CaesarIA

Caesar III was an iconic title in its genre, as well as a well-regarded video game in general. However, that was a very long time ago, and it doesn’t  hold up from a technical point of view nowadays, which is why people have a difficult time playing it on newer systems. Thanks to its popularity, on the other hand, a handful of fans have begun developing a modern clone, to keep its memory alive.

CaesarIA is barely in its early days and it doesn’t feature too much content yet, but it keeps evolving from update to update. Hence, it starts to resemble its older brother and it certainly became playable lately, as long as you are prepared to deal with the occasional bug every now and again. The atmosphere is the same, on the other hand, which should make long-time fans of the franchise feel right at home.

In case you are not familiar with the series, the entire game revolves around your ability to build a magnificent city from the ground up, during the golden years of the Roman Empire. Although you start with a few houses and a small number of people to inhabit them, the game quickly transforms into a fierce economic simulator, which means that you have to keep an eye on things like employment, taxes, and various other such annoyances.

The cities become more complicated as you keep advancing, because the population starts to require more things from you. Not only that, but Caesar himself can make requests from your city, which cannot be refused. Given the time period, gods play a significant role in the society as well, so you must also build temples to please them and gain various bonuses.

From a technical point of view, the game is still in the development phase and it certainly doesn’t look as good as you would expect. The graphics are pretty rough and rather glitchy from time to time, while the sound samples are way too repetitive to be able to stand them for more than a few minutes. On the other hand, everything seems to work the majority of the time so that you can concentrate on the gameplay.

When it’s all said and done, CaesarIA is still a long way from reaching Caesar III’s level, but it’s on the right track. Hence, if you enjoyed the original and you can put up with a decent collection of bugs and annoyances for now, this is certainly a title to keep an eye on.