Zeus, Master of Olympus - Full Review (PC game)

As city building games go ‘Zeus, Master of Olympus’ is an extremely enjoyable game with hours of good quality content and a fairly robust series of campaigns plus some sandbox maps. This game has great playability due to the dozens of different maps, continually challenging and enjoyable scenarios and the ability to play in sandbox mode. The liberal amounts of humour such as overly dramatic voice acting and amusing plotlines further enhances it making this game the master of city building games. It can be quite difficult to get the hang of due to all the different elements and conditions that need to be met but, once you’ve got the hang of it, it’s an extremely enjoyable experience with lots of opportunity for perfectionists to build the ultimate city.

Gameplay

The game is all set in Ancient Greece and has a strong emphasis on the worship of the Greek Gods, Heroes and mythological monsters. You’re unable to actually directly control any of those as it’s not an ‘Age of Empires’ type game but instead they’ll lend you a hand if you meet some specific requirements. The campaigns take place across different maps that vary in size and efficiency. Sometimes you’re stuck in a tiny little rocky map with barely any shoreline for fisheries and no farmland. Other time you’ll find yourself in a huge expanse of flat land with rivers, ocean, ore covered mountains and plenty of wildlife and farming areas to use to your heart’s content. There are essentially two types of city you’ll be building; a parent city and a colony. The colonies are built partway through a campaign and are used to support your parent city through trading in resources you couldn’t get before. After you’ve built it up from scratch and you go back to your parent city you’ll be able to continue trading with it, though you can’t flip back and forth between cities as you wish. If you’re not in the mood for a campaign with specific missions and a storyline then you can also play in the open play maps which come in three different modes; open play military, open play economic and open play sandbox that allow you to build up a huge city with all the buildings relevant to which mode you’re playing in. After you’ve picked what it is you’re doing you’ll be plonked into an empty map that will have particular resources, allies and rivals, depending on the map. Sometimes you’ll have a bountiful access to farmlands and rivers overflowing with fish, or sometimes you’ll get barely any means of getting food but instead a rich supply of copper ore and marble quarries, leaving you to figure out how to sustain your population. 

There are 7 campaigns which vary in difficulty and length. Some have only a handful of episodes whereas some have up to 8 episodes and which are generally tougher with more complex challenges. Challenges may include things like having a certain population in a certain type of house, collecting materials to start up a colony city or to send back to the parent city, building a temple to a God or slaying a mythological creature. The objectives of a mission will relate strongly to what the storyline is for that campaign and the reasoning behind the missions will be described in the narrated beginning of each one. You may have accidentally angered the God Poseidon for instance, who unleashes the mythological creature the Kraken. Your mission may then be to build a Hero Hall and to attract a hero to the city in order to defeat the beast. Heroes may include figures such as Achilles, Perseus, Hercules, Odysseus and so on. These heroes require specific conditions different to each individual, once you have met those conditions you can call for him to come and save your city from the monster. On the flip side, by worshiping particular Gods you will gain access to their specific beast who can aid you in protecting your city or invading other settlements. If you’re able to worship Poseidon then you’ll gain access to his Kraken. Who you’re able toworship or not worship varies from map to map and building a sanctuary for Gods is no easy feat due to the sheer quantity of rare resources that go into them such as marble and bronze statues.

There are a lot of different resources in the game but not every map will give you access to them, for instance when placing a farm you’ll likely only get one of several so either carrots, onions or wheat. You can get other food resources by trading with neighbouring, friendly allies. Other food sources include cheese, obtained from goats which you place individually in a field, urchins and fish which are found in the sea or rivers and pork which is obtained from wild boars that roam the forests. You distribute food and other supplies to your citizens via an ‘agora’ which is a building placed alongside a road where you may place 3 stalls on top of it or, if you build a large one that takes up both sides of the road, 6 stalls. There are two distinct forms of housing the game; regular and elite. Regular housing houses regular citizens who make up your workforce whereas the elite citizens are a mix of noblemen and your military. Whilst regular citizens can form a sort of vigilante rabble who throw rocks at enemies, these elite military guys are fully equipped with weapons, armour and horses if you supply them with such. Regular civilians, who live in a simple 2x2 house, require access to different things in order for them to improve their house which increases the number of people within that house and which generally improves the workforce and appearance of your city. By giving them food, fleece, olive oil, water and access to different ‘arts’ buildings you can have them renovate their house all the way up to a large three story townhouse.

