Caesar III

Cities in Caesar III try to accurately reflect the life of Roman citizens - the lowest plebeians live in tents and shacks, while the richest patricians live in villas. Staple foods include wheat, fruits, vegetables, and meat, and wine is required for some festivals and houses. Citizens wander the streets in their various garbs and can tell the player their name and how they feel about the city.

The city is viewed in a two dimensional isometric view with a fixed magnification level, and can be rotated ninety degrees.

Access to services such as market goods, entertainment, hygiene, education, and taxation are represented by "walkers," which are people sent out from their buildings to patrol the streets. Any house that is passed by a walker is considered to have access to the services of the walker's building. All movements of goods and coverage of walkers are accurately reflected by citizens walking the streets: a player can watch a farm's crop progress, and when it's ready a worker will push a full cart from the farm to a nearby warehouse or granary; then return with an empty cart.

Battles are fought by instructing a legion to march to the enemy, then arrange themselves in a particular formation. After this the soldiers take over and fight the battle.

There is no terrain editing, other than permanently removing trees to clear land for building. But there is a separate Map Editor that permits terrain editing, as well as creating new maps from scratch and editing dozens of parameters in a scenario.

Short video clips are played for significant events, such as city milestones or messages from the Roman Emperor. Background music is played which varies according to the situation (gentle themes to begin with, war drums during times of conflict and triumphal music when the player nears the objective). Musical themes are supplemented by crowd noises, the sounds of manufacturing and the clash of weapons at appropriate times.

A manual accompanies Caesar III, though there are minor discrepancies from the game in some editions.

Compared to other strategy games set in Antiquity, Caesar III focuses more on city-building than fighting, though invaders will sometimes attack the player's city. There are two ways to play the game: Mission Mode, which is tantamount to typical "campaign" modes of other strategy games, and City Construction Mode, in which the player plays one scenario from scratch.