When I opened up the box that contained Caesar III, err... I mean, Pharaoh... no, no — it was Cleopatra. I think... Hold on, let me check. (Reviewer runs to look at the cover of the manual). Oh! Right! Let me start over. Ahem.
When I opened up the box that contained Zeus: Master of Olympus, the latest in a long line of top–notch empire building games from Impressions and Sierra Studios, the first thing that popped into my head was "Doesn’t Impressions have ANY shame?" I mean, they’ve pretty much released the exact same game FOUR TIMES now, and they don’t seem to show any signs of slowing down anytime soon. Fortunately for Impressions, the game they keep copying and refining is actually an excellent one, so once again, after spending hours playing Zeus: Master of Olympus, I found myself ready to forgive the developers for their self–plaguerism. And actually, once I played the game for a little while, I found that despite the carbon copy look of Zeus, there actually is a wee bit of innovation in the subtle inner workings of the game itself.
Zeus has you control a Greek colony in one of many campaigns that require not only successful city management, but also appeasement of the Gods. You must also deal with monsters such as the Hydra, and groveling at the feet of heroes such as Heracles to help you rid your kingdom of dangers that you and your army can’t handle by yourselves. Add to that a nice diplomacy model where you can interact with realms outside your own, and you’ve got a highly addictive strategy game with mind–blowing attention to detail. More so than in their other titles, Impressions really does an excellent job in allowing you to immediately see the effects of your actions with the game — and this is important, given a learning curve about as steep as a brick wall.
Aware that their games are about as intuitive as Chinese arithmetic, Impressions decided to include over 15 of the most professionally produced tutorial missions I’ve ever played. While the tutorial missions are documented as "optional," I suggest they are indeed mandatory if you wish your experience with Zeus to be more than totally frustrating. Zeus’ documentation is fantastic as well; the online information is thorough and educational, and the printed manual is quite entertaining and informative — you’ll probably be taking this one to bed with you!
One aspect where Zeus really shines is in the campaign mode. Unlike Zeus’ predecessors, cities that you build in one scenario carry over to the next exactly as you left them, so you won’t find yourself re–building from scratch over and over again. Also, the additional scenario "sub quests" of summoning Gods and heroes are extremely well done and make you feel like you’re actually present in mythical ancient Greece. For instance, if you want Heracles to come and save your bacon, you better damn well have a voluminous supply of wine!
Another high point of Zeus is its production and distribution models — in order to produce enough fleece, food, olive oil, and wine for your populace, you must keep a precarious balance between overspending on labor and underestimating your city’s needs. As the flow of goods is of paramount import to the success of your missions, this part of the game requires constant tweaking and adjusting, which really gives you a sense of accomplishment when your goals are [hopefully] finally achieved.
The only area wherein Zeus fails is with the combat model. In Zeus, your army actually consists of your citizens, and when they are called to battle, they must all rally to your Palace (or another waypoint that you can set). As the troops are busy defending the city, this means their normal "day jobs" aren’t being performed, and your economy can take a severe hit during wartime. I would’ve preferred that Zeus allow you to at least keep SOME full–time regulars available to defend your city, rather than having combat drive your city–state into potential economic ruin. Also, the combat mechanics themselves leave a lot to be desired; in Zeus, you simply move a company’s standard to where you want them to go, and you’re little army men will march toward that destination. However, when fighting the enemy, the commands seem to be a bit sluggish. This results in delayed reaction of your troops. Impressions tried to alleviate some of the tediousness of combat by including an "auto battle" option, but allowing the computer to take over your troops is a recipe for instant defeat. Perhaps with Impression’s next title they could concentrate more on their combat model, as this has long been a problem with their strategy titles.
Fortunately, combat isn’t something that you are constantly dealing with, so the sub par implementation doesn’t detract from the fact that Zeus is one seriously addictive and well–produced strategy game. If you can forgive Impressions for milking their franchise for all it’s worth, and can recognize that innovation can be subtle rather than obvious, you will find Zeus to be well worth your time and money. Impressions has shown beyond a reasonable doubt that they are among the best at creating city–building simulations... perhaps they can try something a bit more original next time around!
"When a game development studio has success, they tend to leverage such winning formulas into additional titles. Impressions does so again, with their Zeus: Master of Olympus, and Michael Askounes takes a grand look at a good city–builder that really needs some combat help."