For those who look for lots of military action in a city building game I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed. There’s basically no strategic military action and, with the inclusion of a Hero, mythological creature or divine troops that some Gods may grant you, there’s very little chance of losing your city to the opposition. By bumping the difficulty level up you’ll find a lot more challenge in defending your city but you’ll only be invaded if you’ve really irritated a rival or if it’s pre-set in the mission you’re playing. Invading rivals basically includes building up a large army using the elite housing, not an easy task admittedly, then navigating to the map and selecting which city you want to invade before selecting which troops will be sent there. Then they’ll travel off by themselves whilst you wait to hear how it all went, if you win then you’ll receive goods or money every month from the conquered city and open up a trading route with them. If you lose you’ll just really irritate them and they’ll sometimes retaliate back whilst your troops are still recuperating. Overall, the military side of the game is lacking but it depends on what you’re looking for in a game.

Graphics and audio

For a city building game of the 90s it looks really nice. You can see a lot of detail such as people walking with their unique appearances, crops and grain growing in the fields, stall vendors walking back with a trail of workers ladened with goods following along behind and hunters killing wild boat in the forests. The buildings are highly detailed and lovingly crafted to look as close as possible to traditional Greek architecture whilst the people who inhabit those buildings such as the workers are visibly working or waiting to work. 



The audio is great with some really funny one liner’s on most buildings and people such as, by hovering over a theatre you’ll hear a dramatic actor exclaiming, “Has anybody seen my spear? How can I be a spear carrier without my spear?'' The narrator is a continual source of amusement for me but genuinely the voice acting is really well done and everything has a lovely sound with no irregularities anywhere. The music is very faint, subtle and relaxing and is quickly muffled by the increasing loudness of your bustling city and farmlands but for what it is, it’s certainly pleasant.

Overall

This game is rather like a balancing act between all sorts of elements such as the number of jobs, the population size, how much food you’ve got and how much money is in your coffers. It can be difficult to get used to but the tutorial is very substantial and detailed for new players and, if you’re already a veteran of city building games, you won’t find it difficult. It also helps that there’s a toggle-able difficulty level if you’re finding it too hard or too easy. This is my favourite city building game due to the unique position of it being set in Ancient Greece and without too much emphasis on fighting which, for me, should be reserved for games like ‘Red Alert’ and ‘Age of Empires’. This is the type of game where you can drop in, spend a couple of hours building something absolutely perfect, then drop back out again and leave it alone for a few weeks. It’s a nice, challenging but casual game that’s very easy to fall in love with and which looks and sounds great. If Zeus doesn’t have enough for you still then it also has an expansion pack called Poseidon which basically adds a new game onto it with a more ‘Atlantis’ theme running through it which doesn’t detract from the original game and really only enhances it.

Score: 9/10

To discover more of my old PC game reviews, check out this page here. 

Alternatively, if you're currently playing this game then you might want to check out the list of cheat codes for the game, found here.

Goat Simulator - Quick Review (PC game)

Before I begin, let me ask you a question; have you ever wanted to know what it's like to be a goat? Of course you have, everybody has, so you'll be pleased to know that this game is a goat simulator; simulating the everyday life of a goat. But not just any goat, this goat is a super speedy, super destructive, super 'what the actual hell is going o- OHMYGOD' goat. 

I think it's tongue is coming out of its nose, is that normal for goats?

Goat simulator is by no means a serious game so for those of you hoping to be munching grass and scratching your ears I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. This goat simulator is designed to play as an extremely broken, surreal and glitchy game and you'll very quickly notice the intensely rag doll animations and overtly exaggerated gameplay. In this game you can bounce off trampolines and air vents, perform flips and tricks, glitch your way to the top of a construction site, ram your head through supposedly solid objects and lick passing humans with an ultra sticky tongue, allowing you to drag them around like deflated jellyfish.

