CivCity: Rome is a city building strategy game by Firefly Studios and Firaxis.
In terms of game logic, it includes elements from two
well-known game series, i.e., Caesar (primarily) and Civilization, giving
players the opportunity to build, run and maintain various cities of the
Roman Empire.
Despite the name, CivCity: Rome isn't the next game in the
Civilization franchise. So this is more of a traditional historical city
builder than a take on cultural victories.
Gameplay
The game offers two types of missions: stand alone missions to include freeplay
(or "sandbox") and a campaign based mission. The campaign based mission begins
when the player, an engineer, is hired by a local stone works overseer to
construct a stone mine colony. The player then gets further opportunities to
prove himself, meeting such historic characters as Crassus and Julius Caesar.
The player is offered various ranks, progressing through such titles as:
Quaestor, Aedile, Censor, Praetor and Consul.
Each campaign mission begins with a patriarch to the player offering the
greeting of "Hail!" and then stating the character's title. Midway through the
game, the player can choose to embark on military campaigns which involve combat
or continue to play peaceful missions which have harder goals but no risk of
invasion.
CivCity: Rome grafts a simplified tech tree and a handful of wonders onto a
clone of Impressions Games city builders from the late 1990s like Caesar and
Pharaoh.
Playing the game
Playing the learning campaign is strongly advised. The campaign is not a
tutorial but a series of linked scenarios that will teach the full range of
buildings available in the game and how to use them. By the end of the campaign,
you should be an accomplished Roman town governor.
After the campaign, you can choose a scenario from the single mission screen and
play the style you enjoy, at a difficulty level you are happy with. Some
scenarios have economic goals such as collecting resources, raising a cities
Civilization level or building wonders or a certain number or buildings. Some
scenarios will have a more military outlook and others no goals at all, which
will allow you to build without worry as long as you want.
