Pharaoh Demo

Let's face it, we love to build things. From our early days we build massive cities from wooden blocks, progress to the plastic interlocking cubes of Legos, and eventually some of us even create structures in the real world. It's no surprise then that the some of the most popular computer games are about creating vast cities and not merely about blasting an opponent to kingdom come. One company that really knows their city creation is Impressions Games, developers of the excellent Caesar series. Instead of putting people to sleep by forcing them to lay out endless lines of power or water, gamers of the Caesar series contend with exciting problems like vengeful Gods and rampaging barbarians. After three Caesar games the series is moving in a new direction, back in time, to the land of Egypt from 2900-700 BC. Come this fall gamers everywhere will finally learn what it's like to be a living God when Pharaoh is released.

Pharaoh is not a hacked version of Caesar III, although on the surface both share similar elements. The stunning graphics are still isometric and colorful thanks to a 16-bit color palette, the interface remains pretty much the same, and the Gods still play a role in making your city a success. The citizens found in your fair city are a varied lot, from priests to papyrus makers to embalmers. You'll be able to click on them individually to hear their opinion on how well you're faring as ruler, another facet Caesar III players will immediately recognize. There will be multiple tutorial scenarios to get new players up and running, and several different campaigns. In addition there will be a free form mode to allow players to partake in creating a city without the hassle of meeting a specific goal. Yes, on the surface Pharaoh looks like Caesar III with new graphics, but once the outer layer is peeled back gamers are sure to be delighted by the juicy core.

The biggest difference between Pharaoh and its Roman cousins is the Nile. The Nile was the lifeblood of ancient Egypt, but it was also a terrible problem when it flooded each year. You need its water for your farms, but if you plant at the wrong time expect to lose your crops. Obviously one of the key strategies to learn is when to farm, a problem not found in the Caesar series. Because of the importance of this the entire farming model has been changed to accommodate the annual flooding.

The next largest difference has to be the monuments. Think ancient Egypt and what pops into your head immediately -- the pyramids and the Sphinx, right? One of the key gameplay elements will be to create such great monuments as the Temple of Luxor or the Sphinx. Indeed some of the scenarios will have as their goal the construction of a large monument. This leads to the question that has plagued researchers for years, how did the Egyptians build the pyramids? Will Pharaoh give gamers the inside scoop? Well, while there are numerous theories Impressions Games plans on giving us at least one theory. So while we may never know for sure how King Tut's tomb was exactly created, we'll at least have one idea thanks to Impressions Games and the amount of painstaking research they did for this game.

There are a variety of smaller differences too, ranging from trade to combat. The goods found in ancient Egypt are of course quite different from those found in ancient Rome so trade will feel fresh, even though some of the basics (such as establishing caravans to your neighbors) are intact from previous games. Considering the importance of water to ancient Egypt combat will add a new twist: naval combat. You'll also get to tinker around with Charioteers, and defensive structures such as walls and towers.

All in all Pharaoh is shaping up to be another winner, sweeping us back in time to an often neglected period of history in computer gaming. From building monuments, to ramming actions on the Nile, to pleasing Ra, there's plenty to get excited over whether you're a history buff or just a strategy gamer. While it shares enough with Caesar III that vets of that game will be able to jump right in, the farming model and monument construction will make it quite a different game, with new strategies to explore and learn. Finally, the game has extremely forgiving system requirements (tentatively all you'll need to live eternally is a Pentium 133) which should give everyone the chance to play. Look for Pharaoh from Impressions Games and Sierra this fall.

Please note this demo is quite large and will take many hours to download. We recommend that you download using a program that will resume broken downloads (there are several listed on the following page).

PATCHES	size	date
Enhancement Pack	4.7MB	Mar 03, 00