Rating: 
Summary: Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh........no
Review: Caesar III is, in a word, mediocre. When I bought the game I was expecting a graphically rich and advanced game ala "Pharaoh," "Zeus," or even "Caesar II." What I got was what looked like a glorified demo of a really really good game. The designers of Caesar III started out with a great thought and made some thoughtful improvments to Caesar II such as the addition of a senate house for each town and a governor's house, palace, and villa for residing in. They also added 5 separate gods you must appease and keep happy (that's the hard part, don't neglect them). I think the best improvement they made over its predecessor was that there is no separate "city" and "province" map (Caesar II owners will know what I mean and share in my frustration over this) that made the game almost impossible to win (I never won one, I always went broke.) So Caesar III's designers made some improvements, but they also did a few things I'm not happy with. The game has a dark and despressing ambience that can only keep me playing for about an hour (which translates to about 10 minutes, city-building time, lol). It's also difficult to make money which has made me become dependant on the money cheat (go to impressionsgames.com for details). It's difficult to keep your people fed even when you make the best use out of the usually limited farming area. My last gripe is that you have to keep building prafectures and those architects post all the time that cost money and manpower. It's a good game, don't get me wrong, it could just be a little better, no wait, A LOT better. I didn't get what I was expecting, I didn't even get an instruction book. My suggestion: buy Caesar II if they still make it and enjoy that.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Game!
Review: I absolutely loved this game! Its soooo addicting! And you will always want to do "just" two minutes more! Its also very hard which keeps you interested and challenged. Overall this is a very good game and as a bonus makes you want to learn about Rome!
Rating: 
Summary: Fun, but gets to be repetitive.
Review: Caesar III has a lot of things going for it, and a lot of frustrating flaws. Your job is to build a city that meets Caesar's demands in culture, prosperity, peace, and population, and to keep the citizens who live there both happy and healthy. At the same time, you must manage your available funds, appease the gods, send goods to Caesar, and fight off invading armies. The pluses? Don't be intimidated by the thick manual enclosed with the game. It's easy to get started, and the game guides you carefully through your first cities. Advisors are available to help you if your city isn't progressing. The people who populate your city are interesting, and you can click on any of them and they'll tell you how they feel about the city and how you're doing. Completing a city and moving on to the next one is always fun. What will the next landscape be like, and what will you will have to do to win Caesar's favor this time? After you've completed the beginner cities, you're able to make a choice between which of two cities you'd like to try next: either a peaceful settlement or a dangerous one where you'll be fighting off a lot of invaders. You'll probably be a little bit addicted to the game at first. It is fun, and it's hard to resist the "let me just finish one more thing" feeling. The minuses? The game is rather repetitive. When building your city, everything must be completed in roughly the same order every time. First you build houses and a way to keep them from catching on fire or falling down. Then you provide the citizens with food and clean water, and then with temples, and then with theatres, and then schools, and so on. If you deviate from doing things in the correct order, your housing won't develop, and people won't move into your city. Another problem is that once you place a building, a worker must leave the building and walk by the housing in order for that house to develop. The workers don't always walk where they should. For instance, if an area of housing needs schools, you must wait for a school child to leave the school and walk by a house before that house will develop. So you build a school right across the road from the house. And the child leaves the back of the school and wonders away into your fields, never walking by the house that is right in front of the school. Argh! This is a major frustration. I also found that some of the buildings available were totally unnecessary. Two small temples seemed to work better than one large temple, and took up less room. The Senate is a large building used to collect taxes, but the smaller forums worked just as well and didn't require as many employees. All in all, Caesar III is well worth the cost, but don't expect it to keep you entertained for months.
Rating:
Summary: Totally engrossing and entertaining!!
Review: Sorry mom, I can't do the dishes; I have to plan a festival to Venus and then send a troupe of slaves to the Emperor! This game was fantastic. There were a couple errors (like Neptune being referred to as Jupiter and small things such as that) but I completely ignored them because the game was so much fun. It's like sim city but people push carts instead of driving cars and you have to worry about appeasing the gods rather than robot invasions. Trading with other cities is fun and sometimes challenging, as is building up a military or sending gifts to the Emperor to increase your favour rating. Just don't get in the red too often or he'll arrest you!! Overall I think this game is better than Sim City. The actions you can take regarding the military, gods, dealing with Rome and dealing with all the other diverse facets of building up a roman city make it a great game and tons of fun. I recommend this for anyone who likes building or sim games!
Rating:
Summary: Very good game
Review: I got this game after purchasing and becoming adicted to Pharoah. C III is as fun as pharoah. However, you must be a little more careful about fires and the colapse of buildings in C-III. Game is very similar to Pharoah of course, but doesn't matter. The graphics are good and the quality of game play is also just as good. The scenarios are not nearly as difficult as ol Pharoah, but still I enjoy this game very much.
Rating:
Summary: very engrossing, even with minor documentation flaws
Review: The best way to visualize _Caesar III_ is to think of SimCity: the player creates urban environments, then attempts to profitably adjust to the influx of people, random (and not-so-random) events, and Imperial demands. You build and govern a city for awhile as part of a campaign; when you achieve the given objectives, you move up to a more challenging and involved assignment. It's very attractive visually; the user interface is pretty good; the hotkeys make sense. The only thing that chapped me a little was the documentation: it was classic Sierra documentation, one of those books that looks and feels great until you actually need it to look up information. For example: when setting up trade routes for the first time, I experienced a shipwreck. Ok, very well, I thought, let's figure out what happens now since it seems to be blocking my harbour. I looked in many pertinent sections of the manual; not a word on shipwrecks. I just had to wait and hope it went away after awhile. Even though the manual has an actual index--rare enough with game documentation or strategy guides--it could have been better. Also lacking was an in-book reference for the tutorial; all reference for it is in-game. That's fine except that one reason you have a manual is so you can take it away from your computer and read up. Very good game. Fine graphics. Ok manual. Superb dollar value--it has dropped in price to the point where you can hardly lose.
Rating:
Summary: Okay, But Could Be Alot Better
Review: I love studying the Romans and when I heard of this game I bought it. When I played it, it was great! but then it got boring and way to repetitive. All the game is, is making houses, build farms, honor Caesar that is about it. If you love simulation games get this game. If you don't like simulation games don't get it.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting game
Review: Caesar 3 is in many ways what "Sim Roman Empire" would be; you build a city, regulate taxes, create defence unit (sorry - you can't conquer other cities) and control resources. To say that there's a lot to keep track off is an understatement, but the clear interface simplifies the task considerably. You also get a lot of help from your advisors who will tell you how well you're doing in various areas and what you need to improve. All in all the game is very good, although it can be a tad difficult at times (like Caesar's demands). This is a game you need to play if you like intellectually stimulating games.
Rating:
Summary: Caesar-Pharoah, whatever
Review: I bought Pharoah first, so when I played Caesar, I realized I'm just in a different country. Don't misunderstand me, both are really good games; not too easy, not too hard.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome Game, But Way Too Addicting!
Review: This game is very similar to the SimCity games, but set in the Roman Empire. I used to own SimCity 2000, and loved it, but Caesar 3 is even better. The only problem with it (and SimCity too) is that it is too addicting. I can easily find myself playing for 5 hours at a time, while most video games bore me in less than 30 minutes. Of all the video games I've ever played, Caesar 3 is my favorite!
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