The unfortunate reality of owning your own trampoline.

The game has numerous areas where the core aim is to rack up as many points as possible by destroying as much as possible. The goat has rag doll like physics meaning you can send him flying in every which direction with not much adherence to little things like gravity or bones. If anything it’s pretty similar to an old Tony Hawk game as, whilst catapulting through the air, you can perform tricks to earn even more points.  The best way of getting points though is by destroying things and almost everything can be demolished with your furry hide. Is there a point to this game? Not really, it's very much a sandbox game and it's designed purely to maximize fun without any real objectives or constraints. The game plays like a sandbox game because you can basically do anything and go anywhere you want, no matter what the obstacle. Want to push people into the road so they get hit by trucks? Go ahead, climb up onto roofs then flip off them onto trampolines to string together a series of goat-style combo moves? Why the hell not. The freedom is really refreshing and I just love a game without boundries even if you have to suffer with extreme glitchy-ness to experience it.

Go wherever you want and pass out from sheer enjoyment.

In case you’re looking for meaning in this game there’s a lot of hidden collectibles dotted about throughout the levels which add a bit more depth to the game and which encourages you to explore all the areas. There are 'quests' though this is far from resembling any form of actual RPG game and also achievements for doing particularly impressive things. There’s something crazy awesome about finding a mask that summons up demons to help you in your destructive conquest. The only real drawbacks of the game has to be how glitchy and broken it is; though they may be partly the point as a lot of glitches can be exploited to make everything even more unbelievably funny. The graphics are fairly realistic and a cross between the latest Sims and an older GTA game with great urban environments nestled in amongst the farmyard ones. The animations are coupled with tinkling fairground type music that adds a whole new level of surreal to this quirky, senseless game.

Everything the light touches, you can go to. And also the shadowed bits. Generally it's open world.

Overall, I’d say this game is well worth the modest price they’re asking for as it’s a great laugh to motor around in a goat that feels more like a skateboard. You’ll get plenty of laughs out of this one and I’m pretty sure this is going to become a staple of Let’s Plays everywhere as it’s not only awesome but memorable too. If you're still not convinced, check out the trailer below, I'm sure this'll answer any lasting reservations you may have.

Score: 7/10

To discover more of my PC game reviews, check out this page here.

Zoo tycoon Xbox edition - Full Review (Xbox 360 and Xbox one game)

'Zoo tycoon, Xbox Edition' is a park management game where you create a zoo to attract guests, make money and keep your animals generally happy. The game is the first console edition of the Zoo Tycoon series and has been a long running and successful PC game series, until now. I’ll start by saying that this game looks brilliant on the surface, handles well, sounds lovely and would be a perfect game for younger children as there is great interactivity with the animals and it’s easy to pick up. The game has four modes: Tutorial, Campaign, Challenge and Freeform. The Tutorial mode will show you everything you need to know about the game. the Campaign mode has 20 different missions on different zoos where you need to complete objects or meet criteria and the Challenge mode is similar but it is timed. Freeform mode is a big empty area where you have infinite money so you can create your own park. So far, everything looks good.

Xbox one edition vs Xbox 360 edition

So, to get this out of the way the new Xbox Zoo tycoon game has been released for both the 360 console and the new Xbox One console. All in all, they are very similar games with the graphical changes you’d expect from a cross-generation console game. The Xbox One has slightly smoother, more defined and generally prettier graphics but the Xbox 360 version still looks very nice and bang up to date. If you’re wondering which version to get, and you have a choice, then you’ll want to buy the Xbox One version as the Xbox 360 version of the game has several features removed. The Xbox 360 for instance only features 65 out of the 101 animals from the Xbox One version, only features single player mode meaning that the 4 player co-op has been removed and there are limits on sharing. You cannot share or upload any pictures of your zoo or share your zoo with other players. Considering you’ll be paying roughly the same price for both games then you should most certainly opt for the later gen version if you want to have access to any of these features. The decision to almost half the number of animals you have access to is both irritating and disappointing. Realistically, there should be no technical limits that would demand there to be less animal options within the game, if it were a matter of how large you can make the zoo then I’d understand, but more on that later. So, with the differences between the editions out of the way let’s focus on how the game actually plays.

