Caesar III

Release Date - September 30, 1998 (NA)

Developer - Impressions Games

Publisher - Sierra Studios

Platform - PC

With the success of 1989’s Sim City, PC gamers became spoiled for choice with a genre that would become known as the ‘city builder’. In 1992, Impressions Games entered the field with their first city building sim, Caesar.

Unlike the eminently popular Sim City, Impressions Games wanted to take the genre into the past, mixing in aspects of another PC gaming juggernaut, Civilization. Caesar carved out its own place in the burgeoning genre by allowing more player control over individual building placement than Sim City, a detailed historical setting of ancient Rome, and even adding in some military based gameplay, having to accommodate armies and providing logistics support!

Humble beginnings, can you turn these tents into Rome’s next metropolis?

(All images taken from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDnoedBhO78 unless otherwise noted)

By 1998 Impressions Games had already released and had positive commercial and critical success with two Caesar games. Caesar III was to be their best attempt at the formula yet, with beautiful rendered isometric graphics, vastly improved controls and better overlays to give the player supreme control and guidance to build Rome’s next metropolis.

Rather than just building a city inside a proverbial vacuum, would-be governors in Caesar III have to be conscious of the vast Roman empire that they are a part of. Neighbouring cities will be able to provide trade opportunities to increase revenue and also a way to obtain resources that might not be directly available to you yet. Finally, the empire map will also alert you to potential barbarian invasions from the surrounding area!

Proximity of buildings and proper zoning is important! Take care where you place important buildings.

If players prefer not to have to worry about angry barbarians at their gates, and want to focus on planning and building the perfect ancient town, you can choose to play either a military campaign or a peaceful one. While the peaceful campaign sounds pleasant, it comes with it’s own set of challenges for aspiring builders, with natural disasters and other emergencies needing to be managed. These range from packs of wolves, fires or disgruntled mobs all the way to devastating earthquakes that can wipe out huge chunks of your beloved city. Tenacity is a virtue, and it’ll be tested in Caesar III.

Premade scenarios are a fun way to test your skills under set conditions.

(Image from https://youtu.be/Z0-Qw78MEPc?si=-y4kQOzed7njixKc)

Another feature that set the Ceasar series, and eventually the rest of the Impressions Games’ series of city builders apart were the ‘Walkers’. The Walkers were your citizens living in the city, going about their daily lives. Your infrastructure will affect how and where they travel as they go about delivering goods and taking care of business. You’ll see merchants, entertainers, soldiers and prefects all doing their job, and the better you build your city, the more effective they’ll be. To keep them happy you’ll also need to think so far as making sure residential areas are separate from the busy (and often foul smelling) industrial areas of your town.

It’s very easy to grow fond of your cities as they grow and flourish.

Finally, not content with making you keep the mere mortals happy, you also need to appease the Roman pantheon. The gods of Rome can be very fickle and will demand that you pay them due attention and respect, lest you suffer their wrath. Different gods provide you different benefits, such as Ceres providing farming bonuses, or Mars providing you with military advantages. Balancing each god’s favour will take some finesse, as if you make them unhappy, they’ll punish you for your obstinance. 

The gods need to be appeased! Lest you feel their wrath… Here, Mercury has nicked off with some of your grain!

The game was popular enough to warrant three direct sequels and a number of additional historical city builders from Impressions, including Pharoah, Zeus: Master of Olympus and Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom.

Caesar III is a game that still has a strong following 25 years after release! With so many possibilities and addicting gameplay, it’s well worth checking out for armchair governors more than two decades after it came out.