I first played Zeus at age 69 as I just learned how to use a PC, I am now 78 and have learned many games, I still like Zeus.

Oh boy, oh boy...

It finally happened. One of my top 5 games of all time recently got released on Steam. I can't tell you how many hours I've spent playing the main Zeus & Poseidon campaigns, let alone the custom-made ones.

The pinnacle of city builders that started with Sierra and ended with Impressions Games: The Caesar series, Pharaoh (& Cleopatra), Zeus (& Poseidon), Emperor - Rise of the Middle Kingdom, and even Children of the Nile (even though I never quite got into it). Pharaoh is also available in Steam now, so make sure you check it out, too!

As for Zeus - If you want the ultimate experience, make sure you get the following things right (you don't have to, of course, but they make the game run much better on modern systems):

1. Widescreen fan-made Patch
-Download the following file: https://www.moddb.com/mods/zeus-and-poseidon-full-hd-enfr/downloads/zeus-and-poseidon-full-hd-many-resolution
-Extract it.
-Choose the folder with the resolution you want
-Copy paste the files in the Zeus installation directory (overwrite the default ones)
-Make sure you set the resolution while ingame to 1024x768, as that will trigger the patch. That's it.

2. The slow god animation bug fix (not everyone experiences it equally badly, though)
-Download Cheat Engine: http://www.cheatengine.org and start it.
-Start Zeus, alt-tab to Cheat Engine, and select Zeus from the apps.
-On the right side, there's a speed hack option. Enable it and set the value to 1 or 2.
After this, the game will run a bit slower, like back when it was released - which is actually what you want. Don't forget that after this, you can still change the ingame speed (90% works fine in all cases I've come across so far. It's neither very fast, nor slow).

EDIT: As of 2023, everyone who downloads Cheat Engine (latest version is 7.4) from the official website should be aware that the installer is bundled with many "hidden" tools and apps that are considered dubious. Make sure you read the installer's steps carefully and UNCHECK everything else before proceeding to install Cheat Engine itself.

3. Lots and lots of custom-made campaigns/adventures http://zeus.heavengames.com/downloads/lister.php?category=adventures_pos

It's amazing to see there are people who are still working on custom-made campaigns. They also pay attention to the stories, so many of the campaigns feel like an integral part of the game. Seeing as there are new adventures coming out, it's fair to say that this game is eternal!

*Lastly, I will copy a post explaining how to install the custom adventures:
"If you are downloading from the Zeus download page, there will be either a Y (indicating that it is an adventure requiring Poseidon Expansion pack), or an N (indicating it does not require the expansion). Secondly, you must create a folder with the EXACT name of the pak. file in the Adventures folder. Then extract all files to the newly created folder. Also, then you must copy the pak. file directly to the adventure folder itself. Just keep at it. I know it's confusing and a little aggrevating. I had this problem myself, and it took a few tries before I realized what I needed to be doing."

Still, even if downloading custom adventures sounds too complicated, don't worry. Both Zeus and Poseidon have more than enough content to keep you going for days/weeks/months... There's even a sandbox mode where you can build cities and please the gods to your heart's content! It's the perfect combination of city building, monument building, resource management and humor. Believe me, there's lots of humor to be found while admiring the streets of your Ancient Greek cities!

I'm sure I've spent hundreds of hours playing this gem. Now, I will only make those hours visible for others to see, all thanks to Steam! :D

Has anyone seen my spear? How can I be a spear carrier without my spear?

This is awesome it's the best game from my childhood! This version on steam needs an unofficial patch and wide screen patch from here >>>> http://zeus.heavengames.com/downloads/showfile.php?fileid=974
Then you will have an awesome game in HD

Somewhere around 2001-2002, my father brought back a couple of video games in PC disk format after returning home from work, one of them being Zeus: Master of Olympus. Back then, I was an eight year old kid living in a cold, often rainy town near the Swiss border who had only experienced memorable console games (mainly platform and FPS genres) to kill boredom with. It was my first encounter with a historical strategy game, and boy did it rock my world.

Of course, for a young kid such as myself, it would be laughable to say I had any real grasp of effective town-management in Zeus. But the suprising thing is that you didn't really need managing skills to get fully immersed.
I can still remember the terror I'd experience when an irate deity of Olympus would send his pet monster to wreck my nascent city, or worse still, use his own godly powers on my buildings and unsuspecting townsfolk. All for the terrible crime of not building an expensive temple in his honour.
I can also recall the fear I'd experience when some pushy enemy would send a dozen hoplite formations at my doorstep with only a few watchmen to fend them off.

