Pharaoh

Unlike some games of this type, where you build one city indefinitely and watch the population climb, Pharaoh is divided into missions. Players are given a goal--a desired population, food storage targets, and cultural achievements. Play continues until the target is met, unless the city succumbs to plagues, debt, or outside invaders first.

Pharaoh is loads of fun. The mission goals are tough but attainable, and city building for a finite time span will appeal to players who find unending development a bore. The usual juggling of civic needs for water, food, entertainment, and jobs is well balanced. The range of industries, religious practices, and municipal services is engaging, and the graphics are clear enough that it is easy to tell what's going on in the city. The mission-by-mission format allows the game to present a few challenges at a time, providing novelties for new levels of play.

Take charge of the Nile Valley and become a legend! --Alyx Dellamonica

Amazon.com Product Description
Pharaoh is a strategic city-building game set in Egypt, from roughly 2900 to 700 BC. Grow Egyptian villages into thriving metropolises and watch the economy and inhabitants of this exotic land come to life. Interact with the citizens. Observe their culture and habits. Raise their hopes or raze their homes. Manage your city poorly and watch it burn, be pillaged, or collapse in economic ruin. Manage it well, and ultimately, the greatest Egyptian structures will be built in your honor. Your rule will span generations until your dynasty, your royal bloodline, produces a Pharaoh! Pharaoh includes many features never before seen in a city-building series game, including a farming model based on the flooding of the Nile, naval warfare, giant monuments assembled over time, a unique dynastic progression, and variable difficulty levels. It uses 16-bit color graphics, large maps for seamless game play, and a proven interface.