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Lots of fun!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 12
Date: November 28, 1999
Author: Amazon User

I loved this game! Its very entertaining. It takes sim games to a new level because you can hear the opinions of the people walking on the streets. You must provide for the citizens, the various Roman Gods, the Empire, and keep pesky intruders away. It got me interested in Rome and Caesar, by representing the kinds of problems people had to deal with back then. So get it! Its fun, and, dare I say it, educational, and takes strategy and planning but isn't so hard that you can't win.

Wonderfully Addictive and Challenging!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: December 20, 1999
Author: Amazon User

Caesar III is wonderfully addictive and challenging. You can expect weeks and weeks (even months)of thought provoking game play with this one. Hours go by without eating or sleeping, it's utterly engrossing! Quit your day job! This is much more fun! I find myself dreaming of city maps and getting up in the middle of the night to play them out. This game can be won! Easy to install and run, very reliable (have not crashed once)and a wonderful online community of support and tips at Sierra. Can't wait to see Pharoh! A definate Buy!

One Hellova' Game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: February 28, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Ok, so I admit it, this game can become difficult and annoying (at some times), but let's face it! It doesn't get better than Caesar 3. But to be honest, you have to like the Roman times! This game remindes me a lot about "Gladiator" the movie, it ties in. Once you become someone who understands the game, you win the game (which I intend to do, but still haven't) which can be difficult. The graphics are amazing, the action is true, and the game is real. Now I bet you've lost me when I said the game is true, but it all means that you can have fun while you play this strategic game. The following games are like Caesar 3: Many of the many "Sim" games, "Starcraft" or "Warcraft", one of the many "Age of the Empires" games, "Pharoah", and many others. Have you ever played any of these games? They can be fun, but Caesar 3 is the most realistic. Come on, people say this game can be difficult, which it is, but they don't look "beyond" the difficulties! This game makes sitting around watching the computer screen fun! Now I know I've skipped many features and details of Caesar 3, but I'm running out of room to type. So I'll make this short and sweet, buy this game and you will experience something totally new, totally different, and totally fun! Take whatever I typed in concideration, thanks Ü

Caesar 3

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: December 09, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Not long ago, I could remember once playing (and being addicted to) a thrilling game called Caesar 2. I also remembered that since my computer had crashed, I was unable to continue my thriving civilisations and had been deprived of any games as enthralling. So, in search of another great game to fill my endless hours of boredom, I stumbled across a demo download of Caesar 3. Curiosity got the better of me and after waiting 2 hours for it to download, I started playing the game. 5 hours later, I shut down my computer.
This game is so brilliant, I was not distracted by anything while playing it. I was completely intrigued by it. I do not even have the full version (but am currently prowling round my local stores, hunting it down), but found the game to be so exciting, especially compared to it's predecessor, Caesar 2. Although it presents some rather challenging assignments, I managed to overcome them, and considering my inexperience, I think that this shows that it poses challenges that are not impossible - rather...well, challenging!
It is definitely a game which is easily recommended to all people who are looking for a new kind of entertaining game.
By the way, in case you have classified this game into a group which is limited to the likings of 30-something, male archaeologists, take this into account - I am a 15 year old girl!!! It definitely has no restrictions as to it's fans!

great game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: October 19, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I still go back to this game and play it every once in a while. it is one of the best games I ever played. I wish they would re-make it with modern graphics.
I am surprised people having so many difficulties at getting through levels. advice: be very smart about strategy. develop this city altogether. you can't concentrate on one aspect of life at a time, fix it up and turn to other aspects. this is not how this game works.

to "Classified": to solve fire problem, control your roads. don't twist them too much. this will help minimize number of services per capita as well. for defense don't build only legionaries, use velites as well. ratio 1+1 works very well. just keep velites out of melee. towers with ballista on top are very good addition as well.
try building "blocks" at a time: rectangle shape road wide enough to put 2x2 houses on the inside and still have at least 2 spaces for gardens. give the "block" own prefect, temple, market... do houses 2x2, works by far the best. leave spaces for entertainment, education, which you will build later. one road to farms, one road to docks... prefect and engineers at each end. storages along this road. not too close to settlement. when need more workers. do second "block". build first troops early enough. no need to do more than one from the beginning. invasions start small...
try playing again. it is a real pleasure, not "nerve shattering". just need to do it right.

p.s. funny: after saying it, decided to check and turns out they are making Caesar 4! coming fall 2006. looking forward to it.

