is it really worth buying?

[failsafe]

Im one of the dinos here, and I've played all old titles like Ceasar, Pharaoh ect and yes, I loved this years... decades ago... I've been really hyped on refreshed Pharaoh, but after watching few vids from game and reading some threads on forum I have some doubts about this game.

From what I have seen this game is a little bit lazy remake. I mean devs didnt go that far from the original game, and in few cases they even decided to make this new game a smaller title. I expected this game to be more modern, more complex and what I see (I underline that I didnt play it, so I dont really know this for sure) we have simple, almost indie game. If this was a game sold for 10 EUR then... well... who cares... but price of this game is very similar to much better developed games, like... dunno... Factorio maybe (okay, Factorio is bit more expensive, but it is same price league).

So, is it game really worth buying or is it just a sentimental trip for those who believe that games used to be much better in ol' days?

[ksen]

From what I've seen from year old demo, which they hardly improved upon, it's better to just HD patch original and play it that way. Works fine on modern hardware, just save often.
This remake seems mostly degraded in every aspect:
No basic features like minimap, rotation. (All sprites have only one angle view)
Replaced combat with autobattle.
Part of narration is gone, as well as various intro era videos.
Overall sterile presentation, outside honestly pretty intro.
UI didn't get better since year old demo (mission objective still removable as notification, people told them about year ago)

[Neemys]

From what I have seen, totally not worth buying. From dumbed down mechanics of the base game, absence of main feature like minimap or rotation, slow and un-immersive u andi there is quite the amount of bug. Seeing the track record of the dev, their previous game (Lethis) had quite the amount of bug also and despite the year, they are still present.

Lethis was uninteresting, without any depth, here they should just have copied the original and maybe improved on it, but even that they seem to be unable to do despite the large change in release date.

Lethis should have already proved the incapability of the dev to do good works, Pharaoh does it a second time.

[failsafe]

Hmm... yeah, I was bit suprised that game came without minimap and option to rotate... this is one of the things that are just should not happen in 2023, that is 24 years after release of original game.

So, okay, thanks for answers. I bet that some people love it, but you confirm that I'm not wrong not buying this game. Maybe after some time things change, but now it all seems "meh" for me.

[IfThenOrElse]

I loved the OG game and I am also loving this. Sure there are some UI bugbears of mine, but it's not killing the experience for me.

[tainawoman]

OP, as you see, you received answers only from people who don't own the game.
I think that the new game greatly improved the original one and, at this price, is indubitably worth every cent. The changes the devs made aren't important at all, maybe the icons for immersion, but not any of the mechanics.
If you loved the original Pharaoh, be sure that the new game will be as long, complex and maybe work on in the future like the old version.
Cheers!

[DawdlingDan]

There is nothing here that makes me want to play this over the original that I already own on steam. I mean, this doesn't even support 16:10 res so it still won't be fullscreen on the Steam deck. Graphics and ui is a downgrade imo.

[phillip_lynx]

Originally posted by DawdlingDan:

There is nothing here that makes me want to play this over the original that I already own on steam. I mean, this doesn't even support 16:10 res so it still won't be fullscreen on the Steam deck. Graphics and ui is a downgrade imo.

The original also doesent support 16:10.
This was patched with a fan made patch.

[Borgessa]

Originally posted by tainawoman:

OP, as you see, you received answers only from people who don't own the game.
I think that the new game greatly improved the original one and, at this price, is indubitably worth every cent. The changes the devs made aren't important at all, maybe the icons for immersion, but not any of the mechanics.
If you loved the original Pharaoh, be sure that the new game will be as long, complex and maybe work on in the future like the old version.
Cheers!

I have to agree - Perhaps people who bought and played the game should answer. Rather than conjecture on how something thinks the game is better or worse. I personally like the graphics slightly less. Though there are some aspects i like, able to zoom in closer, but perhaps not zoom out far enough. The game play is similar but it takes getting use to, the UI is so different to the OG that i just finished playing, for me its slightly confusing at times, thou it is getting more familiar, since its a remake, i wish it had been slightly more familiar. I'm not far enough into the game yet to say whether its great or not, I love it cause its Pharaoh, but the military is not what it once was, and i have yet to experience it in this new version so i wait, to give judgement on that. I would say watch someone play it on Youtube or twitch and decide whether its for you?

[polarski]

I would recommend Nebuchadnezzar instead. Similar vibe, but much more polished, new settings and many QoL stuff. Minimap or map rotation are of course there.

[mikesoft]

I am loving the game, but I agree with some points here. I think I'm getting a hard time getting used to the UI, I guess I am too used to the old one, but the new one is confusing, I keep clicking all options to find the building type I'm looking for.

However the game is still great, was waiting for this for several years, not disappointed.

[Vak]

The gameplay loop still holds up, I don't regret my purchase. I'm a huge fan of Sierra city builders and it still uses the same formula successfully.

I wouldn't call it a lazy remake, but I don't agree with their choices (UI - bleugh, graphics - meh, millitary - still equally bad). They didn't go the extra mile but that's not lazy in my book.

I think we got 100% remake but I doubt we will get anything more. Take a look at the Augustus project[github.com] which introduces new mechanics. I don't believe we will see any similar development of this game, they even said no to mods.

If you buy it, buy it as it is.

[Minie1000k]

i'm not very happy with this game. I've been playing pharaoh since always. i buy the new era because phararoh it's very old. i still can play it on windows10, but i think the new era will be better. now i'm no sure. i played a few missions yet, and i'm still disconcerted. all the things happen so quickly. put a pottery production and in 5 sec there is pottery in the warehouse.
the look of the game is not the best too.
i miss some videos, and i would like more zoom in and zoom out too, the rotation, the minimap...
i expected more. maybe with the time i will be happier.

saludos

[ksen]

Originally posted by tainawoman:

OP, as you see, you received answers only from people who don't own the game.
I think that the new game greatly improved the original one and, at this price, is indubitably worth every cent. The changes the devs made aren't important at all, maybe the icons for immersion, but not any of the mechanics.
If you loved the original Pharaoh, be sure that the new game will be as long, complex and maybe work on in the future like the old version.
Cheers!

Demo existed, I played. Seems like improvement is negligible. All comments of people who played the game regarding UI were met with silent ears.
One does not need to buy the game to see how remake is overall worse than original, even from pure content and features standpoint.

[Zaphiel]

it really is a great game, and if a lot of people buy it, they can and probably even will improve upon features etc and maybe even remake some other old games, so just get it^^

[Abvale]

I kept the original box from 99(windows 95/98,pentium 166) and played the one from gog.
This remaster gives the same feeling,very good remake