eus: Master of Olympus is a city-building computer game, in the old
tradition of SimCity and the newer one of Caesar and Pharaoh.
As in those
games, the player here acts as ruler of the city, developing a parcel of land
into a teeming center of commerce. Tutorials and linked scenarios allow
the player to learn the game piece by piece.
Along the way, the player orders the construction of buildings such as
factories, warehouses, fountains, farms and olive groves. Areas for
housing are designated by the player, but the actual construction of the
housing is up to the residents. Although the player has absolute control
of civic government, the residents retain one power: to leave whenever
they feel like it. Therefore, it is necessary for the player to provide
the things people like in order to get them to stay, and also to
get them to care enough to upgrade their houses into something worth
looking at.
Once a network of farms, factories, warehouses, markets and houses is
established, walkers appear. These are working residents going about their
tasks in the city. Merchants walk from the shops to the warehouses,
purchase goods and hire laborers to carry goods back to the shops.
Water bearers distribute water to houses. Peddlers distribute goods to
whoever wants them. And so on. Soon, a developing city is soon visibly bustling
with activity.
Other walkers are less desirable: Homeless walkers emerge from destroyed
or downgraded housing. Muggers and thieves steal from those around them.
And invaders attempt to storm your palace and exact tribute from your city.
All of this development does not happen in a vacuum. The gods and other
cities periodically request or demand certain goods. Meeting the requests
brings rewards in the form of divine favors and better relations. Failure
or refusal can bring invading armies, divine wrath or solemn expressions
of regret.
The player can also make demands and requests of his own, and even send out
armies to raid and conquer enemy cities.
Gods smile as the city grows rich
Diplomacy and warfare are major factors making Zeus somewhat more than a
city-building game.
While the diplomacy system suffers from limited options, and the combat
system is not as dynamic as those in dedicated wargames, they fulfill the
function of giving the player something to strive for and against. It's
also just refreshing sometimes to have something more dramatic to do than
making sure everyone's olive oil is delivered on time.
Mythological aspects play a similar role, with gods, heroes and monsters
taking an interest and having to be dealt with. While the mythic aspects
are not as central as players might have guessed from the game's title, they
still add an interesting wrinkle and eventually allow some very
dramatic choices to be made.
The graphics and sounds are uniformly good. The terrain is pretty, the
buildings detailed and dynamic, walkers distinctive and the mythical
aspects properly impressive. Each walker also has several speeches that
the player can hear by clicking on them, with each speech providing some clues
as to the city's state and needs.
As a simulation of urban issues, Zeus falls somewhat short of the SimCity
series, with a few important real-life considerations not present in the
game. There is no modeling of residents traveling from home to work, so
houses can be clustered on one end of the map and businesses on the other
with no ill effects. There's also no congestion: walkers walk right
through each other without slowing down, so there's no reason not to route
all the city's traffic through one intersection.
All in all, though, Zeus is a lot of fun. The pictures are pretty, the
sounds are funny, and the goals and demands keep players on their toes. The
resulting cities may not be especially realistic, and the diplomacy and
mythical aspects not as deep as history-minded gamers might have wished, but this shouldn't
stop most players from spending a lot of enjoyable hours playing Zeus and
from feeling a glow of pride when the gods smile and the city grows rich.
