Rating: 
Summary: Great, but not perfect
Review: Pharaoh is the next installment in the Sirrea City-Building series. It is set in Ancient Egypt, where you build cities for the Pharaoh. Pharaoh is a great game. It has nice graphics, similar to SimCity 3000 (no zooming though. Set zoom level). The building toolbar is easy to use, and the game is all around smooth. The bad part of the game is that it can be very frustrating. In Pharoah, your food goes to your storage yards, and then to the bazaars. The bazaar people then deliver food (a little backwards?) to the surrounding nieghborhoods. Sometimes you can have 500 pieces of meat in the bazaars, but the bazaar people don't sell it. They just sit there, while people starve and move out of the city. Really though, there is no major flaws. The number of buildings you can put in is vast, sometimes you look at the screen, and can not find two buildings alike. The game will run on a P166 okay, with the res. down to 640x480. I have tried the higher resolutions, and everything is too small. This is a game that in many ways in like SimCity, and is very well built. Bravo Sirrea!
Rating: 
Summary: The river is deep and wide
Review: Derek, who reviews this game a few reviews below this one, made some cogent points about "Pharaoh". It is *not* very intuitive and it *is* frustrating, at first. But those are two of the truly marvelous things about this game, things which make it very worth the money and time it takes to become even a little proficient at it. One must take the time to run through the tutorials, play the demos (Derek is right on when he recommends d/ling the demos: check out Hotgames.com for those) and be willing to learn the lessons that they teach. Ancient peoples learned to survive and build their civilizations by observing, over and over, the patterns of nature, and by trying to manipulate those patterns; they didn't have users' manuals, you know! The objects (plural) are not always mutual agreeable, but then, this is how most of our lives run, anyway, right? "Pharaoh" not only is a lot of fun once you get the hang of it, it can also help you see how things interconnect, a valuable tool for games and for Life. Consider that when you can't figure out why your boss wants something done in a way or within a time-frame that doesn't make sense, or why an environmental group opposes a new development because of habitat destruction: everything connects to everything else. But forget the philosophy if that bores you. Watching a bunch of hunters shooting arrows into a flock of ostriches to get the blood going! Whoops! There's a fire in the bazaar! Where *is* that bucket brigade? What do you mean, I can't build a temple there? Take a chance on this one! I really do think that anyone with a cerebral bent of any sort will find a lot to like in this game. And because so many of the problems will allow multiple solutions, it is doubtful that anyone will exhaust the possibilities.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best I've seen!
Review: This game is in every way as good and if not better than Caesar III. I own both games and I have to say they are two of the most addicting games I've played. They are so much alike and Pharaoh, though not a sequel or an add-on, adds more to the alreay masterful Caesar III. There are many different perks in Pharaoh that make it very unique and fun. There are gods to worship, more industrial structures, more military units, combat on land and sea, you must make sure your citizens are happy, healthy, and fed enough, provide them with entertainment, law enforcement, and the best of them all, the construction of monuments. This game has pretty much all you could want and it is very easy to learn. The built in campaign teaches you how to play as you progress into the game. You can even interact with your citizens and see what they think of your wonderful city. But you better keep them happy because if you don't, they could revolt and turn your wonderful riches into worthless rubble! If you haven't been able to grasp the concept of city building games or have never been very good, I suggest you try this one out! I'm sure you won't be sorry! I was never any good either, and look where I ended up, I can't put in down!
Rating:
Summary: Highly Addictive! A Must Have
Review: I've played Caesar for sometime so was a litle doubtful when I first considered buying Pharaoh. But..! Although it may seem to be a Caesar with new graphics, there are enough differences and challanges to make a serious difference. One major difference which makes it worth it - the missions to build the various monuments. Very addictive and a must have!
Rating:
Summary: Insanely Addictive!
Review: I think Derek G missed the point. Your farm workers stand in the flood and drowned because you haven't built a place for them to take the food. Simple really. That's what I love about this game. Everything has a point and a purpose. I've been playing for about two weeks straight now, 3-4 hours a day... I was very frustrated for the first 10 days or so and now I've finally figured it out. Everything effects everything... If you want to play a complete city building game, this is the one. Great graphics, great cause and effect, and even the music doesn't get too annoying. You will lose sleep over this game!
Rating: 
Summary: Not Fun - just Frustrating!
Review: Before buying this game, I strongly recommend downloading the demo off their website first. As a fan of many of the "God Games" out there, I found this one very unintuitive. In short, all of the people are stupid and the game itself does some very dumb things. For instance, there are points in the demo where the farmworkers just sit there and drown as the Nile River rises. The question isn't "what's causing this person to just sit there"... the question is "why is this even occurring?" That's just one example, there are many, many, more. Another example? Ok, I got to a point in the game where half of the population would just leave. Then, six months later, they'd all return again just to repeat the same process again and again year after year. Does this make any sense? I found all the micromanagement to be very tiring. The object of the game isn't to build an empire, it's to figure out all the stupid little workarounds it takes to make these people do what they should be doing without any thought. This is just the demo, folks! I strongly suggest you see for yourself before you drop your cash on the real deal. Derek
Rating:
Summary: Deceptive, Addictive & Down Right FUN!
Review: A take off on the Caesar City Building Series from Sierra, Pharaoh is easy to learn but deep to play. I too have had to "replay" a session as I wind up deep in debt trying to build this, or trade that! It does have online help,if you use it-I didn't at first and wound up broke! I am an avid Strategy Gamer from way back, I like Heroes, Age of Empires, StarCraft etc but have found myself staying up until the YAWN Hours playing Pharaoh! I say TRY it you'll soon be up with the rest of us!
Rating:
Summary: Very Addictive Playing, Custom games offer replay value
Review: Since this uses the same game engine as Cesar III it was and educational experience. I've never played any of the Cesar games, but I enjoyed this game. After the first game I was hooked. This game is for people who like games like Sim City, where you have no control of the people in your city. The music is soothing and mysterious. One knock is the autosave feature, although it is good to have it, when the game autosaves, it pauses the whole game.
Rating:
Summary: the most addictive game ever
Review: ok ,let me get this out of the way. i am an older gamer and compulsive when it comes to buying computer games,however most wear thin very fast. Pharaoh is the most addictive game i,ve ever bought.this game is not easy however. after defeat after defeat i decided to read the manual. this is a wonderful stay up to dawn city builder that makes sim city look like something for the kindergarten set.i have ceasar 2 by the same company, impressions, but this has the playability that i,ve only found in age of empires 2. if you want a kiddy clickfest look elsewhere but if you want a well thought out deep and playable game that,s not easy but fun give this one a try.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome and addicting!
Review: Basically Ceaser III with Egyption graphics. If you like city-building strategy games, you'll like this game. The only drawback is that the pyramids and other monuments take forever to build, so you have to be patient.
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