It's so pretty! But that's it.

Gameplay

I have played all the zoo tycoon games, thus far, and was perhaps prematurely excited when I heard it was being released on a console. I am also a big fan of console games and though I wondered about how that would work without a mouse, I was otherwise intrigued. My first impressions of the game was really good, it has lovely smooth gameplay, you can drive a super cool buggy around the zoo and make it skid for minutes of amusement and the animals look and act in a very realistic manner. The ability to interact directly with the animals was featured in Zoo Tycoon 2 on the pc but not quite like this game whereby you can have giraffes looming down over you to eat your proffered fruit. It feels very much like they intended this game to be compatible with the Kinect, sort of Kinectanimals style, but whilst it’s amusing and adorable the first few times the novelty of it soon wears off leaving you looking around for other things to do.  

So you start building your park, after all it’s a tycoon game. If you’re familiar with tycoon games you’ll be used to that money management, guest management type gameplay whereby you need to keep everybody happy by providing enough of this and that. This game doesn’t really provide much of a challenge in this sense and the ability to design the park itself is severely limited. For instance, there is a mechanism literally called ‘zoo limit’ to demonstrate how limited your building ability is going to be, so limited, they warn you about prior to help dissipate the frustration. Zoo limit is a bar at the top of the screen which will gradually fill as you put more items down, the bar will fill faster if you’re putting a lot of large items down. Once this bar is full then you can’t build anything else, not until you remove some things. Now, this is verging on game-breaking for me. Part of the point of being able to build something is to have fairly unlimited creative options, that’s what you look for in a building and designing game, the ability to exercise a little bit of creative perfectionism. Zoo limit automatically slaps you back and denies you the chance to ever build your brand new, beautifully graphiced dream zoo. What’s worse is they made the map fairly large, suggesting you can build in all of the space given to you when it’s utter rubbish. You’ll be able to fill around about a third of the map, tops, and you’ll probably hit the zoo limit after an hour or so of playing. Now, this may be due to a limit on the space or engine or something of that nature but, frankly, make the map smaller and don’t stick under freeform mode the description “allowing you to create a zoo without limits” as though to mock our entrepreneurial dreams. 

Limit aside, the gameplay is simplistic and unchallenging. It’s great for children and a quick blast when you’re truly in need of some animal company because your cat is ignoring you, but not much else. The campaigns can be completed very quickly and the majority of them are extremely easy with only around 5 that offer any real challenge. If you’re the kind of gamer who likes to grab achievements then you’ll get a bit more fun out of attempting to collect them all, if you’re not, then I’m afraid you’ll have a lot less to do. You can name your animals, if you’re into that, and also release them into the wild which is a kind of nice addition but just another means of selling them really. 

Graphics

So with all that negativity out of the way let’s look at something positive. The graphics, yes, they are lovely. The whole game is bright, colourful and cheerful with smooth, slick and modern designs everywhere. You can see the individual hairs on a tiger cub’s fur coat, the wrinkles and lines on an elephant’s trunk and the feathery tips of a peacock’s plumage. It all looks fantastic, water reflections are done perfectly, trees have individual leaves and the people have lovely fashion sense. The guests and staff generally all look quite like Sims 3 people as they are slightly over exaggerated in the eyes but maintain a realistic appearance in that slightly cartoony manner. There’s a good variation in the appearance of the guests; they don’t all look like the same three people basically. So, yes, the graphics score top points and the Xbox One’s graphics are unsurprisingly superior when doing a side by side comparison of the two editions. 

