Zeus: Master of Olympus Demo

City-building games are quite popular among strategy fans, since they encompass a lot of related gameplay elements, as well as much more complex mechanics. You also get to toy around with an entire civilization and decide their fate with a click of a button, which offers enough incentive to keep you motivated and constantly experimenting.

Zeus: Master of Olympus, as the name implies take place in Ancient Greece and is heavily oriented toward mythology and the role religion played in the development of the civilization. Thus, gods are a very real and important part of the game, since they can provide you with a variety of services and bonuses, or become angry with your settlement and try to burn it to the ground. Luckily, Zeus is on your side and he does his best to keep the danger away.

In essence, the game follows the basic city sim mechanics, although it is much more related to tiles like Pharaoh, since it was developed by the same studio. Hence, resources have an important role to play as well and they range from common wheat and carrots, to bronze, marble and even fleece. All of them are vital in the development of your civilization, as is the trade that assures that they are spread in every corner of the land, so that everyone has access to what they need.

As previously mentioned, things can go south for a variety of reasons at any point, regardless of how prosperous your city happens to be. Since Greek gods are not very known for being logical and calculated, they get upset quite quickly and they are more than happy to stomp your settlement into the ground, or even send their hellish creatures to do their bidding for them. In order to stop them, you can either use the villagers that can be trained as warriors, or you ask Zeus for help, since he appears to be the sanest of them all.

The graphics quality has a great impact on the overall experience as well, thanks to the 3D environments and the isometric camera that provides you with a top-down view of your lands. Thanks to the exquisite modeling and the very intuitive controls, it is very simple to explore your civilization and watch over it from every angle, as well as marvel at the beautiful buildings scattered across the city.

While Zeus: Master of Olympus may not be the most realistic city builder out there, it certainly takes a lot of things into consideration and gives you plenty to think about over the course of the gameplay. Moreover, the lengthy campaign provides you with many hours of fun, as well as quite the challenge toward the end.