CivCity: Rome

Perfectly civil? Andrew things not...

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Whoever said that Rome wasn't built in a day is a liar. In fact, if you ever meet someone who basks in the apparent wisdom of telling you so before, say, you attempt to write ambidextrously with both feet, you can tell them quite rightly to zip it. Tell them to shut their cake hole as you go ahead to pen a perfectly legible novel with just the use of digits at your extremities. CivCity: Rome is a game that allows you to re-create, if virtually, one of the world's most iconic historical civilizations in depth and most importantly without the need for a time machine and a healthy army of thousands of builders, (visible bums optional). Before we go any further, this isn't a sequel to, or in any way related to the 'legendary' Civilization series of city-building games. As such, this could explain, um, the middle of the road game play, outdated graphics and general lack of innovation.

The single player campaign consists of fairly straightforward objectives which revolve around the task of reaching a set target in a number of fields. Whether it's the building of houses, roman baths, trading of goods or organising chariot races depends on the level, but they rarely veer from that sort of set path which doesn't make for too much excitement. Attaining the status of master baker or super duper woodchuck is less a test of your strategic ability and more a test of your patience. The few stages of construction in any business are easy to deal with and fairly satisfying to develop, (find resource, use resource to produce goods, sell said goods), but once one certain venture is flourishing, it's time to move onto another to do the same thing with little regard for any previous projects. It works a bit like a capitalist's utopia in that a good business never goes bad. Bread doesn't go stale, wine crops aren't ever ruined and there's never a hint of anxiety that consumers may reject your simply designed beds in favour of IKEA's latest must-have piece of bedroom furniture. On a side note, it's just a guess, but I'm sure the Roman's must've had an IKEA. Although there are devastating slumps and occasions when supply just can't meet demand, the little tinkering needed with businesses to keep them in tip top shape throughout is decidedly lacking.

If violence is more your cup of tea then there's quite a bit of that available in some missions too. There's the opportunity to build forts and towers in order to defend your strongholds. Battling waves of barbarians is fairly entertaining, but, again, if you've got the monetary bulk and a healthy economy then no Hairy Jeremy-type character is ever going to stand a chance against your regimented, astute and clinical army of fighters. Unfortunately CivCity: Rome's game play really won't be enough to excite or even challenge city-building veterans. It sounds a bit weird to say it but its mechanics are a little bit 20th century, or at least heading in that direction. You might go as far as to say that they're Roman in style, but even the sternest of critics would judge that as a little harsh. Of course, the end goal is societal bliss for all your citizens and it's a line travelled a bit too smoothly to tell the truth. Or at least it would be if the game tutored you properly or freaking did what you wanted it to.

Collecting resources and getting people to use said resources when they're turned into an end product is central to burgeoning a successful city, except it is hindered by the fact that the in-game tutorial doesn't tell you how many people are needed to man olive farms, quarries and the like. The instruction booklet isn't much help either. It does a good job in telling you what goes on at these places, but despite its impressive thickness, still omits any of that really essential information that might keep your citizens all happy chappies. What this really boils down to is that even the simplest of tasks have the potential to go stupidly wrong if not monitored.

Similarly, the range to which communities live and interact with day to day resources is fairly ambiguous. Each in-game individual lives their own unique life, but a building misplaced by one or two pixels in the wrong direction can mean the difference between content, smiling citizens and a bunch of directionless grumps who are bewildered to discover that the temple they've been looking for wasn't as far away as they once thought - and you'll be mad when realizing that only the complete destruction of a potentially perfectly-functioning area to bring it a little closer to them is needed to solve the problem. Little niggles like this, although forgivable in the grand scale of things are really fixtures that you expect to be executed well without question.

Maybe we've been spoilt in recent months, what with the emergence of city builders boasting environments that can be explored from 360 degrees, but even the nifty ability to tear away the rooftops of people's houses like a trip to Lego Land doesn't seem to cut the mustard. Nowadays we want to pry on people's personal business from every conceivable angle, thank you very much! That said, the overall presentation is one of the game's strongest points. If you close the curtains, press your nose against your monitor and concentrate until your temples hurt you could probably imagine really being back in time. Well, perhaps not but the abundance of buildings ranging from temples to communal baths and the character projected from recognisable ancient architecture (the famous coliseum, gladiatorial arenas and the like) and the array of clunking chariots is certainly enough to give you a taster.

Despite a decent amount of depth, elements that include international trade and immigration and all the tweaking that each involves, it's the lesser but nonetheless important components that let CivCity: Rome down. Untrustworthy artificial intelligence, hit and miss land plots for resources and graphics, though charming, that we're no longer all that impressed with are all quite substantial disappointments. There's enough here for authentic Roman wanabees, but for everyone else it's a case of been there, done that, bought and outgrown the t-shirt.

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By Andrew Macarthy