Pharaoh: A New Era

Pharaoh might be a little out of date in 2023, but A New Era is the definitive way to play an absolute classic city builder that nails the fundamentals

Pharaoh: A New Era’s visuals, music, and gameplay tweaks make for a very easy-to-grasp, complex-to-master setup, and there are loads of options to soften the challenge whenever you feel like it. More than that, when you get your cities bustling with farms, markets, industry, entertainment, religion, and monuments the whole thing is a busy spectacle of beauty. Some archaic bits can make things difficult, and this isn’t my favorite city builder I’ve played, but it’s still an excellent spin on a classic.

Pharaoh: A New Era is a faithful remake of the classic 1999 city-building strategy game that brings nostalgia to life while also appealing to new players. Unfortunately, the game does not include the Cleopatra expansion or a minimap, but it does feature attractive graphics and the entertaining gameplay familiar from the original game.

Pharaoh: A New Era renews a classic of simulation games. While it could have improved some things, like the camera, the core gameplay basics from the original game are still there, updated for the new generation of players and for oldies like me too!

Pharaoh: A New Era is not quite the perfect remake of the classic city-builder from the 90s that I was hoping for. The good news is that all of it is fixable, so we just have to hope that the developers will keep working on the game to iron all of its bugs. If they do, then this will be a fantastic remake of an already excellent game. Right now, though, it stands as a decent remake of an excellent game.

Still, a good opportunity to jump into the nostalgia for the fans, but for the genre connoisseurs Pharaoh: A New Era is not something compelling.

More love needs to be given to this remake to make it live up to what a fan of the classic Pharaoh expects.

It was time to do a remake of Pharaoh, this one isn't a really proper one in some ways though. Some aspects of the mechanic remain strange and there are a few technical issues. Nevertheless, it's still fun to see one's city grow.

It's obvious that Pharaoh: A New Era was a labor of love by Triskell Interactive and Dotemu. I am sure there wasn't a massive demand for this title, but there are some die hard fans out there (like me) who enjoyed and appreciated this game beyond comprehension. It keeps the heart and soul of the original Pharaoh, while making just enough tweaks to improve upon a timeless classic. The nostalgia factor is high on this one, and if you liked any of the late 90s to early 2000 city-building titles, then picking up Pharaoh: A New Era is a must. My only request: please consider remastering Zeus & Poseidon!

Pharaoh: New Era manages to preserve the essence of the game we loved years ago, but it is also notable for its shortcomings such as mini-map and army management. If the studio manages to address these shortcomings as promised, it can be a much better game. Still, that doesn't change the fact that at its core it's one of the best city-building simulations ever made.