CivCity: Rome
Encyclopedia
CivCity: Rome is a city building strategy game by Firefly Studios
and Firaxis
. As a collaboration between Firefly Studios and Firaxis Games, the game invites players to shift focus from building a multi-city empire and zoom-in on the great cities of the Roman Empire, culminating in Rome itself. In terms of game logic, it includes elements from two well-known game series, i.e., Caesar
(primarily) and Civilization
, giving players the opportunity to build, run and maintain various cities of the Roman Empire
.
As the player, you will be charged with building, nurturing and managing one of the great cities of Rome as they endeavour to lead the Roman Empire from its humble beginnings to its mighty zenith. As with most city building games, making sure each neighborhood has access to all the commodities it needs is the primary challenge. The different kinds of items required by the most advanced households will require you to fit a wide variety of shops and services into a very compact area.
, is hired by a local stone works overseer to construct a stone mine colony. The player then gets further opportunities to prove himself, meeting such historic characters as Marcus Licinius Crassus and Julius Caesar
. The player is offered various ranks, progressing through such titles as: Quaestor
, Aedile
, Roman censor, Praetor
and Consul
.
Each campaign mission begins with a patron
to the player offering the greeting of "Hail!" and then stating the character's title. Midway through the game, the player can choose to embark on military campaigns which involve combat or continue to play peaceful missions which have harder goals but no risk of invasion
.
The game comes with 27 different maps and 34 missions with user created scenarios offering many game play possibilities. There are over 75 unique units in the game with 115 different building types in the game. You can also find over 1000 distinct historical facts in the Civilopedia. One small wonder that can be built is the Trajan's Column. You can also build mighty wonders and influence the direction of your city by building spectacular temples and libraries. Production of these trophy buildings will give various advantages to your city.
Reviews
Forums
Firefly Studios
Firefly Studios is a computer game developer that has offices in London, England and Canton, Connecticut, with a QA department in Aberdeen, Scotland. The Company was formed in August 1999 by Simon Bradbury, Eric Ouellette and David Lester who had worked together on numerous titles such as the...
and Firaxis
Firaxis Games
Firaxis Games is a computer game developer. It was founded in 1996 by Sid Meier, Jeff Briggs, and Brian Reynolds upon leaving MicroProse. The company focuses on strategy games and is based in Sparks, Maryland in the United States....
. As a collaboration between Firefly Studios and Firaxis Games, the game invites players to shift focus from building a multi-city empire and zoom-in on the great cities of the Roman Empire, culminating in Rome itself. In terms of game logic, it includes elements from two well-known game series, i.e., Caesar
Caesar (video game)
Caesar is a city-building computer game where the player undertakes the role of a Roman governor, building ancient Roman cities.Released in 1992 on the Amiga, ported the next year to Atari ST, PC and Macintosh, the game was similar to SimCity...
(primarily) and Civilization
Civilization (series)
Civilization is a series of turn-based strategy, 4X video games produced by Sid Meier. Basic gameplay functions are similar throughout the series, namely, buiding a civilization on a macro-scale from prehistory up to the near future...
, giving players the opportunity to build, run and maintain various cities of the Roman Empire
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
.
As the player, you will be charged with building, nurturing and managing one of the great cities of Rome as they endeavour to lead the Roman Empire from its humble beginnings to its mighty zenith. As with most city building games, making sure each neighborhood has access to all the commodities it needs is the primary challenge. The different kinds of items required by the most advanced households will require you to fit a wide variety of shops and services into a very compact area.
Gameplay
The game offers two types of missions: stand alone missions to include freeplay (or "sandbox") and a campaign based mission which is actually a tutorial. The campaign based mission begins when the player, an engineerEngineer
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
, is hired by a local stone works overseer to construct a stone mine colony. The player then gets further opportunities to prove himself, meeting such historic characters as Marcus Licinius Crassus and Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
. The player is offered various ranks, progressing through such titles as: Quaestor
Quaestor
A Quaestor was a type of public official in the "Cursus honorum" system who supervised financial affairs. In the Roman Republic a quaestor was an elected official whereas, with the autocratic government of the Roman Empire, quaestors were simply appointed....
, Aedile
Aedile
Aedile was an office of the Roman Republic. Based in Rome, the aediles were responsible for maintenance of public buildings and regulation of public festivals. They also had powers to enforce public order. There were two pairs of aediles. Two aediles were from the ranks of plebeians and the other...
, Roman censor, Praetor
Praetor
Praetor was a title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities: the commander of an army, usually in the field, or the named commander before mustering the army; and an elected magistratus assigned varied duties...
and Consul
Roman consul
A consul served in the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic.Each year, two consuls were elected together, to serve for a one-year term. Each consul was given veto power over his colleague and the officials would alternate each month...
.
Each campaign mission begins with a patron
Patrón
Patrón is a luxury brand of tequila produced in Mexico and sold in hand-blown, individually numbered bottles.Made entirely from Blue Agave "piñas" , Patrón comes in five varieties: Silver, Añejo, Reposado, Gran Patrón Platinum and Gran Patrón Burdeos. Patrón also sells a tequila-coffee blend known...
to the player offering the greeting of "Hail!" and then stating the character's title. Midway through the game, the player can choose to embark on military campaigns which involve combat or continue to play peaceful missions which have harder goals but no risk of invasion
Invasion
An invasion is a military offensive consisting of all, or large parts of the armed forces of one geopolitical entity aggressively entering territory controlled by another such entity, generally with the objective of either conquering, liberating or re-establishing control or authority over a...
.
The game comes with 27 different maps and 34 missions with user created scenarios offering many game play possibilities. There are over 75 unique units in the game with 115 different building types in the game. You can also find over 1000 distinct historical facts in the Civilopedia. One small wonder that can be built is the Trajan's Column. You can also build mighty wonders and influence the direction of your city by building spectacular temples and libraries. Production of these trophy buildings will give various advantages to your city.
Features
- You can look inside of various buildings such as Villas, Hovels, and Roman baths. Discover, in much greater detail, how Romans went about their daily lives.
- There are more than 70 technologies that can be developed over time to give your city a strategic advantage. Use the research tree to improve many aspects of your city and its relation to the wider empire. A developed research strategy can result in greater production and less time involved to win in certain scenarios.
- Driven purely by building placement and strong visual feedback, the game lets you create your own living community simply by choosing and placing the wide variety of buildings.
- An intriguing array of characters will interact with you and bring high drama to your city with their emotions, state of health, and candid feelings about the city. There will even be famous Romans in the city who will comment on and present new challenges for you.
Editor
An editor is provided with civcity Rome. It allows players to create maps and scenarios for the game. User created scenarios can be found at the official fan site forum and an un-official fan site.Reception
The game was met with average reviews. Reviewers claimed that derivative and monotonous gameplay and graphical bugs dampened the playing experience. It received an aggregate score of 67 from Metacritic.External links
OfficialReviews
- Metacritic Score at MetacriticMetacriticMetacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
- CivCity: Rome review at GameSpotGameSpotGameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
- CivCity: Rome review at IGNIGNIGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
Forums
- CivcityForums.com at CivCityForums.com