Nebuchadnezzar
- February 16, 2021
- Nepos Games
- 60h median play time
Classically styled and rich in detail, Nebuchadnezzar's city-building fun is hindered by micromanagement and trading issues.
Get on Steam"Nebuchadnezzar is a single-player historical strategy game set in ancient Mesopotamia, offering a good story and fabulous game mechanics. Experience the culture and mysterious history through its campaign, which includes 12+ historical missions covering colonization to conquest. Enjoy the game's awesome visuals, stellar music, and immersive atmosphere, but be prepared for some grinding."
PC
Windows
Linux
Reviews
- The game captures the nostalgia of classic city builders like Pharaoh and Caesar, providing a familiar yet refreshed experience.
- The ability to customize monuments and set specific routes for traders adds depth and control to the gameplay.
- The historical context and educational elements enhance the experience, making it engaging for players interested in ancient civilizations.
- Terrible loading times and performance issues, with some players reporting long waits to start the game.
- The game lacks depth in certain areas, such as military mechanics, religion, and dynamic events, making it feel incomplete.
- The logistics system can be overly complex and tedious, requiring extensive micromanagement that may detract from the enjoyment of city building.
- gameplay157 mentions
- 22 % positive mentions
- 73 % neutral mentions
- 5 % negative mentions
The gameplay of Nebuchadnezzar is a blend of classic city-building mechanics reminiscent of titles like Pharaoh and Caesar, enhanced with modern features such as customizable delivery routes and a focus on production and logistics. While many players appreciate the nostalgic elements and the engaging core gameplay loop, criticisms arise regarding repetitive mechanics, a lack of depth in certain systems, and the absence of traditional elements like military and religious interactions. Overall, the game offers a solid experience for fans of the genre, though it may feel incomplete compared to its predecessors.
“Although there's a bit of a learning curve with game mechanics and managing your economy and complex workforce, once you do, the game rocks!”
“By allowing you to choose between a wide variety of different gods and their bonuses, Nebuchadnezzar lets you customize your gameplay to suit your strategy and specific needs, which is really nice to see in a game like this.”
“While the gameplay loop is relatively simple at first glance, managing a multitude of different resources quickly spirals into an addictive cycle of planning and expansion.”
“Even if I really liked the gameplay, the game deserves a negative review due to terrible, ridiculous loading times, both when first starting the game and when starting/loading a map.”
“I really wanted to like this game despite some annoying mechanics (like, I don't know who decided that managing warehouses would be fun), disbalanced economy, etc. What really killed this game for me and made me delete it was, of course, the city siege screen.”
“The gameplay feels more like a spreadsheet game with a graphic interface than a city builder.”
- story123 mentions
- 7 % positive mentions
- 90 % neutral mentions
- 2 % negative mentions
The game's story is set in ancient Mesopotamia, guiding players through a series of campaign missions that progressively increase in difficulty and complexity as they build larger cities and monuments. While the historical context is appreciated, many players find the missions repetitive and lacking in variety, with limited narrative depth and no significant freedom to deviate from predefined goals. Despite these criticisms, the educational elements and gradual introduction of game mechanics are noted as positive aspects, contributing to a sense of immersion in the role of a city ruler.
“The game follows the story of ancient Mesopotamia, where you must build larger cities and more impressive monuments to reach successively more difficult objectives across many missions.”
“I like the historical background that previews each mission, and the tutorial was both short and sufficient to get you rolling instead of needlessly holding your hand the whole way through.”
“The music is beautiful, and I spend almost more time reading and researching the detailed historic explanations before the missions than actually in the game - and not because it is too quick, but because it is very interesting.”
“The campaign missions are fairly dry, focusing on getting a certain amount of population, prestige, and building monuments, lacking the variety and engaging elements found in other city-building games.”
“Each mission essentially unlocks another tier of housing and tells you to build a slightly larger capital city than in the previous mission, leading to a repetitive gameplay experience.”
“There is no 'free play' mode where you can build your own city freely; you are confined to missions with predefined goals, which limits creativity and exploration.”
- graphics79 mentions
- 48 % positive mentions
- 48 % neutral mentions
- 4 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game have received generally positive feedback, with many users praising their beauty and clarity, as well as the nostalgic art style reminiscent of classic city builders. However, some players noted that the visuals could benefit from additional effects and more varied building designs, while others felt the graphics, though nice, are somewhat dated compared to modern standards. Overall, the game's aesthetics effectively create an immersive experience, balancing visual appeal with gameplay functionality.
“Love the graphics, clean and gorgeous.”
“The graphics are nice, and the cities look very pretty.”
“The graphics is genuinely great (and by that I also mean the architecture, style of buildings etc.), the music is great.”
“I recently tried Pharaoh, remembering how I enjoyed Caesar 3 when I was younger, but was immediately turned off by the dated graphics and poor UI (by modern standards).”
“Yet the graphics are worse, the animation is worse, music, missions, everything is just worse than Caesar 3 that is (again) 23 years old.”
“The size of the map + the cheap look graphics made this game feel like a mobile game.”
