Rating: 
Summary: Great Game, Good History Lesson
Review: "Pharaoh" is a city-building game that takes the player from pre-dynastic times (3500 -4000BC) through the Old, Middle, Intermediate Periods to the end of the New Kingdom (ca 400 BC). Each period is made up of several missions that involve your "dynasty" in building a historical Ancient Egyptian city/settlement. To do this you must house, feed, and employ enough workers to achieve your goals, which involve population level, culture, wealth, military success, and of course monuments. In addition, you also must contend with the harsh environment and appease the gods. One of the best aspects of the game is there is NO time limit. Players can build as fast or slowly as they like. The overall effect of the game is a reasonable ancient history lesson. One sees the,literally, life-or-death importance of the annual Nile flood (in fact, failure of the floods may be behind the Pharaoh's loss of power and the rise of the Nomarchs in the Intermediate Period), and the extent that trade both inside Egypt and with "Asiatics" dominated city life. What most people associate with ancient Egypt: tombs and temples are also important here. Monument building takes enormous resources to complete as it did historically. Some things have been compressed or simplified for game play. For instance, the game uses "debens" as currency though there's no evidence, yet, that the ancient Egyptians used coins (not until the Hellenistic period well after the game period). But, as a convenient way to show the movement of goods and services, and to track wealth, it works well. Also, Egyptian religion was extremely complicated by modern standards, with gods changing and merging over time. The game reduces this to four basic gods, with differing powers. Again, a reasonable simplification that demonstrates how the Egyptians related to their religion. (As another reviewer said, monument building for the larger Pyramid Complexes and Temples can take literally decades of game-time. To speed this up, select the "Pyramid Speed Up" option. When this is "on" the gods will assist your monument project, provided they are pleased with your devotion.) Highly recommended as a simulation of ancient Egypt and a great game.
Rating: 
Summary: Too exhausting to be enjoyable
Review: Pharaoh is every positive thing mentioned by the other reviewers. I wouldn't argue with any of them. It is a great game: "great" in terms of magnitude and scope. But it fails to be "fun." It's one of those bizarre instances where a game is addictive and enthralling but also infuriatingly difficult. I've just spent eight hours on a particular mission only to have a glitch in the behavior of the bazaar traders wreck everything. A few more courses to go on the pyramid...oops, so sorry, start over. Unfortunately problems like these have been commonplace since I started my campaign. Even when things go smoothly, most missions require four to eight hours. I'm sorry, I can't spend my life building cyberspace pyramids. Pharaoh is definitely a case of "more is less."
Rating: 
Summary: Pharaoh
Review: This game is great fun for anyone interested in Geography. As well as being great fun its also educational. I used this game to help me pass my Geography exams, it taught me what people need to live and what facilities help to create a better place to live, for example good healthcare and religious facilities, as well as shops and recreational places such as bars and festivals. You can also create parks and gardens.
The down side to this game is the time it takes to build monuments. It takes forever to build things such as pyramid complexes and temples. On the whole this game is a good investment, it provides hours of in-depth fun and education
Rating:
Summary: First PC game Purchase
Review: Pharaoh is a city building game (like SimCity), but set in Egypt, during the pre-dynastic period. You start by building a settlement, addressing basic needs and continue onward. Unlike SimCity, there are various goals to hit such as population goals. As the game progresses, it gets harder. Unfortunately, I found myself building and managing the population, but having to check the deities almost constantly. Unless you hold regular festivals, constantly build shrines, the gods will grow angry and exact revenge on your civilization. I found it to be more tedious than fun.
Rating:
Summary: Great historical strategy game
Review: I don't know what made me love this game more -- my interest in ancient Egypt or my love for a great strategy/simulation game. Whichever it is, this game is great!
You play your way through various campaigns with various missions through ancient Egypt's history. Master the art of the trade, control huge industires (such as papyrus making, pottery making, beer brewing, and so much more), fight wars, and build huge, lasting monuments -- pyramids, mastabas, obilisks, and sphynxes. When you begin your "Family History" (the ongoing campaign), you get a message to help you get started; like how to build houses, feed your people, etc. If you don't know how to play, it tells you exactly what to do. If you've played before, you just click and start the game. Trading is great. There's nothing better than making tons of money exporting goods! The warfare portion of the game is somewhat lacking, though. You mine bronze, make weapons, train soldiers. But the battles aren't even close to as good as in Age of Empires or WarCraft. Right-clicking on your townspeople makes them give you their opinion of the city; this helps you know what to change. You can also choose to do non-campaign-connected missions, which you choose from the list.
So, if you liked Caeser, love ancient Egypt, or are just hungry for a good strategy game, get Pharaoh. Also get Cleopatra, the Pharaoh expansion with more missions and buildings, but I recommend the Great Empires II Collection, so you get many great city-building games in one inexpensive package.
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