.
- The game play is a bit more fast paced than most city/econ sims. (Which is to me a good thing.) I'd say on par with a Tropico or Total War for learning curve, but nothing as complex as a SimCityXX.
- The overall feel of the game in regards to being historical enough is there, at least for me. Caveat that I'm an ancient history buff so maybe I'm looking for love in all the wrong places. Sounds, textures, animations, menu navigation all suitably "Roman".
Bad:- The deal breaker. The UI is ATROCIOUS. Not only is it unintuitive, at times expanded menu elements can actually obstruct you from seeing parts of what you're working on. I've gotten over it just because I'm so bored with my PC game selection of late, but I won't try and gloss the fact that the UI is so glaringly bad. Odd in a game that otherwise is put together pretty well.
Misc:- Dropped to desktop on my first run, immediately had to go get a patch from the official site. No tech problems since then however.
Summary: Worth buying if you really like builders or history schtuff, but nothing to make it a standout game you must have in comparison to other games of it's genre out right now. I'm sure it will get lost in the shadow of Medieval: TW by the end of the year. Overall I'm glad I bought it over the other two Rome sims, and I played it non-stop last night for four hours. Worth the money so far.
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