- music72 mentions
- 53 % positive mentions
- 40 % neutral mentions
- 7 % negative mentions
The music in the game has received mixed reviews, with many praising its atmospheric quality and beautiful composition that enhances the overall experience. While some players find the soundtrack engaging and fitting for the game's historical setting, others feel it can become repetitive or lacks the depth of previous titles in the genre. Overall, the music is generally regarded as a strong aspect of the game, contributing to a relaxing and immersive atmosphere.
“The music is beautifully composed and of flawless quality, and hits the tone of the game perfectly.”
“The music is flowing and continuous and kept me feeling engaged, and the tone of it was very appropriate.”
“The art and music really help bring the Mesopotamian setting to life.”
“The soundtrack is nothing to write home about, at least in comparison to Pharaoh's.”
“Music is a little dull.”
“Other than that, I noticed that they scrapped some songs that were present in the beta and were actually really good, only to be replaced with some generic music.”
- atmosphere14 mentions
- 64 % positive mentions
- 14 % neutral mentions
- 21 % negative mentions
The atmosphere of the game is generally praised for its beautiful graphics and calming, professional soundtrack that enhances the overall experience. While some players feel it lacks the unique charm of classic titles like Pharaoh, many appreciate its relaxing vibe and historical accuracy, making it a solid choice for fans of city-building games. However, a few reviews note that the atmosphere can feel somewhat lacking compared to older games in the genre.
“The soundtrack is really cool and sets an atmospheric mood for the game.”
“Excellent art and music set the tone for a relaxed and fun atmosphere.”
“The music is professional, atmospheric, and varied enough that it doesn't feel repetitive after several hours of play.”
“Third of all, the atmosphere is lame.”
“There's no flavor of atmosphere that even 15-20-year-old games of this type had.”
“This game, while having its differences, has the same atmosphere.”
- grinding8 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and often unrewarding, with some describing it as more work than fun. While the challenge of managing resources and adapting to various campaign constraints adds depth, the overall experience is marred by repetitive tasks and a cumbersome logistics system. Despite the variety of buildings available, the grind can detract from the enjoyment of gameplay.
“The gameplay is not only tedious and unrewarding; a series of random events will cause a build to spiral out of control and force a reload.”
“This game is quiet and tedious.”
“I find it tedious and more work than fun.... :(”
- optimization8 mentions
- 25 % positive mentions
- 38 % neutral mentions
- 38 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's optimization is praised for its focus on resource management and logistical precision, allowing for diverse housing layouts and efficient supply chains. However, some users noted longer startup times compared to other games, suggesting a need for optimization patches. While the game runs smoothly on various systems, there is a desire for additional mechanical depth to enhance the optimization experience.
“This lets you build a wider variety of housing block layouts and offers more ways of controlling the flow of resources and optimization.”
“Some added micro-management features I currently like, and it looks like there are things to experiment with said micro-management features for deep optimizations.”
“A good buy if you're a fan of that style; however, the game takes longer to start up on my PC than RDR2, so perhaps an optimization patch is warranted.”
“It is almost solely focused on building optimized supply and delivery chains in a space-efficient manner.”
“The game relies heavily on fixing production issues and the transport/import/export optimization of supply chains and roads.”
- replayability7 mentions
- 43 % positive mentions
- 14 % neutral mentions
- 43 % negative mentions
The game's replayability is mixed; while the new military system and optional peaceful mode enhance campaign replayability, it lacks the depth of classic titles like Caesar III or Pharaoh. Players note limited replayability due to a fixed number of campaign missions and the absence of random map generation, though future updates, including a sandbox mode, may improve this aspect. Overall, while there are some innovations that add fun, the current replayability is seen as an issue.
“The new military system provides further challenges, and the campaign missions that feature the military can be optionally played in peaceful mode instead, which adds to campaign replayability.”
“Game is fantastic and has its own innovations that add replayability and fun to this recipe.”
“As I understand it, a sandbox mode is in progress, but will add more replayability to the game.”
“Replayability is an issue though.”
“There is no replayability value, as you only get to play with the ~12 campaign missions, with no random map generation, so if you want more out of it, then maybe you can wait for some workshop content.”
“Not on the same level of quality and replayability as Caesar III or Pharaoh, personally, but 90% of the time it certainly feels like an honest impressions game tribute.”
- humor3 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is highlighted by excellent voice acting and clever nods to past mechanics, which elicit genuine laughter. However, some players feel it lacks additional humorous interactions, such as witty remarks from villagers. Overall, the comedic elements contribute positively to the gaming experience.
“By the way, the voice acting is hilarious.”
“The little nods to old mechanics that they fixed are great; the jab at warehouses in the beginning tutorial had me laughing so loud my husband came to see what the fuss was, ha.”
- stability2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Overall, users report a positive experience with stability, noting the absence of bugs, glitches, or crashes. The game effectively improves upon previous titles by enhancing logistics management, making it enjoyable rather than frustrating.
“I was not looking forward to having to laboriously manage my city, but instead what I found was that it took the more frustrating parts of Pharaoh, namely the buggy logistics and choppiness, and instead of just abstracting it away with an AI, it turned it into something very enjoyable which made it fun.”
“I haven't encountered any bugs or glitches or crashes, which is great.”
- emotional1 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Users appreciate the emotional impact of the tutorial, noting that its guided approach fostered a positive and uplifting experience.
“The way the tutorial walked me through made me feel good.”
