Zeus: Master of Olympus Review

Impressions has made a reputation for itself with its line of ancient city building games. First there was the Caesar series which focused on the Roman Empire. Next they turned their attention to Ancient Egypt with Pharaoh and its expansion game, Cleopatra. Now Impressions takes you to Ancient Greece in their latest game, Zeus: Master of Olympus. Does this game bring anything new to the series, or is it just a rehash of the prior games with Greek looking graphics? The answer is a little of both.

For those of you who have played Caesar or Pharaoh, Zeus will appear to be somewhat familiar to you. For those new to the game, it is a city building and management game that puts you in control of a city in the ancient world. You must manage your city's economy, defense, and aesthetics, all while defending it from invading armies, marauding monsters, and angry gods.

While there are many things you must manage for your city, the economic model lies at the heart of the game. In order to run a successful city, you must ensure that raw materials are getting to your production centers, that their goods are being delivered to the storehouses, that shops are available to sell the goods, and finally that there are enough people living in your city to do all this. Phew!

To ensure that you do indeed have plenty of people around to run your city, you must provide them with a pleasant place to live - somewhere that is clean, safe, and sanitary, provides the necessary shops and services to conduct daily life, and has plenty of places for entertainment and recreation. Of course, to build all of these things you must have plenty of money, which you get from a well-run economy...

At least your city does not find itself in complete isolation from the world, and you can establish trade routes with your neighbors to exchange resources and produce. This comes in handy when you find yourself lacking some critical resource or when you'd like to add a steady income stream to your treasury.

Those familiar with Impressions earlier games may be thinking that this game sounds a lot like Caesar and Pharaoh. In truth, fans of Caesar or Pharaoh can just jump right in and start playing without much trouble at all. So what makes Zeus different other than Greek looking buildings? Well, in the prior games, the local deities had a minor effect on the game, requiring you to pay them just enough attention to keep them from reducing your harvest or some such similar thing. In Zeus, however, anger one of the gods and he/she just might pay a visit to your city to wreck a little divine havoc. Not only can the gods be a nuisance (or a benefit, depending on whether or not you've pleased them, but you'll have to contend with mythical beasts and epic heroes as well. In Zeus they are all quite real and can have a direct effect on your city's success or failure.

You need to have a fair amount of patience to play Zeus. It can take a while to get your city to the point where it has a sustainable and thriving economy. This will necessarily involve some 'watch and wait' type gameplay where you will have to keep an eye on things to make sure no disasters befall your city, but will not be able to do too much building while waiting for your economy to start humming. While this does hold an appeal to the builder player types out there, a lot of gamers will find all the waiting unbearable.

Another downside to this is that mistakes made early on in your city's development can come back to haunt you. The size and terrain of the game map restricts your city's size and layout, so if you don't plan carefully early on, you may find it impossible to some critical production centers later in the game.

Also, if you don't properly plan your economy, you can find yourself quite a ways into a game before you realize that your economy is no longer sustainable and that you are headed for certain financial doom. This often necessitates playing the scenario again from scratch, losing what could be a large time investment up until that point.

The game's monsters, heroes, and gods are a nice touch. While history purists may complain that their presence distracts from the historical nature of the game, they do add excitement and flair to the game. It may not be the world the Greeks actually lived in, but instead is the world as they imagined it. It should be pointed out, though, that those looking to Zeus to learn more about Greek mythology will probably not get as thorough a lesson as they might have hoped for. Zeus should be thought of as more of a Cliff Notes version of Greek mythology - you get some of the basics, but not much depth.

Those looking for an ancient world military simulation should probably pass on Zeus. While there is combat in the game, it is along the lines of a 'click to go here and fight' free for all than a study in ancient Greek military tactics.

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 82%. If you loved Caesar and Pharaoh, you'll probably really like Zeus. You'll probably enjoy the game also if you enjoy the challenge of building a city and an economy to run it, provided you have the patience to wait for your efforts to bear fruit. Those with shorter attention spans or who prefer more action in their games are probably better off passing on Zeus.

System Requirements:  166 MHz Pentium CPU, 32 MB RAM, 4x CD-ROM, 450 MB Hard Drive Space, 2MB Video Card, Mouse.

Final Rating: 82% -

Note: A review code for this game was provided by the publisher.