''Caesar IV ''is a

city-building game A city-building game, or town-building game, is a genre of simulation video game where players act as the overall planner and leader of a city or town, looking down on it from above, and being responsible for its growth and management strategy. ...

set in

ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 B ...

, developed by

Tilted Mill Entertainment Tilted Mill Entertainment is a video game developer located in Winchester, Massachusetts. It was founded in 2001 by former Impressions Games lead designer and general manager Chris Beatrice, business manager Peter Haffenreffer, and designer Jeff ...

and published by

Sierra Entertainment Sierra Entertainment, Inc. (formerly On-Line Systems and Sierra On-Line, Inc.) was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1979 by Ken and Roberta Williams. The company is known for pioneering the graphic adventure game genre, ...

(

Vivendi Universal Games Vivendi Games was an American video game publisher and holding company based in Los Angeles. It was founded in 1996 as CUC Software, the publishing subsidiary of CUC International, after the latter acquired video game companies Davidson & Associ ...

). The game was released on September 26, 2006 in North America. The game features a

three-dimensional Three-dimensional space (also: 3D space, 3-space or, rarely, tri-dimensional space) is a geometric setting in which three values (called ''parameters'') are required to determine the position of an element (i.e., point). This is the informal ...

game engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games and generally includes relevant libraries and support programs. The "engine" terminology is similar to the term "software engine" used in the software i ...

and individual

modeling A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure. Models c ...

of game character

behaviors Behavior (American English) or behaviour (British English) is the range of actions and mannerisms made by individuals, organisms, systems or artificial entities in some environment. These systems can include other systems or organisms as well ...

. Like its original release ''

Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman people, Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caes ...

'' in 1992, the game simulates city administration in historical Rome. Like its sibling release ''

Children of the Nile ''Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile'' is a city-building game set in ancient Egypt, developed by Tilted Mill Entertainment. The game was released November 2004 in the United States and February 2005 in Europe. It is part of the '' City Buil ...

'' in 2004, the game continues a new trend in the city building game genre to use more interactive and detailed game

video game design Video game design is the process of designing the content and rules of video games in the pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the production stage. Some common video game design subdiscipline ...

and gameplay.

Gameplay

In a departure from older versions in the series, ''Caesar IV'' is equipped with variable, realistic 3D instead of fixed,

isometric The term ''isometric'' comes from the Greek for "having equal measurement". isometric may mean: * Cubic crystal system, also called isometric crystal system * Isometre, a rhythmic technique in music. * "Isometric (Intro)", a song by Madeon from ...

3D. This means more realistic landscapes and city views, and the ability for players to better see and use game building space. In addition, buildings and roads may be placed at 45 degree angles to the playing grid, as well as aligned with the grid, allowing game players more options in creating efficient and visually appealing city layouts. In an attempt at

historical realism Historical realism is a writing style or subgenre of realistic fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals a ...

, the game tries to stay as close to proper Roman lifestyles as possible. To this end, Sierra Games did detailed research into Roman lifestyles using

secondary sources In scholarship, a secondary sourcePrimary, secondary and tertiary sources
. ...

and

primary sources In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source (also called an original source) is an artifact, document, diary, manuscript, autobiography, recording, or any other source of information that was created at the time under ...

. The game is divided in three parts, named after the three traditional eras of

Ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 B ...

: "

Kingdom Kingdom commonly refers to: * A monarchy ruled by a king or queen * Kingdom (biology), a category in biological taxonomy Kingdom may also refer to: Arts and media Television * ''Kingdom'' (British TV series), a 2007 British television drama s ...

", "

Republic A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...

" and "

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

". The Kingdom part is a tutorial, while the Republic and Empire parts make up the campaign, where one can choose between peaceful and military assignments.

Reception

''Caesar IV'' received mixed reviews, with review aggregator website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

giving it a rating of 74. Positive aspects mentioned were the city building, large amount of content, visually appealing 3D graphics and professional sound and music. However, there were complaints centering around crashes, user interface issues,

lag Lag, or similar, may refer to: Lag * Łąg, Poland * Lag (company), a French guitar maker * Lag (cue sports), a brief pre-game competition to determine which player will go first * Latency (engineering), a slower response time in computing, commu ...

problems and repetitive game play. The Australian video game talk show '' Good Games two reviewers gave the game a 6/10 and 8/10.

References

External links

Official website
via

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

''Caesar IV''
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Caesar Iv 2006 video games City-building games Multiplayer and single-player video games Multiplayer online games Sierra Entertainment games Titan (game engine) games Video game sequels Video games scored by Keith Zizza Video games set in antiquity Video games set in the Roman Empire Windows games Windows-only games Video games developed in the United States