Thanks to this strategy, I fell in love with ancient Greece. It hasn't aged a thing
Zeus was not only the lord of Olympus, but also of my computer. City builders Impressions Games are still hosted on my hard drive, but there can be only one leader and that is the lightning-throwing Greek god.
As a child, I had the luck of owning an extremely hopeless PC. As a result, I couldn't be picky with games, and the term "new release" sounded like a magic spell in unknown language. In hindsight, I conclude that it was lucky. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have reached for the demo version of Zeus: Lord of Olympus, which was probably added to one of the gaming magazines that came with CDs.
Testing the limited version only increased my interest in history, and also showed me that a more relaxed form gameplay than slashing demons in Diablo or crushing friend's armies in Heroes of Might & Magic can also be a lot of fun. Moreover, it was much easier to convince my parents to buy me the full game. Educational value is an irrefutable argument.
Zeus, forever young
Those were the days. Despite twenty years on the neck, Zeus: Lord of Olympus still works very well. I personally don't even mind the 1024x768 resolution. Of course, there are appropriate mods that allow you to overcome it, but it's not the same – the game screen becomes unnaturally distant and the menu is stretched. That's why I still prefer the original way. All buildings, especially monumental temples, are impressive and looking at them doesn't get boring somehow (sometimes even surprising, for example with the bug that causes the statues of Zeus in his temple to turn into statues of Dionysus).
Anyway, graphics are not the only thing that hasn't aged. Anyone who's played will surely agree with me that the gameplay is still as good as ever and you don't feel the game is two decades old. The rules are trivially simple. You have to build a city and achieve certain goals. These can include reaching a certain size of population, but then there are more difficult tasks: building a temple, summoning a hero or killing a monster, or even conquering enemy poleis.
In the city, you need to provide residents with access to water, food, entertainment, doctors and the right environment. Only then will the houses expand, and thus the emerging metropolis will attract new citizens. If we perform the tasks well, we will learn about it from the population, who will comment on our actions and, for example, a wrestler will say: "Your city resembles Ajax. It's a head taller than all others." In relation to Pharaoh, the advantage of Zeus is that we do not have to create apartments close to workplaces. Buildings will have employees regardless of the distance from housing estates. This city builder set in ancient Greece was surely a step up in terms of accessibility for less experienced players.
And that simplicity of gameplay really worked well. Certain aspects of city management had to be learned, of course, but Zeus had never seemed overly demanding. The game was so simple that even my younger brother had no problem with its rules and we both sat in front of the screen, getting sucked in and forgetting, for example, that the bathtub was filling with water (we ended up damaging the bathroom floor). The good old days...
City builders – new youthful love?
After playing Zeus: Master of Olympus , I thought I liked city builders as a genre, so why shouldn't I try other games? Unfortunately, I quickly bounced off from Sim City and the like and quickly returned to the familiar. Fortunately, Impressions Games was not just about Zeus. Before that game, they released three parts of Caesar (although I have lukewarm feelings toward this game) and Pharaoh with the Cleopatra expansion. However, after Zeus, Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom appeared on sale.
And it was this last item that became my second favourite. It also seems to be one of the more complicated ones. The feng shui mechanics affect the productivity of our buildings, new denominations appear over time and need to be accommodated, and residents are pickier about foods and it's necessary to ensure diversity here. Emperor also looks phenomenal. The creators clearly tried, so it's even more of a pity that it was the last representative of these unique city builders.
But was it? There were fans in the world who decided to create something that would reflect the spirit of their favorite games. This resulted in Lethis: Path of Progress and Nebuchadnezzar, among others. Unfortunately, you can see that capturing this magic is no simple task. The first of these games was fun to play and had lots of potential. However, it seems that the developers were afraid of departing too much from the original, so we got a small clone, whose support was abandoned quite quickly.
Nebuchadnezzar is a different story and I may be in the minority, but this was a game just for me. It didn't have easy beginnings and got very mixed reviews. Currently, though, I think it's a solid game. Of course, it still needs polishing, but the game hasn't been abandoned, despite the initial negative feedback. There are new buildings and options, and the upcoming expansion The Adventures of Sargon will bring a new campaign, voice acting and a pretty extensive combat system.
I go back to ancient Greece because I want to
New games are still being created and – as I mentioned – some can be addictive. After all, in my opinion, there's only one king. I regularly come back to play Zeus: Lord of Olympus again. My only regret is that I no longer have access to the original CD. GOG does have the game in offer, but it lacks a few details I loved about the original, including the "Welcome to Zeus" title screen. Zeus: Lord of Olympus is not only about memories; it's also a game that hasn't aged one bit, at least for me.
OK, maybe the strange behavior of this production in terms of speed is a bit disturbing. You have to reduce it to about 50% for this title to work normally, and still a man working in a trading post will have a strongly accelerated animation. Additionally, spawning gods don't always move smoothly and often stutter or freeze. However, these are not flaws that would make the game unplayable.
Zeus: Master of Olympus and other city builders from Impressions Games prove that timeless games can be created. The chance to participate in the development of an ancient civilization, with the participation of legendary heroes and gods, is something that you want to come back to. I wonder what the remakes of Pharaoh and Cleopatra (currently in-development ) will look like in practice. I hope that these will be real games that will lead to a refresh of other titles from this now defunct developer. At the same time, I hope for a renaissance of productions inspired by these classics. City builders are a niche anyway, so any new good game that captures the spirit of the originals will be warmly welcomed by me.
The only downside to Zeus: Lord of Olympus is the nightmares that sometimes haunt me. Talos tells me in his loud voice, "Now watch out, buy. I will beat your brains."
