Where's my spear, I can't be a spear carrier without a spear!
You begin your adventure by taking your small fledgling city and being tasked to turn it into the greatest city of Greece. Along the way you will encounter gods, heroes, mythological beasts and maybe even a neighbouring city that plans on invading you. Masters of Olympus is a city management game and it puts you right in the hot seat. Never will there be a time when your sat around twiddling your thumbs, as every aspect of the city is managed by you, food, hygiene, safety, unrest, maintenance, resources and more, you will be kept very busy.
There are a variety of different game modes for you to choose from including a series of campaigns which vary in size from between five and eight missions. Each campaign has a mythological feel to it, as you might expect, and from the very first mission you really do feel like you’re managing a city in ancient Greece. As well as the campaigns there’s also a few sand box modes to play through when you feel like some open ended fun, they can also be used to test strategies and also do some practice should it be required.
Resources are very important in Zeus and come in a large variety of shapes and sizes. Firstly you have you industry resources, such as grapes and olives, which can be turned into wine and olive oil respectively. Then you’ll have your food, which has a lot of varieties too. Fishing Wharf’s are one food option you might want to invest in, as they send boats out onto the open waters to track down any fish that may be lurking near by. Should your fledgling city begin to grow you may decide it’s time to offer your people a new type of food, perhaps dairy, which can be acquired by building a lot of carding sheds and goats. There are plenty more food options to choose from as well, including wheat and sea urchins.
All resources are just as important as each other and a lot of them have more than one use, meaning it’s a fine line between providing for your citizens and watching them all leave due to the lack of one resource you’ve forgot to build. Should you not have the means to acquire some resources, perhaps there’s no water nearby so you can’t fish. There is always the option to trade. By building trading posts you will be able to buy and sell resources to the other cities that are friendly towards you. Over time as you grow more cities will lean towards you and as a result more trading posts become available. Should you wish to buy and sell resources it’s easily done by clicking on the trading post and detailing how much of the resource you desire. Then a travelling merchant will pass through gathering any resources you’re selling and dropping off any you’re buying.
The resource system is a little complicated at first, if for no other reason other than the fact there are so many resources to choose from. But as you play the game you soon get used to what gets turned into what and then it all becomes a lot easier to manage.
Sanctuaries are your way of making friends with the gods and by building a sanctuary to your chosen god you’ll then be graced by that god from time to time. Which can come in handy during those attacks by those multi headed Hydra. If having a god walking your streets wasn’t enough you’ll be pleased to hear that in exchange for the odd prayer, they also grant you little rewards. These rewards differ from god to god, but can range from anything from sacred olive trees of Athena, which produce extra olives for you. If olives really aren’t your thing, then perhaps the power of Ares can tempt you, who, should he answer your prayers will accompany you on your next military invasion on a distant ally. Quite a large number of gods are there to choose from including the more well known, such as Zeus and Hades.
From time to time you’ll find yourself on the wrong end of an attack by a mythological beast such as the Hydra or Minard, and what way to defeat such a creature? In the way only the ancient Greeks know, by calling a hero. Similar to the way you can build sanctuaries for gods, a hero’s hall works the same way but on a slightly smaller scale. Upon building your hero’s hall you will be given a series of requirements and once filled your chosen hero will grace your city and protect it from harm. Requirements differ from hero to hero but they run along the lines of having enough of a certain resource in stock, and having a high enough culture or appeal near the vicinity of the hall. Heroes come in all shapes and sizes but you’ll have no trouble recognising them, especially the likes of Jason, Odysseus and Hercules.
There is a small military side of the game and while you can build defensive structures such as walls and towers, as well as train armies (which happens automatically via building a palace), it’s nothing major and will not distract you to much from the city management side of things. That’s not to say you won’t need any military options, because odds are you will. From time to time a neighbouring city might decide it’s had enough of you and has chosen to invade. If being invaded by another city wasn’t enough, sometimes you may find yourself on the wrong end of a god attack. From time to time a god who doesn’t like you very much will appear and cause havoc in your city.
In the event of a god attack the only thing that can save you is another god, which if you’ve been building your sanctuaries shouldn’t be a problem. The option is also there for you to invade and conquer should you wish and while you don’t actually see the battle taking place you do watch your army leave and return from combat, which adds a nice touch. The military system isn’t as deep as some might like but that’s not really the main aim for the game and I think the developers chose the right option by giving the military side of things as small a part as they did.
Just like the ancient Greeks, there’s one thing your people will crave, culture, which can be acquired in many ways. Areas with a lot of theatres, gymnasiums, drama schools and podiums will be high in culture, and it’s this culture that becomes very important as your city grows. Culture is needed by your houses in order for them to expand even further, thus allowing more people to live in your city without the need for taking up precious building space with more houses. Culture will also be needed to build the upper class style of houses, which can not even be built and the appeal of the neighbourhood is to the wealthier citizens likening.
Decorating your city will also become an important task and there are plenty of options for you to take. Parks, flower gardens, hedge mazes, gazebos and fish ponds are all at your disposal, not to mention the traditional Greek columns. By decorating your city you raise its appeal which in turn will make more people move in, and keep the already settled residents happier at their new surroundings.
The sound is well rounded on all levels and offers a lot in terms of musical tracks and sound affects. The musical tracks fit the game perfectly and there are a number of tracks to listen to while you’re playing. The sound affects are the best aspect of audio within the game, and despite having all the usual such as sheep’s ‘baaing’ and the sound of clank, clank near construction sites; the best sound affects come from your residents. Upon clicking on residents you’ll be given a short piece of audio of them, in which they can describe your city, themselves and pretty much anything else. There are quite a lot of them on offer and there are also large selections of them that are quite humorous, which adds a nice touch to the game.
Graphics are smooth and make the game very easy to sit and play for hours on end. There’s a lot of colour in your city which adds a great affect as it really makes it come alive, it also stops you staring at the same boring block of houses all the time. Every unit and building has well made graphics behind it, especially the buildings which look very impressive. I can’t find a fault with the graphics and despite the game being around now for a year or two they can in my eyes still cut it with today’s games of the same genre.
Impression Games really have made a solid game in Masters of Olympus – Zeus and you may well find yourself suffering from lack of sleep as the desire to succeed takes over you. The game is addictive, fun and offers something for everyone. My only major gripe is that there is no multiplayer option available, something which would have been nice. There are plenty of missions available to you in the six campaigns, all of which are available from the start, but a nice addition would have been a selection of single missions to partake on when you’ve completed the campaigns. The replay value is ok and you will find yourself playing on one of the three sandbox levels for a while. By the time you’ve finished all six campaigns you’ll be quite the master at the game and sandbox, despite the fun side of it won’t keep you entertained for that great a time. The game has weaknesses but its strengths far outweigh these, I do recommend this game if you’re into the city management genre and even if you’re not, it will be worth picking up.