Zeus, Master of Olympus

Pros • Adventures have a well thought-out arc that feels natural • Plenty of missions with varying goals • Always fun to watch the Gods duking it out	Cons • No multiplayer game • The economics can become a little overwhelming • Regulating foot traffic and suppliers on your roads can quickly become a logistics nightmare • Difficult at times to keep the population fed and happy, even on the easy setting
Bottom Line Now you can have a hand in the birth of western civilization as you guide your tiny village to become the dominant power in the Pan-Hellenic world of yesteryear with Zeus: Master of Olympus. Although traditional Sims like SimCity and Age of Empires are excellent games in their own right, it’s always fun when you add an element of the fantastical into your city-building experience. Greek mythology is a virtual spawning ground for fantastic tales of heroism and epic quests performed by legendary figures and Zeus: Master of Olympus capitalizes upon this to bring you a game filled with Gods, Heroes, and terrible Monsters to protect or terrorize your fledgling city-state. Brought to you by the capable team that made the Caesar series, Pharaoh, and Cleopatra, Zeus brings back fond memories of Populous III: Trials of the Olympian Gods, an old Commodore Amiga game. Sadly, once you get over the few new features and the setting, Zeus remains yet another tired old city-building game.

Ancient Greece was a mystical place filled with mystery, wondrous and strange events, and the eternal squabbles of the most fickle bunch of deities that anyone could ever dream up. Sounds like a fun place to visit but would you want to live there? Well, obviously many people did and Zeus: Master of Olympus places you in the shoes of the leader of a city-state struggling to make a name for itself amidst a dozen other emerging powers. You can try out the Tutorial or choose from a number of adventures and get right into the thick of it. Each adventure is independent of the others and contains several interconnected missions that progress very well, lending a good sense of accomplishment to your efforts. The graphics are decent but not groundbreaking and the animations well done, although I found the naked guy doing pushups from the waist up a disturbing visual… brrrr! In typical Sim fashion, you must begin by laying down some roads and creating a neighbourhood that will appeal to wandering settlers. Then you must build some basic amenities like a fountain and some farms to feed your people or they will soon depart for greener pastures. Structures cost money to build of course, and your opening treasury will soon begin to run dry and thus you must collect revenue from your populace via taxes.

The people in Zeus need three basic items to be delivered to their homes, that being food, olive oil, and fleece from sheep, the three main staples of early Greek civilization. Provide well for them and watch your city grow. Slack in your duties and watch your polis become a ghost town. What makes things interesting (and challenging) is that the population does not shop or seek services actively. Instead, a marketplace called Agoras must be built and various vendors placed on it. Then peddlers will travel from home to home and deliver their goods. Likewise, athletes, actors, building inspectors, tax clerks, healers, and a host of other people walk around and ensure that everyone has what they need. Sounds easy? Well… it’s not.

You see, the problems begin as your city grows and you lay down more roads. Soon all these people walking around find themselves with more paths to follow and the time that some homes have to wait for goods and services increases considerably. This leads to more shops, theatres, gyms, farms, etc, etc. You can place roadblocks at key junctures so that your errant peddlers will stick to a circuit that you create but the task can quickly get out of hand as your city grows and your population becomes harder and harder to supply on a timely basis. A way to view your city from a top-down perspective would help to better identify trouble spots but the typical three-quarter down view can only be rotated which can temporarily disorient you as everything changes direction. Ah, the wonders of supply and demand… only so much fun can be derived from that!

Then there are the other cities in the area to deal with. Establishing trade routes quickly is a good idea and a bribe or two might stop a conquering army from getting any ideas. Later, as you establish a fighting force of your own, you can teach your pushy neighbours a lesson or two. Your so called-army will invariably consist of Rabble (you and I,) Hoplites (the nobles,) and Cavalry (the really rich bastards.) There are also Triremes for those really hard to reach places on the ocean. There are a few battlefield maneuvers offered but most confrontations are usually decided in favour of he with the most soldiers. A handy feature lets the game set up your formations and run the battle for you. If you loose a battle, you must pay tribute to the victor and suffer a few demolished buildings. Victory however earns you the praise of your people. As payback, you can also send your troops and raid other towns for needed goodies.

The real fun begins when monsters begin to show up and you must fulfill the requirements for recruiting a Hero that will bash its head in before too many people get gobbled up by the wandering nasty. For example, Hercules being the strong fellow that he is, requires that your populace have excellent access to gymnasiums and he also likes it if you have lots of wine in your warehouses since killing hydras is thirsty work! Once the requirements are met, you can the build a Hall for the Hero that you require and he will promptly arrive to solve your problems. By the same tokens, Gods also make appearances and these can be good or bad. Good if they are trying to get you to worship them in which case you can then build a Sanctuary (temple) for them, or bad if they just having a little fun by ruining your town and making life generally miserable for you. Once on your side however, they do provide huge benefits for your city and its people. Don’t anger them. Other neat features include having your citizens participate in all kinds of contests and gaining prestige and popularity by winning. Even better, if you win the famous Olympic Games, the next time around your city gets the honour of hosting them. How cool is that?

Alas, like many other games of this genre, once the new options and features are fully explored, the game can quickly become a tedious affair of trying to quarry X number of marble slabs in one year before you can move on to the next stage. Though the setting does much to give Zeus: Master of Olympus character and appeal for fans of historical/fantastical Sims, it remains essentially yet another example of a tried-and-true formula in need of some new life. Sadly and strangely missed is a multiplayer option in a game that simply begs for it. Thrashing computer Gods is fun, but doing it to your buddy’s Ares or Hades can be more fun. An enjoyable game overall but debatable on whether it has enough ‘newness’ in it to hold one’s interest for very long.

Rafael Canoa

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