Pharaoh: A New Era is a remake of the original PC city simulator. Since the developers couldn’t use the original code, they had to remake everything from scratch without losing that iconic Pharaoh feeling. Did they succeed? Time to find out!
Time to go to Egypt
As you might have guessed, this game takes place in Ancient Egypt where it’s your job to create a town, and if you’re ambitious enough you might even create the most powerful city in Egypt! With 50 missions and over 100 gameplay hours in Pharaoh: A New Era, a remake of Pharaoh (and the expansion Cleopatra: Queen of the Nile), one of the best city builders from the golden age of Sierra Entertainment you’ll have more than enough content to keep you hooked for days. To make it even better, the developers also made sure to add in some important quality of life features. Yes, it’s based on a classic game but when you boot it up, it certainly plays like a modern game. I had no trouble at all controlling the map and building the needed settlements with the mouse and keyboard controls. It’s all very intuitive and after a couple of minutes, you’ll be able to control the game perfectly. The challenge isn’t controlling the game, it’s controlling your city.
Better prepare for a challenge
Unlike other city builders, the game goes pretty hard in its difficulty level. This isn’t one of those building games where you’ll learn the ropes in tons of tutorials. Instead, one mission covers the basics and after that, you’re free to start building on your own. Sounds easy at first but your village is very fragile, especially during its early days. You start with building some houses for your future inhabitants. Make sure those houses are connected to the main road and don’t forget the water and food supply. Without those, your villagers will quickly abandon their new home. Having access to water and food isn’t just click and go. You’ll need special buildings to store your goods and even a bazaar to bring the nutrition to your village. Besides that it might also be wise to invest in architects and fire departments to keep your village safe from fires. Oh, and don’t forget to earn money, you can start mining gold for example although those mines easily catch fire… All of those mechanics are only the beginning of the game.
Later on, you’ll start building palaces, temples, and when you’re really good, even some pyramids. In order to achieve that level of city, you’ll need to make sure you never run out of money and the people in your city are happy. Next to building the city, you’ll need to keep a close eye on potential economic or political crisises. To top it off, you might need some top-notch security to stop plundering intrudors. As a Pharaoh, it’s your job to keep the people happy and do whatever you must to serve and favor the old gods. Since there are a lot of different mechanics to take into consideration while playing the game, this isn’t really a perfect game for a Gamescom demonstration. I lost my town to fires a couple of times because I was rushing my buildings to get the most out of my time. That being said, this still isn’t an easy game, even when you’re able to give it the time needed, it still will be difficult to create a successful town.
Early Conclusion:
Pharaoh: A New Era takes things back to the roots of the genre while still feeling very modern. This is a prime example of past meeting future and although it isn’t an easy game to master, I’m pretty sure fans of the genre will absolutely love playing it.
