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Great Simulation!! Get This Game, But........

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 18 / 19
Date: December 18, 2001
Author: Amazon User

My favorite type of game is simulation, and when I saw this one, I got it. I comes with three great Sims. Caesar, Pharaoh and the Pharaoh expansion. All three games are great, and here is a little info of each.

First Caesar III, the sequal to Caesar II. Rule a Roman empire! Obey the gods and you recieve blessings, don't and face certain doom. Treat your plebs, build houses, forts, walls, granarys, and water systems. Fight distant enemies with your legions. Gain a good reputation and achieve emperor status. Will your empire crumble are succeed. You decide, be an emperor the the gods will loke up to!

Pharaoh is the game coming after Caesar III. It has the same game fell as Caesar, but instead of Rome you control Egypt. Train Egyption armies to fight enemies. Get food by fishing, growing reeds in the Nile and sending hunters to fetch food. Obey the gods, and build monuments that will stand for ages. Manufacture goods to ship across and the lands and make money.

Finally, the expansion extends the gameplay for Pharaoh a lot farther. You can make more goods like paint and oil and also construct larger monments like tombs and pyrimids.

Overall, I like these games a lot, but the reason I gave 4 stars is because the more things you make, the slower the game gets. Sometimes, you can make so many buildings that it runs out of memory and the game freezes. But if you like sims, get this!

Compelling and fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 14
Date: January 15, 2001
Author: Amazon User

A great three-pack. Two games, with the extension to Pharoah. The games are pretty much non-violent, city-building god-games, and you are required to consider most aspects of a city-state (trade, population, religion, foreign wars, diplomacy) to survive. It's also quite safe for children - I'm happy with my 5-yr-old playing alone. No ugly graphics, no commercialism, no junk americana voices and great gameplay. Caesar is just different enough to the Egyptians to pull you in, but similar enough to share some techniques.

All-in-all, probably the cheapest entertainment around.

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.)

As sims go, they're tops.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: March 06, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I got this set for Christmas and I love it. I've gone a few weeks here and there without playing with the games but I always seem to return.

There are four CDs in the pack, three games and a preview CD. The best of the pack is Caesar III, of course. It's tight and runs beautifully and once you begin to get the hang of the game you find the real challenges are only beginning.

I've played Pharaoh and its expansion less because I find the UI on them a little clunky. Don't get me wrong--it's beautifully crafted, but less intuitive than the Caeser UI. I also dislike all the minor twiddling you have to do with Pharaoh to keep things running smoothly (but then perhaps I've not played it enough to learn all the secrets there), and don't like the design so much finding it less elegant and more harsh on the eye.

Overall though I think I'll return to these games often, and they're always a great way to spend a little time relaxing.

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

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.

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.

Addictive

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: March 03, 2002
Author: Amazon User

My wife and I both have to share the computer to play this game and while one plays the other looks over the others shoulder. Watching is almost as fun as playing.This was the first computer game we ever bought and have found it to be exactly what we wanted from a game. It will take years to finish this game but knowing that doesnt add any rush to playing .It has a fine tutorial that teaches you where the game controls are and a MANUAL OF THE OLD FASHION >>>> A BOOK . I hate pdf file game manuals as they cost the price of a printer cartridge to print it . This game has the book included.Addictive and fun???? Better have plenty of time and set a timer that tells you that you have reached your 12 hour limit as we have pulled allnighters playing this game and still werent finished nor bored .One more thing , we have yet to find or even have heard of a game that entertains as much as this one . Great game for serious gamers or those that are looking for their first one , and please take the time to read the manual. Have fun .

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.

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?

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