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Pharaoh is the best

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: August 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I have played Pharaoh since it came out. It really is the only PC game that I have returned to, many times over many years. It's insanely addictive, so I try not to start playing except during summer. Once I start, I'm locked in until I have to start teaching again in the Fall.
If you get hooked on this game, be sure to go on line to Pharaoh Heaven on the Heaven Games site (at http://pharaoh.heavengames.com/). A few of the past grand masters of this game (with names like Brugle, TryHard, and VitruviusAIA) still monitor the site to offer excellent tips to beginning players. I actually loved the game enough to devote the time to figuring out the algorithm that governs about 90% of the behavior of the supposedly "random" walkers in the game. If you want to see the fruits of my efforts, look for the most recent posts from StephAmon related to Ambulomancy.
Whether or not you become as obsessed with a particular aspect of the game as I did, I have difficulty seeing how most people could fail to fall in love with Pharaoh and its expansion pack, Cleopatra (also included in the Great Empires Collection).
Windows XP users have no fear, I've got Pharaoh+Cleo running under XP. I make no guarantees about Vista, however, due to lack of experience.

excellent games... get the newer collection, though...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 13
Date: September 06, 2005
Author: Amazon User

These are excellent games. But don't buy this collection, buy the newer Great Empires Collection 2. It has the same three games plus two expansions (separate review).

Pharaoh/Cleopatra has a sequel "Children of the Nile" (separate review) and Caesar III will have a sequel Caesar IV (due Fall 2006.)

There are better games out there

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 11
Date: July 04, 2005
Author: Amazon User

These games expect too much from you. What I mean by that is that everything has to be perfect in the city that you are building in order for the people who live there to be happy.

You have to build their houses in a desirable location, otherwise the houses will be of poor quality and the people will move out. You have to make sure that the people have food, water, jobs, are healthy, have a source of entertainment, and have access to religious services. Providing these things for the people will cost money. If you run out of money, you have to find a way to make more money. One way to make more money is to establish a trade route to another area to trade your goods. This can be hard to do because you will have to find an area that will accept your goods and will trade them for other goods that are useful to you but that you can't produce yourself. You have to make sure that your city has a strong army of soldiers in case of an invasion. Even if you are confident that the people are happy, it seems like they will always have something to complain about. It seems like businesses always complain that they have too few employees. It seems like no matter how many firehouses and architects' posts you build, buildings will constantly be bursting into flame or falling to pieces. Your entire city that you have worked so hard on will be in ruins in just a matter of seconds even if you have the best fire and damage protection. And, you have to make sure that the gods are happy. You need to be constantly throwing festivals in their honor, otherwise they'll do things like send down plagues of locusts or what have you to wreck havoc in your city. What I'm trying to say is that these games are a little too hard. Also, the games have lots of typos, which can be annoying.

These games belong in a 6th grade history classroom to teach kids how hard it was to rule one of these empires. I would not recommend these games to anyone, especially people who are easily frustrated. If you like city-building games, I would recommend Majesty, the Fantasy Kingdom Sim. Now that's a fun game.

The best ever!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: February 21, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I have quite a few modern games (Empire Earth, Age of Mithology, Rise of Nations, you name it!) but the aging Caesar3 is still my favorite, it is relaxing, fun, enjoyable. It is true you won't find zoom capabilities or fancy graphics or complicate interface, it is just the best! By the way, Sierra, where is Caesar4?

good city sims

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: August 18, 2003
Author: Amazon User

cleopatra and pharo are some of my favorite city sims. I found ceaser 3 chunky and hard to play. But getting 3 games in one is a great value. Get ready to lose some major time here!! A good value.

Time-travel the easy way.....

