For a long time I was familiar with city planning simulators mainly from the Sim city series, which, although they aroused interest, scared me off with a fairly high entry threshold. I became immersed in this genre when I became acquainted with the products of the Immersion games studio, known for the Cesar series. My first game from this studio was Pharaoh. The first time they gave me a disc for a while. Then I didn’t know English and understood little. Of course, I made a whole bunch of mistakes, but I had fun. I built cities that didn’t function, fell into debt, and started again. Then a few years later I got the Russian version and then the whole depth of the gameplay of this very interesting game was revealed to me. After that, I compare all city planning games with this strategy.
Construction starts from scratch
Once you arrive at the location where the future city will be located, you should not immediately start construction. Before this, the player needs to inspect the territory, check the available construction options and the world map. This is required to obtain the main resource in the money game. Money is spent on construction, workers’ salaries, tribute to the pharaoh and much more. The only way to obtain them in acceptable quantities is through trade. On the world map there are Egyptian and other cities that sell and buy many goods. Therefore, you need to find out what can be produced, and what can be sold from what is produced. The list of products is extensive. Here are cereals, fruits, other agricultural products, minerals and metals and of course handicrafts. The game has simple production chains, mainly consisting of two buildings: the place where the resource is mined and the place where it is processed. Workshop products are more expensive than raw resources, but not without exceptions. Wood, copper and stone are strategic goods, therefore they are expensive, and mined gold can be easily converted into coins.
Everything that we have mined or produced cannot be kept in the open air. For storage you need to build warehouses for goods and barns for food. Goods cannot simply be transferred to the warehouse, so buildings must be connected by a network of roads. The industry will not work without people. They cannot be managed directly, but in order to hire new workers, production uses foremen who must go to the nearest residential building to recruit people.
To encourage immigrants to come to the city, we allocate land for development. Residents’ houses are built without our participation, they do not look presentable and do not support many people. More land can be allocated for houses, but the best way would be to improve. The population has needs, and their satisfaction leads to the evolution of residential buildings. The very first ones are water and food, but over time the requirements will increase. The population will need somewhere to receive the services of doctors, city officials, and local entertainers. Demands for new goods from simple tableware to luxury items will increase. And to meet needs it is necessary to build farms and workshops, courts and temples.
We must remember that in Immersion games the services were not provided in the area as in many other games. City service buildings produced employees who walked along the paved roads for some distance, providing relevant services along the way, and then returned back. All of the above is a base that, although unusual, is easy to master.
Egyptian plagues
The player must consider many factors https://betshubscasino.co.uk/login/ when planning the city. Farms and workshops should not be too close to houses so as not to reduce the attractiveness of the area, but not too far away so that workers can reach. The needs of the population are growing and to improve their living space, people demand new goods, city services, and sometimes improving the attractiveness of the surrounding area, for which we build parks and statues. Residents’ homes need not only satisfaction of needs, but also a place for further improvement. The scheme of city services requires planning areas, limiting the movements of workers with special signs. It must be remembered that the population has its age and the elderly stop working over time, but do not stop consuming. And on top of all this is the fact that this is happening in a desert climate, where moisture is a treasure, and some buildings require water.
Speaking of water. We say Egypt, we mean the Nile. This great river was sacred to the Egyptians, and it will be a great help in the game. The Nile is not only a transport artery, but a source of food. If Nile water meadows are present on the map, then problems with food are practically eliminated. Of course, without this there are many ways to feed the population: hunting, fishing, animal husbandry and of course agriculture on solid soil. But all of the above require workers and are not as effective. In the future, the fields produce significantly more harvest, but depend on the Nile flood. Which is subject not only to natural causes, but also to divine intervention.
Religion was an important part of Egyptian life. It also affects many areas of life in the game. The game’s five gods of Egypt crave temples and festivals in their honor. Angry gods bring down a variety of punishments, but the pleased ones bestow their mercy.
