Beware the Ides of March

July 2, 2007 2:09 PM

Mrs. Optamystic is not generally a fan of video games, but she loves Caesar 3. Now that she's beaten it, can you recommend similar games for the PC?

The games should focus on city building, rather than military might. She's not a fan of SimCity.

posted by Optamystic to computers & internet (11 comments total)

Caesar 3 is part of a line of games in the City Building Series put out by a few publishers. There's also Pharaoh, Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom, and Master of Olympus: Zeus. These also have expansion packs for hours and hours of play. The gameplay is similar among these games with lots of good improvements. I've played all of these, and can recommend them highly.

I think you can get them all as part of a cheap cheap pack too. Just look on Amazon or Ebay, or your local computer store's bargain bin.
posted by Mercaptan at 2:19 PM on July 2, 2007

Oh, and let's not forget Caesar 4, which was released last year.
posted by Mercaptan at 2:21 PM on July 2, 2007

I've been hooked on Tropico 2 again lately. It's a pirate-themed city-building game.
posted by Addlepated at 2:22 PM on July 2, 2007

Caesar 4 is quite good and a very worth addition to the series. Zues and it's expansion are a fun take on building a city in mythological greece. If she beat Ceasar III then she would probably like Pharoah (the game immediately after C3 in the series). It lacks some of the refinements added in later games but has some of the best scenario design of all of them.
posted by Riemann at 2:27 PM on July 2, 2007

I had a fair bit of fun with CivCity Rome.

Seconding Mercaptan's suggestion to try out the City Building Series. I personally got extrememly addicted to Zeus.

On a bit of a tangent, maybe she would like RollerCoaster Tycoon. It's not city building per se, but it's in the same sort of "management design" genre, and a hell of a lot of fun.
posted by arha at 3:05 PM on July 2, 2007

What Mercaptan said. I love the whole series.
posted by blacklite at 4:14 PM on July 2, 2007

Settlers? It's not town-based but it's not as large-scale as, say, Civilization.
posted by wackybrit at 7:00 PM on July 2, 2007

I really liked Pharoah, but do not get Children of the Nile - it's a bad ripoff.
posted by IndigoRain at 7:06 PM on July 2, 2007

Yeah, be wary of ripoffs in this genre. The actual City Building series starts with the Caesar games (up to 3) then comes Pharoah (with expansion Cleopatra), then Zues (and expansion Poseidon), then Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom and most recently Caesar IV.

They are all excellent games and share a common interface and play style. Though none of them are nearly as hard as the later Caesar III scenarios and Emperor (while a very good game) is definetly easier than the others.

Speaking as someone who likes this genre, I can also recomend Startopia for a more Sci-Fi oriented game with a similar play style.
posted by Riemann at 7:14 PM on July 2, 2007

There are two versions of Tropico: the original, where you are the dictator of a banana republic somewhere in the Caribbean (looking a lot like Castro in his heyday) and the pirate themed Pirate's Cove. I could never get into Pirate's Cove, but the original one is very addictive. You build up the economy of a small tropical island while keeping the populace happy and avoiding a coup or being voted out. Great graphics for an early 00's game, a sense of humor, and upbeat music. Mrs. derMax was seriously addicted to it for a while.

The date-named historical series (1503 AD: The New World, 1701 AD, etc) is good too, with a fair amount of town-building.
posted by derMax at 8:50 PM on July 2, 2007

I have similar taste as your wife; I *really*got into Tropico, and I liked Pharoah fine.
posted by Melinika at 6:31 PM on July 3, 2007