Pharaoh: A New Era Review
Pharaoh: A New Era
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When the PR firm reached out and asked if I wanted to review Pharaoh: A New Era I brushed it off and kept scrolling. PC games aren’t for me, and I thought I’d come back to it later and get it sent to our PC Editor to review. I actually forgot about it for a few days, but when I circled back and FINALLY opened it up, I then realized this was a remake of my favourite city builder of all of time.
Way back in the day, two games on PC reigned supreme for me: Pharaoh and the Cleopatra expansion, and Caesar 3. Of those two, it was the former that grasped my attention for, if only because of my affinity for all things ancient Egypt. It was a game that allowed me to learn about agriculture along the Nile, different Egyptian gods and what they represented, and so much more. Layered beneath the fantastic setting was a very competent city builder with very few flaws. Without any of the enhancements they made this year, it was a great game. And now it is even better.
One thing lacking in the original release of Pharaoh was a comprehensive tutorial. The game did an OK job of explaining what to do, but it wasn’t great. Some folks perhaps liked it that way. One thing I could never understand was how to use roadblocks, and while the original game gave a lot of text, it didn’t do a great job of actually explaining how it worked. That is different this time around, with this feature built right into the tutorial! Amazing!
There are a number of updated features in the game, like a better nanometer predictor, but there are two things that are game changers. First, a brand new build menu makes finding what you need so much easier. I will admit I was use to the old system so a new system took a bit to get use to, but once I did, it was so much better. The other major new feature is removing the need for houses to be so close to employers. With the new feature, there is more of an ability to plan better, more fruitful cities, and almost removing the need to have slums for your production facilities.
There are a host of other smaller features that we will let you explore, such as some buildings not requiring road access, and more. But if you love city builders, this is one of the best ever released, and we highly recommend you take it for a spin!
Article By Kevin Austin
Kevin Austin has been in gaming journalism in one way or another since the launch of the Nintendo Gamecube. Married and father of 3 children he has been gaming since the ripe age of 6 when he got his first NES system and over 30 years later he is still gaming almost daily. Kevin is also co-founder of the Play Some Video Games (PSVG) Podcast network which was founded over five years ago and is still going strong. Some of his favorite gaming series includes Fallout and Far Cry, he is a sucker for single player adventure games (hence his big reviews for Playstation), and can frequently be found getting down in one battle royale or another. If it's an oddball game, odds are he's all about it.
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