Zeus Master of Olympus For PC: Challenging Greek Mythology Gameplay in a Colorful City Building Sim

Zeus Master of Olympus For PC: Challenging Greek Mythology Gameplay in a Colorful City Building Sim
Page content

Greek Mythology Invades City Building Games

That’s right - ancient Greek mythology has invaded the haven of city building games, bringing us Zeus: Master of Olympus for the PC. Anyone that loves the Caesar titles or other city building games will fall in love with this one as well, especially since the characters should be familiar to you and the story lines are excellent, using celebrated mythology to create challengs that you as the ruler of Mount Olympus must deal with. People who like not only city building sims but Greek mythology and are looking forward to The Lightning Thief movie soon to hit theaters, the game holds particular appeal.

Master of Olympus Gameplay (5 out of 5)

City building games have been around for a while, and there is even competition in the sub-set of historical city builders such as Pararoh or the Caesar series. While the gameplay is basically the same as in those titles, like the Caesar series and Pharaoh, Master of Olympus levels also offer something else: a great challenge that you must overcome to bring a certain God to your city in order to defeat a monster, Titan, or rival God. You must build up your cities, strengthen your ties with other cities around the country, and please the Gods so that you can be victorious.

The gameplay of Zeus Master of Olympus basically starts out with building houses so people will move to your new city. From there, you must set up ways for them to make, store, and distribute food and other goods that they need to survive and be happy. You will have to build trading ports and stations for other cities so you can import items you need and export those that will make you a good profit. You control the usual facets of life in a historical city building sim: roads, food, religion, shops, and so on.

During your game, you will come across many challenges - from monsters to earthquakes, floods to Titans - and you must find a way to overcome them all. Some will require simple rebuilding, others will require that you build certain temples and please certain Gods so that they will come and help you to defeat the monster or Titan. Overall, I give the gameplay a solid 5 out of 5 as it is more challenging than many other city building games out on the market.

Graphics (5 out of 5)

As you can see from the screenshots below, the graphics in Zeus: Master of Olympus for PC are extremely detailed, even down to the smallest peasant. It adds to the overall feel of the game and allows you to see your citizens working away in the cities. You can watch them, watch ships sail on the waters, and have a chukle as the rival Gods, Titans, or monsters wreck parts of your city - as they are a bit funny. Clicking on any of your citizens, Gods, monsters, or other places will allow you to interact with them as well, which will offer you insight into their lives as well as some funny quotes as well. The colors are beautiful in Zeus: Master of Olympus, bright and vibrant, which adds to the overall feel of the game and provides you with a wonderful way to really see your city as you go along in the different building games that you’ll face.

Screenshots

Audio (3 out of 5)

While the rest of the game simply shines, Zeus Master of Olympus doesn’t offer up much in the way of sounds and audio. The music is ok, but does get annoying after a bit. The sounds of the city are decent, but not anything I want to sit and listen to for hours. The voice work is also fine. Overall, it’s not awfull to listen to, but personally, I would plug in a good CD or crank up the radio.

Overall Impression (5 out of 5)

Zeus: Master of Olympus has everything needed to from a thoroughly enjoyable city building sim. From Greek mythology to humorous monsters, hard challenges to easy building interfaces, this game is great for building sim game lovers of all ages. Overall, I would recommend it to anyone out there that would like to find a completely new city building game to play that won’t break your budget.