Gamertell

Title: Empire Builder: Ancient Egypt
Price: $6.99 at Big Fish Games
System(s): Windows PC
Release Date: September 16, 2009
Publisher (Developer): Merscom (Iguana Entertainment Limited)
ESRB Rating: N/A. I’d say it’s appropriate for all ages.
Pros: Story and free play modes, lots of missions, plenty of building types, very well organized, bright graphics, interesting how some mission tasks are assigned.
Cons: Mummies can be a bit difficult to notice if you don’t pay attention. Can only use one amulet per mission, even in Sandbox Mode.
Overall Score: Two thumbs up, 90/100, A-, * * * * out of 5

Time management games where construction and property management are the goal are typically very straightforward. Players are given certain goals for each level to complete and asked to organize a given area of a certain city and make it profitable and successful. At its core, Empire Builder: Ancient Egypt proceeds in the same way, but adds a sense of history and fantasy that is both unique and unusual.

Ever wondered what it’d be like to be a city planner in Ancient Egypt?

Players are put in the role of a builder, architect and planner in Ancient Egypt. You start off small, with simple goals like building a few workers’ homes and then building a monument, and eventually are tasked with creating and managing all aspects of a successful Egyptian community. In order to receive your final goal for the level, which is a monument or a temple. Eventually, as you build your successful kingdoms, you’ll be given larger and more demanding tasks.

Organization is the key to success.

One of the most striking parts of Empire Builder: Ancient Egypt is the organization. Everything is laid out so perfectly that there’s no chance of missing anything, losing track of your current situation or having difficulty playing. The panels at the bottom are divided into five areas, money & goals, workers, materials, amulets and construction. As you can tell, each panel deals with one of five important aspects of gameplay. The money & goals part, as you can probably tell, is most pertinent. Luckily, the developers realized this too, so while it is available via the bottem panel, the same information is also constantly displayed at the top of the screen.

The second most important panel is construction, and that is also incredibly easy to access as well. Instead of just clicking it on your own, you’ll most likely come across it when you click one of your buildings. That automatically brings up the construction panel, which provides options for managing that piece of property - like building, upgrading, repairing, clearing, buying and selling. You’ll likely spend most of your time working in this panel, and thankfully it is all very clear and manageable.

The amulets section is also quite invaluable, though you’re only able to make use of it once per mission. Amulets give one beneficial ability per mission, like more money, or perhaps no need to repair properties per mission. It’s a nice addition, as it can be quite helpful, and if you could use it more than once per mission, it’d almost feel like cheating. Even so, I’d have liked the opportunity to use it twice per a mission in the Sandbox mode portion of the game.

As for play modes, there is the standard Story Mode and Sandbox Mode. The missions in Story Mode are shorter, but with more stringent objectives. In each, you must meet a few smaller objectives in order to be given the honor of building a monument. Once the monument is completed, the mission is complete. The Sandbox Mode is a freeplay option. You’re typically given only a monetary goal, like 100,000, and given free leisure to reach it however you’d like. It offers a nice change of pace, and replay value.

A great alternative to people who want to run cities, but want there to be some fantasy to it.

Empire Builder: Ancient Egypt is a great time management game for people who enjoy building and maintaining a small portion of a city, but also enjoy a bit of fantasy and history in their game. It looks beautiful and even feels authentic, is incredibly easy to play and offers a variety of play options.

Site [Empire Builder: Ancient Egypt]

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