Excellent

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: April 22, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game rocks. My friend let me borrow it, and I made up excuses not to give it back for almost a year! I played Caesar II and, quite frankly, was very disappointed. It was impossible to win that game. Caesar III, however, is much easier. I read a review about a guy who could never win because of the ratings. I don't know what the hell he's talking about! I beat the game easily, and then went back and beat it again, taking a different path. And again. And again. That's how diverse this game can be. In the campaign, you are always given the choice between to assignments. The combinations are endless. Simply awesome.

The one thing I did not like is the fact that, once you get a thriving city going, your housing starts to require a lot of things. And unless you are very good at planning ahead, it becomes difficult to get them a steady supply of furniture, pottery, two wines, a varied diet, and olive oil at the same time. Not to mention the education requirements, need for entertainment and sanitation, water restrictions, and the need for arable farmland. That's probably the worst. Ideally, the farmland would be nearby to water, and there would be some forest or scrub near that as well. Not the usual setup, however, which makes getting pottery and furniture to the central populace, who is near the farmland on the other side of the map, a real chore.

All in all, though, this is a five-star game worth all the money you spend.

Still a great game...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: October 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Out of nostalgia, I decided to play Caesar 3 again. It's been 5 or 6 years. The Caesar series is the only city building sim game that I've played so I can't give a comparison to the SimCity games. Anyway, for a game that was released back in 1998, I think it still holds up pretty well today. Graphics is sub-par compared to the games today, but Caesar 3's strength is the challenging gameplay.

There are two mode of gameplay; I'll call them city sandbox and campaign. In the city sandbox mode (I don't play this mode) you select a province you want to play so that you can build a city from scratch. There may or may not be any barbarians you would need deal with depending on which you province you choose. Campaign mode is my preference. You start your career as a clerk and you are given very low expectations by Caesar's proconsul since it is your first city. However, as you advance in your career the proconsul expectations will increase. If I remember correctly the first two cities in campaign mode are pretty much tutorials where you will be given tips on how to improve your city.

I believe after the first two cities you will be given the choice of which province you want pursue. If you are the non-violent type, then you can select the peaceful province which is easier since you won't need to build forts with trained soldiers to repel barbarian attacks. If you want a bit of a challenge then choose the harder province where you will need to deal with barbarian and sometime rebellious natives. Because the you will have less headaches in peaceful provinces, the expectations are generally higher than in the harder provinces since there will not be any barbarians to deal with. That's not to say it will be a walk through the park though.

Your goals are broken down into 5 categories: Population, Culture, Prosperity, Peace, and Favor. Population is easy to understand, simply attract as many people to live in your city. But that's easier said than done. Culture refers to a combination of temples that you build to the gods, education infrastructure for your citizens and theatrical entertainment. Prosperity basically is a measure of how well your city is doing (are you spending more than you are collecting?) and how wealthy your citizens are. The wealth or prosperity of your city his depicted by the type of building they live in; from tents through large palaces. Peace is simply, do not let your people riot. Make sure they are employed and fed. Mars (the god of war) may cause some of your citizens to rise up against you if you do not pay homage to him by build temples dedicated to him. Lastly, defeat the barbarian hordes. Favor is basically how much Caesar likes you. From time to time the proconsul will request "goods" from you that must be delivered to Rome. Send the goods on time and your favor goes up. Send the goods late then... Well at least you can say, "Better late than never." But if you fail to provide the goods at all, then your favor will plummet. You can also send gifts from your personal savings, but once you start giving gifts then they will no longer be gifts in the future. They will become requirements.

