Once again it takes place in the time of the Romans, with you starting out as a lowly lord with a small town and gradually builds you up till you have huge bustling cities with thousands of people and tons of different buildings, markets, and trade routes.

It can be compared to Seven Kingdoms, Age of Empires, Sim City, and Civilization at various levels of the game. You build up your cities much the same way you would in Sim City. Since this is in the Roman times, sometimes it will require armies to keep the enemies at bay. Its graphically similar to Sim City, although battles are done more along the lines of a real time strategy game like AoE was.

It's quite detailed and in depth. You're constantly trying to make sure you've got enough housing, that the people are happy, that they're being fed, and make sure you're not losing money. It's quite a handful, but it makes the game challenging and entertaining. You need to build up thriving markets for your people while setting up tax collection to bring in some income. Trading is also crucial for bringing in an income, it's much easier to take money from other cities than it is from your own. It's filled with all the usual aspects that a city would have, from fires to crime to disease, and it's up to you to cope with it. You also need to build a military to protect yourself from attack because once those enemies start coming it's hard to keep rebuilding and make a profit at the same time.

While it may be a little bit heavy handed on the management side, it does really adhere to the hardcore civilization buff that loves being able to control every aspect of his development. It definitely might not be as exhilarating as the latest first person shooter, but it's addictive and will definitely keep those who come interested engrossed in the game for hours at a time. The combat aspect can get a little frustrating. You're supposed to use formations in order to attack the enemy. It seemed to get a little disorganized quickly and your units all wouldn't be attacking.

Each of your peasants and workers will talk to you, although they're not all unique, but it is really cool to be able to get feedback from any person at any given time just by clicking on them. When you've got hundreds of people scurrying around your city it makes it feel like you're really part of the game. The music is quite good. Sierra usually does a decent job of creating music to fit the theme and the mood of the game.

It has two different styles of play, campaign and scenario. I'm sure you're familiar with these two styles, scenario being a single mission, while a campaign's more of a career. It also includes a City Builder for creating your own cities. This should add a little replay to the game once you finish beating everything else which might take you a little while. Unfortunately, there's no multiplayer, but in the style of the game, it's perfectly acceptable.

I was very much entertained by this game as I was with Caesar II. Sierra has put some fine effort in to detailing and retooling a classic game in to something much better. My only major complaint is the campaigns just seem way too hard. People were saying they were getting stuck after the third campaign mission. I for one was stuck for quite some time on the fourth mission. As I had said earlier, you REALLY need to watch your cash and make sure to manage wisely. It's the only key to success.

Highs: Built on an already classic game, great speech, good console and layout

Lows: A little too difficult

Graphics 17/20
Sound 14/15
Gameplay 27/30
Fun Factor 17/20
Storyline/Theme 5/5
Overall Impression 9/10

TOTAL SCORE: 89%