Any games like Sierra's "Pharaoh"?

[Osamaru]

I have to say, Sierra's "Pharaoh" was one of my favorite games. While simple enough, it was one of the most well balanced and easy to dive in City builders/Strategy games I've every played, and the one that really got me into the genera. Does anyone know of any games similar to it? something with the same "Feel"? I've tried things like Civilization, but the same feel is just not there, and others like Anon, while good games in their own right, have some problems (mostly the Rushing mentality of the Online community.

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

Tropico series ? Less combat (on average) and a more forgiving structure with the missions taking far less time than Pharoah (about a couple of hours per scenario) but some of the missions in Tropico 3 are extremely difficult. To explain what seems self contradictory - society is far more stable and far less prone to wild fluctuations than Pharoah but the game targets can be tough in the available time particularly at higher levels.

S.x.

[Osamaru]

K, Thanks, I'll take a look. I never got why Sierra never continued the Pharoah line. It was pretty popular, and a solid game. Anyone else have any other Suggestions?

[cinedine]

The obvious: Sierra's Caesar I - III (which is where Pharao actually derived from)
Less obvious: Imperium Romanun or it's successor Grand Ages: Rome

Also Stronghold may be worth a look.

Edit: ah, found the missing Greek title: Zeus: Master of the Olymp

[Arkhne]

Because it was an Impression's game, Sierra bought Impression's Games, and fired all the staff that came with it. The fired Impression's staff went on to found Tilted Mill, and made their own Ancient Egypt City Builder (Children of the Nile), which was more complicated, and less fun (for me) than the original. Impressions made MANY great titles, all of which were killed by Sierra.

As to other suggestions, can be hard to say.

Emperor was interesting, but had a BAD habit of ignoring comodity resources, which would stagnate or downright kill entire neighbourhoods, despite having the needed supply (like Food) right next to the distributor.

Caesar series was OK, ancient Rome based, and very similar to Pharaoh, but somehow lacked the "feel" of Pharaoh.

Most others that come to mind are more RTS than City Management, which kind of ruins the experience, imho. I was/am a huge fan of Pharaoh myself, bought it several times over the years. It was such a great game (As were most Impression's Games). These are the closest suggestions I can offer, neither of which can really compete with Pharaoh, sorry.

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

Pharaoh itself was based on the Caesar series and Sierra put out several versions of Caesar later than Pharoah.

Clash of Clans and Jurassic Park on mobile platforms both have building aspects - and both suffer from the plight of having to wait days (literally days) for improvements and buildings to be completed.

Sim City whilst attracting kudos for being the first city builder game hasn't been updated in a time and personally I think others have done better since.

I would strongly recommend the Total War series - starting with Rome Total War which is still available and cheaply too. It shifts the emphasis from city building to troop battles (albeit that city building is a critical part of the game) and I'd argue strongly should be in the list of top 10 PC games of all time.

Civilisation ? Problematic because the latest version (Civ 5) is widely rated as a turkey. You can see my review here and on Amazon. I'd still rate Civ 2 as the best for playability but it's Sid Meier's Secrets of Alpha Centauri that IMHO is the best version of Civ - if you can find a copy and a computer that will run it.

Theme Hospital ? Still lingering around some stores but very problematic with later versions of Windows.

There have been very few top quality God/management games recently for the PC and a pent up demand could make a developer that produces a five star game a lot of money.

S.x.

[Osamaru]

Hummmm, Interesting. I'll have to check some of them out. Ya, I'm trying to stay away from things that have more of a Troop combat focused games. Some of them did it really well (Stronghold 2 for example), but I never got a real taste for them. Pharaoh's was nice that in while it was still engaging, it was not that In your face or challenging.

Originally posted by Warchild:

I was/am a huge fan of Pharaoh myself, bought it several times over the years. It was such a great game

Same, >_< only reason I am asking is because I've lost my CD, or I'd just play it, ROFL.

[Osamaru]

Anyone else?

[Samm]

I think most of the great ones have been covered being:

Tropico, Ceasar, Emperor and Children of the Nile. CivCity is also pretty good and worth a mention though. Maybe try this list which features of the games discussed so far: http://gameslikefinder.com/games-like-simcity/

[Forcen]

Pharao is still on sale here: http://www.gog.com/game/pharaoh_cleopatra

Here are some similar games: http://www.giantbomb.com/pharaoh/3030-17680/similar-games/

[Blanchflower]

Originally posted by Torigoma:

Hummmm, Interesting. I'll have to check some of them out. Ya, I'm trying to stay away from things that have more of a Troop combat focused games. Some of them did it really well (Stronghold 2 for example), but I never got a real taste for them. Pharaoh's was nice that in while it was still engaging, it was not that In your face or challenging.

Originally posted by Warchild:

I was/am a huge fan of Pharaoh myself, bought it several times over the years. It was such a great game

Same, >_< only reason I am asking is because I've lost my CD, or I'd just play it, ROFL.

You can buy Pharaoh on Gog.com.

[eram]

Here is a classic.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/17100
Great gameplay for an older game.

[chiefputsa☒lag]

pharaoh + cleopatra expansion
emperor: rise of the middle kingdom
zeus: master of olympus + poseidon expansion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Building_Series

[mstywood]

Originally posted by Torigoma:

I was/am a huge fan of Pharaoh myself, bought it several times over the years. It was such a great game

Same, >_< only reason I am asking is because I've lost my CD, or I'd just play it, ROFL. [/quote]

Pharaoh/Cleopatra was very relaxing for me. Just enough challenge to tweak things without taxing the brain. I generally don't like games with "war" in them but this was easy enough where if you set things up pretty well you'd get through it fairly easily. I wish there were more good campaigns. I know fans have made scenarios at Pharaoh Heaven (if it's even still around) but campaigns are more fun. I found this thread because I am looking for something -- I've played P/C so many times I practically have the missions memorized! :-) Any more thoughts on this topic?

I looked into GoodGames medieval city building but that's online and I do not like that at all. Too many trolls and I want to be in control of my game if I am a God(dess)! Anyone know of a game like that for offline play?

[username12121]

Originally posted by mstywood:

Originally posted by Torigoma:

I was/am a huge fan of Pharaoh myself, bought it several times over the years. It was such a great game

Same, >_< only reason I am asking is because I've lost my CD, or I'd just play it, ROFL.

Pharaoh/Cleopatra was very relaxing for me. Just enough challenge to tweak things without taxing the brain. I generally don't like games with "war" in them but this was easy enough where if you set things up pretty well you'd get through it fairly easily. I wish there were more good campaigns. I know fans have made scenarios at Pharaoh Heaven (if it's even still around) but campaigns are more fun. I found this thread because I am looking for something -- I've played P/C so many times I practically have the missions memorized! :-) Any more thoughts on this topic?

I looked into GoodGames medieval city building but that's online and I do not like that at all. Too many trolls and I want to be in control of my game if I am a God(dess)! Anyone know of a game like that for offline play?

I know this is no immediate help, but here's one I'm looking forward to:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/310470/

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

Oh ... and early editions of the Settlers - Settlers 2 and Settlers 2 10 year anniversary. You just missed a sale on GOG. VERY similar in feel to Pharoah.

S.x.