I still play Zeus

[Jodet]

Seriously. I look at my stack of game boxes and even thinking about most of these games just makes me tired. But I think about Zeus and I'll load it up and play for awhile.

Do other people still like this game? What is it about Zeus that makes it fun? It sure isn't the graphics/art-style.

I think that in general computers games have gotten too complex and too tedious. The gameplay mechanic is Zeus is just right. Complex enough to be fun, but not ridiculous.

I played every single mission in COTN, but gave up on C4 a little less than half way through it. It just seemed pointless. Send Caesar more wood. Send Caesar this, send Caesar that. The seams were showing. I was seeing where the programmer was saying, 'think you'll finish this scenario now, oh yeah, well here's another four more hours of work you'll have to do'.

I get that in Zeus every now and then, especially towards the end. But for the most part, it's just fun. I miss fun. So many games these days are so tedious.

[Jodet]

Hmmmm.....


http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15520

[Keith]

Jodet, you seem to be easily discouraged.

I've played them all repeatedly, and have them all installed. I have to admit its been a very long time since I've played Caesar III through Emperor lately. I haven't played CotN in quite a while too. I did just complete another pass through Caesar IV's campaign after a short respite of a handful of months ignoring it for a time.

I don't think Caesar IV is any more tedious than any of the others or any less fun than the others. It's just that they are all different and with their own appeal.

You said it seemed pointless to have to send Caesar more wood in C4, but how is that much different than any of the older games? Caesar, Pharoah and cities all made demands and even the gods made demands on your city in the old games.

The speed at which you complete the scenario is more tied into how you go about it. I can usually complete a C4 city in a couple of hours or so. The fastest completion I ever attempted was Hippo Regius. I got out of there in about 8 game months. It probably took me all of about 30 mins, IIRC. I was warned about pending barbarian attacks before starting, but I ignored building any military and focused soley on the ratings and population requirements and won before any attack ever materialized. That's not how I usually play though.

There are those that hate Zeus because they could never get over the graphics used in the game. They still hate it. Once I got used to the graphics and change in the way the game played, I had no problems playing Zeus.

For others, "fun" is defined as micromanaging everying in a complex maze of production and not the ease at which a game plays. I'm not particularly fond of that style of game. I don't want to spend huge amounts of time figuring out how much to produce, where to store it, how much I can sell, etc. Then again I don't want a game that is too simplified either.

[aeval99]

I still play it every once in awhile. Zeus is my favourite of the Impressions CB games. I loved the cartoony graphics and the gameplay is fantastic.

[woopinarsu]

im kinda bummed i lost my zeus game=(. i to enjoyed the game with the expansion more so. The expansion was fun due to the different land masses. Another fav of mine is the ol master of magic from microprose. That game is just the nuts.

[Anguille]

I still play them all....but as time goes by, the more games i have = less time.

Zeus is a superb game...

[King Faticus]

Personally the 'cartoony look' turned me off of this game
although recently I warmed up to it since I usually look past graphics anyways
still not as good as Pharaoh or Caesar II-III imo

[aramann]

citybuildingcontests.net just had a zeus/poseidon contest in December. Not sure if there's another one in the works but it might be worth keeping an eye on!

[thegrad]

I am back to Zeus also. I tried going back to Pharaoh/Cleopratra,but the fun was gone.
Forget going back to Caesar IV, I didn't even finish that one. Caesar was just too demanding and all the fighting.
With no goals in SCS, why play? I keep looking for someone to make a new scenairo in CotN, so until that happens, I am back to Zeus.

[Aethelwulf]

Yeah I stl got Ceasar 2 and Ceasar 3 and Pharo and Cleo oh and Posidon and Zeus its cool... Lords of Magic is also kwl tho...

[Keith]

If you still play LOM or want to, there are others doing the same and using the Lords of Magic board over on the Sierra Community forums, in the Sierra Classics section under "Strategy".

[pheeph]

I just started playing that game after a long hiatus. The only problem is that the god animations are freaking slow.

[vic_4]

I often go back to Zeus or Emperor, sometimes Pharaoh, I find C3 too uncontrollable.

[Kuplo]

Zeus when it was released and for a long time was my favorite city building game, however then came along Emperor which I thought trumped Zeus in my books.

Now however ever since the invention of more modern 3D city building games and some very obscure 2D city builders I just can't go back to my old Impressions games anymore, I've tried with all the passion I could muster in rememberance of so many weekends wasted of having fun playing them, but the gameplay now is so primitive compared to todays games, I mean setting up road blocks to prevent walkers from walking away really bothers me now, however when roadblocks were first introduced I was estatic.

BUT... If they ever re-did all the old CB games with higher resolutions (minimum of 1680x1050 for me) then I'd certainly spend a bit of time in Emperor, Zeus and Pharaoh again. But those low resolutions on a large widescreen monitor really ruins the experience for me now.

[tobing]

If they ever re-did all the old CB games with higher resolutions (minimum of 1680x1050 for me) then I'd certainly spend a bit of time in Emperor, Zeus and Pharaoh again. But those low resolutions on a large widescreen monitor really ruins the experience for me now.

Would you prefer to see more details or just more of the map?

[CatMajik]

I just wish they would re-do Emperor, Zeus and Cleo/Pharoah as 3d games. I would be in gamer heaven. Road blocks don't bother me, it is getting re-used to 2d.

[Keith]

If there is going to be anything new in citybuilders, it will probably have to have a different name than Zeus and TM will probably have to develop it on their own, because things are a changin' over at Sierra under the new Activision Blizzard management.

News about the merger
Article featured in GameSpot
Article featured in Edge

It looks like TM decided to go into the self-publishing end of things at the right time.

Hey TM! You may be able to buy the rights to Caesar IV.

[Kuplo]

Would you prefer to see more details or just more of the map?

I'd like to see more of the map, but more importantly, to have it not feel like it's so badly stretched out of proportion. It's been a while since I've tried it but I seem to remember that things were just squished out of proportion on my screen.

[Novicia]

I still prefer 2d to 3d. Never had anything 3d until CotN and that took a bit of getting used to. Getting long in the tooth now - getting harder to keep up with changing technology!

Anyhow, I still dip into the old games. Sometimes, all it takes is a tv programme or book to switch me from one game to another. For instance, I was watching a programme on ancient China and after that I was all over Emperor. Then there was a series about Egypt and I was all over Pharaoh. At the moment, there's a lot of stuff on TV about Rome and a pile of books I'm reading about Rome, so ...... I just need something Greek now to take me back to Zeus!

After CIII and Pharaoh, I found Zeus to be more simplistic, but very enjoyable. I loved the cartoony graphics, the insults when I failed to meet a request on time and the introduction of bribing. That was the best part for me!