Okay, I am guilty of giving Glory of the Roman Empire a 10 on my first review, which was wrong. Mea Culpa! With this and the forthcoming Caesar 4 as gauges for city builders, I would adjust me GotRE review to a 7 and I would rate CivCity: Rome as an 8. This game has a couple flaws that keep it from moving higher but all in all, the economic chain is rubust yet easy to follow. For City Builders, the military aspect is normally downplayed and it is in CCR as well. But it is intuitive and easy to control, giving you at least a flavor of combat. The graphics are on par with GotRE but certainly could have been better but all in all, pleasing for a 3D City Builder.
The animations and individual citizen feed back (audio, etc.) are outstanding, allowing for a number of varrying ways to figure out what's going on in your city.
The game features a unique 'move house' function that also comes into play when you have to manually upgrade (by moving) houses. It adds a twist to CB games that has not been used before. It features a very thorough tutorial (the starting missions of the main campaign) and, more importantly, the same Firefly Map Editor that was featured in Stronghold 2.
The Civilopedia and research tree is not just an add on as the things you research have a tangible and important affect on your city.
While we all wait for Caesar 4, those choosing to play this game should not go in expecting Caesar 4 or an Impressions/Tilted Mill style builder. It's different because it's supposed to be. That certainly doesn't make it better or worse...just...different! All in all, a very solid effort and one that will hopefully have FF and Firaxis working together on a sequal.
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