Zeus was a strange, terrifying, and highly immersive world. It featured a clever combination of challenging gameplay and mythology. The voice acting was excellent. And most importantly, the music score remains one of the best I've ever heard to this date and makes up about 80% of the immersion job in this game.

As for myself, Zeus instilled in me a deep interest in Greek history and mythology at a young age. It made me want to know more about Classical history. I must confess that the music from the game would immediately resonate in my head many years later while studying Greek history at university. For me, Zeus is Ancient Greece.

Even when I come to think of it now, this was the best-fitting game mode for the setting: A city-builder for an era of city-states.

To put it simply, this game is a gem.

This was the first PC game I ever owned. I always thought of it as the sleeper that no-one knew about so it really feels good to see that so many others loved it as much as I did. My review is thus...BUY THIS GAME. You have not lived until Dionysus has has led all of your citizens out of of the city in a toga line. Once you have completed all the built-in content, visit Zeus Haven for hundreds of user created maps and scenarios.

Had to pick this up as soon as I saw it made it to Steam, I played this all the time as a kid.

As a game, I think Zeus is a blast. Nice classic city building game with a nice greek theme. Manage your agoras, construct temples to the Gods, and war with your fellow city states. Age hasn't been kind to the game, and I'd be much more hesitant to recommend this to someone who hasn't already played and enjoyed it, but it still stands out to me as a fun and charming classic.

Technically speaking, the game runs fine if a bit fast on current hardware, no widescreen support or much in the way of settings to speak of.

I grew up with this game, the hours logged in Steam are a small fraction of the reality. For me, it's still the best city-builder ever made.

- Fast gameplay. Apart from the notable exception of sanctuaries, buildings are placed fully formed and the only resource you need is money (which is easy to come by). This means you can hit pause, build your entire city and then just watch it fill with people. Compared to many other city builders, there is very little grind.

- Humour and dialogue. It's worth getting the game just for the narration of the adventures alone. The scripts themselves are excellent and the narrator does some very entertaining "impressions" of gods, heroes, philosophers etc. If you right-click your citizens then they will make a lot puns and references to Greek history/mythology and also a few pop-culture references. They all have unique voices and the dialogue will change depending on how happy they are.

- Stories. Many modern city-builders only have a sandbox mode with randomly generated maps. While this provides potentially endless gameplay, the reality is that once you've learned all the mechanics, it can get boring. Zeus comes with a whole load of adventures which follow the stories of Ancient Greece and provide you with actual end goals. Each adventure also comes with unique maps and challenges that have been carefully thought out.

- The mythology. Build a sanctuary to a god and they'll wander around your city blessing buildings, wiping out armies or beating up enemy gods. Monsters will appear and start causing havoc until you summon a hero to slay them. Oh and of course they all come with their own unique dialogue. It's a lot of fun and you'll also learn quite a lot about Greek mythology.

- Limited mechanics. This is not going to be problem for the vast majority of people. However, if you are interested in micro-managing every aspect of your city and building really extensive production lines and trade routes then you may find yourself a bit limited. There is some level of resource and worker management but industries are very linear and you can't control the exact number of workers in a building for example. Trade is very straightforward. The flip side is that the behaviour of everything in the game is simple and highly predictable which means you can go very deep into building the most optimal cities possible.

- Age. The game is is 20 years old now which means you'll want to download the patch that lets you play full screen and fixes some animation issues. Texture and audio quality obviously isn't what it would be today. There is also a hard limit on the number of sprites which prevents truly massive cities. You can still make them much larger than you'll ever actually need though.

- Military. Military is not a primary focus of the game but it is certainly a meaningful aspect. They went to the effort of giving the different units a variety of tactics but for the most part, they are useless. Winning a fight basically just comes down to having a bigger army and most of the time, the best option is just to bribe invaders to go away

- Imbalanced gods. This has always bothered me - building sanctuaries to the big boys (Zeus, Poseidon, Hades etc) is almost always a waste of time. The lesser gods are much more useful and require far less resource. I have never understood why the "late game" gods weren't given more power.

If you're into city builders, buy this game. If you're into Greek myths, buy this game. Just buy this game.

Maybe it was because I was raised on this game, but every city builder I've played pales in comparison to this one. I've played every campaign through four times over the past decade, about to go back for round 5. Game devs take note - THIS is how you make a city builder!

I first played this game more than 22 years ago... even after all this time, after all the newer/flashier games, this game is still one of my favourites. Playing this game takes me back to happier, simpler times :) I hope we get a re-master with more missions and expanded content!