Customisation ability

The ability to personally customize your zoo is, well, limited to non-existent. You don’t have the ability to put down paths and so you’re stuck with the ones that were there from the beginning. When you put down an exhibit it will automatically add new path to connect it up to what exists. Very boring. You’ll basically end up creating several different versions of the same park with different animals and stalls. This problem of not trusting players to put their own paving down crosses into the exhibit customisation as it turns out, the shape of all the exhibits are pre-made. Ignoring how much they are stunting creativity already, by combining pre-made exhibit shapes with not being able to put your own paths down you end up with a very odd looking zoo with lots of gaps. So, that’s annoying. Inside the exhibit you have the ability to put down a different kind of enrichment thing; scratching post or whatever, and you get to choose where it goes. Out of a few specified areas so it ends up going something like this; would you like your trough in areas A, B or C? A, great, so the scratching post? C, alright, and the food? B, fantastic sir, did you enjoy customizing your exhibit? No, I did not, it gets very old, very fast, like the rest of this game. Even if a baby tiger looks adorable when climbing up a scratching post I’d still rather have put that post somewhere I wanted it to go.

The apple is the game, and you're the lemur, do you want the apple? You do? I didn't know where this was going anyway.

Choice of animals

Given this is a game that focuses on bloody animals i'd say it's a fairly important matter to discuss as this is why you're playing the game, surely. The animals that are already in the game are quite nice and cover your basic expectations; tigers, lions, elephants, crocodiles and so on with some that are a little different; peafowl, anacondas, meerkats and parrots. However, though they boast the impression of having over 100 (101) animals available for you to put in your park you’ll quickly notice that they all tend to be the same sort of animal. For instance, we have 3 kinds of snake, 6 kinds of macaw, 10 kinds of antelope, 13 kinds of bear, 7 kinds of lion, 6 kinds of tiger, 8 kinds of rhino… ok you get the idea right? If you wanted a lion sanctuary park then this would be quite good, but it does feel a little misleading that they’re giving the impression of all these wonderous, unique types of animal you can have then saying, oh, 9 different kinds of giraffe is so varied. You add up what I’ve put there, as a sniff of the game, and you’ll see that that’s 62 ‘different’ types of animal. 62, from 8 different ‘animal type’ really guys, 101? I didn’t even mention that you can have 4 different types of lemur! Four kinds of lemur! Everything I wanted from my zoo has been fulfilled. Something I also noticed was a lack of penguins, this sounds unusual I know, but penguins are the cornerstone of every good zoo. There are also no seals, or moose, or kangaroos, or cheetahs. I mean, there are 7 kinds of lion but not one cheetah? Why is this? Well, I imagine, as I’m sure you do that cheetahs and penguins will be saved for future DLC; Downloadable Content. It’s an extraordinarily irritating reality that the developers are fleshing out their animal numbers with repeats of tiger or whatever whilst saving all the unique creatures for a bit of extra cash, especially when charging £50 for the privilege of 13 bears and 4 lemurs.

The likeability factor is all this game has going for it, that, and this really unimpressed monkey.

Overall 

As you may have gathered, I was disappointed in this game. The PC versions of Zoo Tycoon had a degree of challenge and immense customization options that kept it fresh and interesting after several replays. This console edition is a long way off from its predecessors and, though it looks great and the animal interactions are realistic, fun and adorable it’s just not a good enough game to rate highly. Perfect for younger children or if you just want something simple and easy to play. The zoo limit is a ridiculous addition and the inability to change the shape of paths, exhibits and such forth ruin the sense of owning a park. If anything, the game plays more like a day out at the zoo than owning and running the damn thing. It is rather likely that different animals will be added in future DLC but with such a tight limit already on what you can place, why bother? This is the kind of game I’d enjoy for a couple of hours, having only paid about £10 to £15 for it, before it gets pushed to the back of the shelf and forgotten about. 

The Good:

• Beautiful game
• Some great quirky bits
• Good for casual play
• Easy to use controls and camera
• Convenient way of checking on the status of animals
• Animal interactions kind of cute

The Bad:

• Build limit is a huge handicap
• Very few actual animals, too many variations of same type of animal
• No micro-management means it doesn't feel like a tycoon game
• Very little customizability, can choose very little
• You cannot put paths down
• Tedious due to having so many limits

The Score: 4/10 

Last thoughts: "That was such a disappointment... I love park management games so much... I feel genuinely cheated out of what could have been an amazing game."