Now that the introduction has been completed, it's time to start building. This is where the fun begins. Most of the time you will start in an empty province and you will need to build housing and jobs to attract people to your fledgling city. You don't build villas or palaces from the start. Instead you build tents. As people move in, the tents will evolve to shacks, hovels, small villas... well you get the point. But you have to build up the desirability of the neighborhood for house to develop. Water is one of the primary necessities. While a well will provide water, it is much too primitive for most people and housing will not evolve beyond the basic hovel. People want clean water from nearby fountains. They want jobs! Employment means money. Money means they can eat and buy things. They want a marketplace nearby to go shopping, but don't build it too close `cause marketplaces are noisy and will have a negative affect on the overall local desire level. Build temples, people love going to a nearby temple to prey to their gods. They want a nearby bathhouse `cause who wants to walk around smelling like "old cheese"? Hey, all work and no play means one hell of a boring city, so build theatres, amphitheatres, and a coliseum or two.

Anywaste, you get the point; people want to be happy. All you have to figure out is how to do so and where to place the various types of buildings. Anything that is noisy or dirty will have a negative effect on the local neighborhood and prevent housing to evolve beyond a certain point. For example, farms are generally dirty places so any housing built right next to it will probably have a hard time evolving into a large villa. Workshops for building goods is also noisy as are granaries and warehouses. Building plazas, gardens, temples, theatres, and other structures as well can offset negative effects. The manual's pretty good and it should be referred to from time to time.

One of best features of the game is that you can right click on your own citizens and they will tell what's on their mind. They are not shy about it. This will help you improve your city. Right clicking on a build, like a house will tell you why it has devolved or what is preventing it from evolving. A place of business like farms or docks may tell you there is no one living nearby, thus no employees. A bit of micromanagement and organizational skills are necessary to build a successful city. But I think it adds to the fun `cause you directly affect how well the city performing.

Caesar 3 is unlike most games because very little violence is actually involved. Yes, there are the barbarian hordes, but the violence is very minimal. Violence can be totally avoided by simply choosing the peaceful career path. All-in-all Caesar 3 is still a great game to play because of the underlying complexities of how citizens react layout of the city. There is no one strategy to winning the game.

At this time Caesar 4 is currently on sale, but it has some mixed reviews. One complaint is that the game is less complex than Caesar 3 so some people don't find it as challenging as it's predecessor. It's more pretty (better graphics), but has less substance.

Quite entertaining. Very good. Actually great!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: December 15, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Caesar 3 is yet another great game from Impressions. It greatly improves on Caesar 2, which I found to be an excellent game in it's own right. Having everthing on one screen is kind of nice, rather than having a city screen, and a province screen.

The graphics are nicer and you actually have more than just a couple o people walking around in your city.

With the option on the difficulty settings it make the game quite flexable. Whether you're a casual gamer who just wants to play around, or simply have some fun, or a hard-core gamer who wants to challenge the game to its limit, this game can serve both types of consumers and all of those in between.

There's a good variety of buildings, but not so many that you never use them all. The two different games settings are quite interesting. There's the campaign mode, in which you work your way up the ladder of Roman politics, or the city construction kit if you just want to build a city. There is a program that come's with the game that allows you to make you own settings, options, terrain, goals, you name it... It allows you to make you own maps. This game is appealing to young and old. Oh, and who said that only guys play computer games? My 12-year-old sister loves this game (as do I, being 15). That's about it. Try it. With the price so low it's a great deal!

[Impressions has designed other games which may be of interest, such as: Lords of Magic (Special Edition) (highly recommended), Pharoah (and the expansion pack), Zeus: Master of Olympus (and the expansion pack), Civil War General 1 and 2, Lords of the Realm, Lords of the Realm 2 and soon Lords of the Realm 3.]

I want to be Caesar!...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: October 17, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Totally addictive. Gets very hard in the upper levels since when you start planning your Roman province it's hard to imagine it as a huge thriving city. I've never had the money problems other gamers here describe, but the prosperity requirements at the upper levels are extremely difficult. It's a blast though to watch your city grow and to make it a place where people like to live. In spite of its faults, it's great fun deciding where to build things, what industry to get going first, and how to defend your city. The graphics are beautiful and you get a real sense of appreciation for what it must have been like to live in a city with no cars, movie theaters or telephones. And at [the price], you can't beat the value!

I love it

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: May 07, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I keep coming back to this game. I love the challenge of building the city, and the battles aren't bad now I've figured out the strategy involved. ;)
More city building games... please, make more!!

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