New city builder - Children of the Nile. Out now

[frogbeastegg]

But not in Europe thanks to the joyful decision to delay it until February for extra marketing. Anyone got and playing the game? I know there are quite a few city builder fans hanging around on the org. It sounds as if this one has a slightly different approach to the old Impressions games.

I shall have to console myself with the demo while I settle down to wait.

[Sjakihata]

is it like caesar series ?

[frogbeastegg]

Yes ... and no. It's by a group of ex-Impressions developers and shares quite a bit with Caesar/Pharaoh/Zeus/Emperor but it has also altered the focus slightly. I'm still playing through the demo so I'm not entirely sure how this change works, but it looks like you put down buildings and so on in the hopes of encouraging your citizens to do what you want. If you want farms you place farmer's houses, for example, not farms. You then have to wait for the farmers to decide to farm and the choice of crop is up to them, not you.

So far the demo seems good, aside from the several minute lag before the help bubbles in the tutorial update; there's no way to advance the text manually. I've been sat there reading a book while I wait for it to update.

[HawaiianHobbit]

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/children-of.../563749p1.html

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/...le/review.html

It's not at the top of my list but I'll probably get it.

[Kraellin]

i tried it out. fairly simplistic, but then, the demo is fairly limited to two tutorials and not all the features, so, i guess it's not completely fair to judge. it does seem limited, however. i mean, once you've built all the stuff, then what?

i do like that you build the buildings and the villagers then decide if they want to live there or not. and i also like that you can set your shops and priests and so on, to different tasks and specialties. and the import/export idea is fair, but needs more devlopment. in fact, that seems to be the biggest complaint i have; the scope is too limited. i kept waiting for more to do or looking for more to do and it just never seemed to fulfill itself.

the graphics were adequate and the 3d interface was good (though i prefer the reverse directions for tilt and rotate). and the user interface was also fairly intuitive, so that was a well done. the tutorial aspect was also a well done. i had no trouble following along or doing any of the tasks.

but, this thing needs a little more beef. maybe add some disasters or invaders or something. even caesar made an attempt at invaders, albeit somewhat poorly. but, maybe that's reserved for the full game. so, all in all, a C+ or B-, somewhere in that range.

K.

[frogbeastegg]

Agreed, Krae. It's good and has potential but the demo is a bit dull because there is nothing much to do. I remember the same thing being true for the other city builder demos. The game is reviewing well and by the time it finally gets to Europe it should have been patched a time or two. If I have nothing better to do when it arrives I'll probably give it a go.