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Caesar III by Sierra Studios Review by  Vajra Chandrasekera and Kanishka Wanasundera December 18, 1998 Introduction

Disease stalks your city. One area is in flames, and elsewhere poorly built buildings are collapsing. Barbarians are gathering before your gates, your people are eating more food than they're producing, you're in debt to Rome and Caesar is getting testy. Vengeful gods blight your crops, sink your ships and drive your people to open rebellion because you haven't been respectful. Your people want better housing and more entertainment- they clamor for festivals while you're struggling to make ends meet and curse your name if you don't comply. Meanwhile, you have to worry about industry and food production. You have to grow wheat, olives, and fruit, plant vineyards, establish working industries of clay, timber, oil and wine, store your produce in granaries and warehouses, trade over land and sea. You have to pay your people a decent salary and keep taxes low so that they won't emigrate, and pay off your debts at the same time, not to mention fighting off enemies of Rome who would level your city and leave rubble in its place. 

It isn't easy running a city. 

How will you answer this challenge? Will you allow your city to become a ruin, a ghost city bereft of it's people? Can you prevent chaos, mass hysteria, emigration, invasions, riots, unemployment, and crime while still maintaining trade & industry? Can you please Caesar, earn the blessings of your gods and build up your city into a citadel of strength and prosperity, a living symbol of the glory of the Roman Empire? 

There's only one way to find out. Grab a copy of Sierra's Caesar III and be enthralled. It's been a long time since we at Review Zone found ourselves so absorbed in any game. The hours will slip away unseen, the day will stretch into night and maybe even lighten into dawn before you stagger back and realize that Caesar III is one of the best games you've ever played...and that you didn't even notice just how long you've been playing it. This is a game to be played and savored, the kind of game that comes along once in a blue moon and justifies the continued existence of the diehard gamer. This is Caesar III, and it will sink it's fingers into your subconscious and leave you quivering, feverishly building temples and prefectures in the depths of your dreams for many nights to come. And don't forget, those buildings need road access.