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: August 09, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I've played both Caesar III, and Pharoah, and enjoyed them very much. The graphics and sound are quite satisfactory, and the gameplay is very absorbing. The key to playing successfully is managing your resources efficiently.
If you fail to do so, you will have difficulty meeting your objectives. In one early mission, I made the emperor so angry that he sent legions to arrest me and destroy my town. I was given a different assignment.....pulling an oar in the hold of a galley : ( Challenges with the potential for glorious success or miserable failure is what makes the game interesting. If the game were too easy to win, then it wouldn't be interesting. The degree of difficulty is easily adjusted on a menu in the 'Options' if you wish to reduce the challenge.
So, build what you need in order to meet your goals, i.e. usually producing goods either to export profitably, or meet your own needs, and thus allow construction of facilities which raise the quality of life in your city. Just don't build too fast before you have a solid financial base.
I find that I tend to become very involved with the welfare of 'my' citizens. I love being able to do things which make my cities prosper, enhancing the quality of their housing, and providing a higher standard of living, etc, and likewise feeling badly for them when I forget to provide something, and they suffer as a result. The audio contributes greatly to this, when the population is happy, you hear them laughing and cheering, but when a plague strikes the city, they cough and moan piteously. Also, the sounds vary depending on what you are looking at, if your view is centered on a gladiator school, you will hear swords clanging against armor and lions roaring. If you are looking at a fountain, you may hear water trickling, etc.
Generally, detail on the buildings, and the animations for the various activities taking place are good. There are many different characters, each with distinctive costume, from the little kid happily skipping around the neighborhood of the school, to the long-bearded priest associated with the various temples.
Each mission in each game takes place in a different city. In Pharoah they also take place in a slightly different time, beginning around 3000 B.C.E, and moving forward through time.
When I play, I become very immersed in the games, feeling transported back to these eras, which to me indicates that Sierra did a great job in the overall design and implementation of the games. These are very worthy games by themselves, and expect to be spending a lot of time with them. I also look forward to playing Sierra's other games, Zeus and Poseidon.

Ron

Very good

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: July 28, 2002
Author: Amazon User

The great Empires Collection is over-all a good buy. I would have rated this game four & 1/2 stars, but this was not an option.

The Games are a good mix, but all three games are basically the same.

Caesar III is difficult to an extent, and may get boring. The combat system is good, but it is hard to keep your houses from de-moting.

It takes a week or so, but Caesar III is easily to pick up.

Pharaoh is the same with the exemption of flood plains, roadblocks, and archers, chariots, and inpenterey instead of leagens, spearman, and mounted spearman; also you could build things like pyramids.

Cleopatra is the same as Pharaoh, but there are zoos, some new industries and pyramids building speed-up.

S.S.M.

These are the best challenging scenario games - They rock!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: June 15, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I bought the Empire Collection just about a week ago now, and so far I have only played CaesarIII, but let me tell you, this game is exactly what one wants in a game: Great graphics, challenging scenarios, smooth running with your computer. CaesarIII is very addictive, as I realised one day when I woke up and spent from 9:30am till 4:00pm playing it. I was not even conscience of the time but even after all that time I still hadn't got bored. Personally, one thing I like is that it doesn't cause your computer to "stick up" even after playing it for hours on end. The graphics and sounds are like real life and it is really amazing how a game with such good graphics and sounds doesn't cause your computer to freeze after extended play. The only "con" I see in this game is that it is very time consuming and in many scenarios Caesar's demands seem impossible to met. You either have runned out of space or don't have enough money.
However, if you think you're a pro when it comes to strategy games, then I highly recommend you to buy "The Empires Collection".

HIGHLY ADDICTIVE!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: May 11, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Ok, I seriously would sit up late at night sketching out plans on paper for "the perfect city" -- carefully considering how many homes could be served by one fountain in the Roman empire, how to place granaries close enough to markets and markets close enough to housing for my Egyptians to get the max. benefit. Pathetic, I know! But that just goes to show how involved you can get into this game. My only problem, though, is that eventually you DO figure these things out... and then what?

There are 2 basic aspects to the game: building a thriving population and battling the enemies of the empire. I like the former, but after I solved that my only challenges were the enemies of my kingdom -- and I don't particularly enjoy battling games (that's part of why I bought Empire Collection instead of some shoot'em-up game). Oh well! I still had tons of fun. And 3 games for one price??? WOOOHOO! Can't be that.

Here is a game,when comes such other?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: March 29, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Hi.Well,I had bought Caesar3 in 2000.I played zealously for 1 year then I had to quit as I could not get time from my school final year.Now that I have graduated,I was searching for the CD and couldn't find it.So I went to Sierra website,came to know of the Empires Collection and reached here.
Let me tell you,I've played Caesar3 and Pharaoh+Expansion(at my friend's).These games are the most addictive games in the universe.Now that I'm without my C3,I'm having withdrawal symptoms.LOL.But truly,kudos to the creators of these games.C3 was the first game I bought and man,is it great.I've spent many 24hr 'shifts' in this game.And just observing the game (while someone else's playing) is equally engaging.I'd never ever trade anything for these games.

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