CivCity: Rome Review

Research is another vital aspect of the game. While researching stuff like carpentry, banking, etc. might not give you access to more advanced buildings, it will increase efficiency of your populace in certain key areas of city building. Not having an efficient tax system in place may drive you to bankruptcy sooner than you would imagine. Once the town is all set up, however, and you've followed the general guidelines in the mission objectives, money will seize to be an issue, while other problems may arise. The game will keep being a huge balancing act as more difficult missions are given to you by the Senate.

People want bigger houses.

At least the roads look nice.

The downside to the mission design is in its inconsistency, or lack of thereof. While some of the missions may be balanced just right in terms of difficulty, others will feel a bit off - either way too easy or initially confusing enough to make you start from scratch. That is not a fun thing to do in a management game mind you.

Overall, CivCity Rome is a quality management title that's far deeper and more involving than you might initially expect. The problem with it is that it just takes too long for it to actually become interesting. When it does, it's great, but I doubt I would've stuck with it long enough, had I not been playing it for reviewing purposes.

In a manner of speaking, CivCity is the exact opposite of Glory of the Roman Empire - while the latter may feel initially more impressive, CivCity wipes the floor with it in the long run. It's an involving and challenging city builder that has more under its hood than what the paint job might suggest.