Not only gods, but also people are dangerous. War in Pharaoh forces you to do it as little as possible. The army costs money, manpower and requires very expensive resources. But only soldiers will protect your cities from complete destruction when the enemy army approaches your doorstep. Military affairs in the game are surprisingly complex. Soldiers are united into squads, each has not only health, but also morale and can grow in experience. To recruit soldiers, it is necessary to build a recruiter and a fort of the appropriate type, on the parade ground of which the units will gather. The units are divided into three types: archers capable of fighting off only a stray gang of Libyans, infantrymen the main striking force and chariots demolishing all living things. The construction of fortifications helps a little in protecting the city: gates, walls and towers. But they are needed to limit the movements of enemy troops and give time to gather their own troops. There is also a fleet in the game, represented by both light warships that shoot arrows and ram enemies on the water, and transport ships for delivering soldiers.
The path to immortality
In the campaign, we take the family as a guide and lead them through the main milestones of the history of Ancient Egypt, from the founding of the first villages to the emergence of the Egyptian superpower. A new mission is always a new city, each with several conditions . Basically have a certain population, have certain buildings in the city, or achieve a certain rating. The rating is divided into four indicators. Culture level, wealth parameter, monument rating and kingdom attitude rating.
The first shows the population’s access to cultural institutions,. Welfare is an indicator of the financial success of a city. You lose more than you earn and your rating falls, on the contrary, it grows. The rating of monuments shows the progress of the construction of these majestic structures. Monuments are the only buildings that require building materials and time for their construction. Throughout the campaign we will need to build obelisks, temples and of course pyramids. The player will be able to see their evolution from primitive brick mastabas to giant pyramidal complexes.
Kingdom rating is the most important. It shows how the player feels about the pharaoh and other Egyptian cities. If it falls too hard, the player will be attacked by a hostile Egyptian army, which will be difficult to fight off. It falls for many reasons: they did not provide assistance, delayed the construction of the monument, went into debt, angered the gods, collect high taxes and pay too little wages, etc.d. There are several ways to increase your rating. For example, one of the pantheon of gods Ra, with a good attitude towards the player, will raise the rating. You can also make an offering to the pharaoh from personal funds. But the most convenient thing will be fulfilling orders. Other cities will ask for resources and goods or military aid, which will need to be collected within a certain time frame . Collected on time, increased your rating, were delayed, received a small fine, were unable to do so at all, the rating will drop more. In addition, there may be other consequences, such as closure of trade routes. A high rating will not only protect the city from the wrath of the pharaoh, but will also allow you to receive free resources from other cities.
Archaeological work
I can’t help but note that the game perfectly conveys the atmosphere of Egypt. We have to thank the visuals and music for this. The game looks just great, thanks to the stylization and general quality of the building models and workers, it doesn’t feel old at all. The music in the game is one of my favorites. Made in a unique style, it has firmly taken its place in my playlist.
Unfortunately, the game is not without its shortcomings, some very serious ones at that, mostly bugs. Poor integration with the add-on made it impossible to complete some missions on difficulty above average. Incorrect spam of workers (mainly from cultural buildings) can spoil the passage, and the construction of monuments can also spoil . Such bugs are rare, but unpleasant . Some developer decisions are very difficult to understand. For example, when requesting food, it must be delivered not from the barn, but first transferred to the warehouse. Yes, and during food requests (for example, during hunger), you need to send a specific type.
The Cleopatra add-on was released for the game, which added new missions, new buildings, new goods and new monuments to the game. Everything the same, only more.
Pharaoh was a very popular game. Recently, many spiritual successors have appeared and there are even announcements about the creation of a full-fledged remake. Is it worth playing now?? For newcomers to the genre, I would not recommend it. The game is complex and in some moments it can be difficult to understand; seemingly insignificant errors at first glance can easily lead the city to collapse. It’s better to pay attention to the studio’s later products. For fans of the genre, especially if they haven’t played any of the Immersion games strategies, definitely yes.