Info about Pharaoh™: A New Era:

Official game description:
Immerse yourself in the history of Ancient Egypt with 50 missions in Pharaoh™: A New Era, a remake of Pharaoh (and the expansion Cleopatra: Queen of the Nile), one of the best city builders from the golden age of Sierra Entertainment. Stone by stone, build your city and manage all aspects of its development to ensure it prospers and makes you a powerful and revered pharaoh.
Develop your city by cultivating the fertile lands along the banks of the Nile valley. Erect the iconic monuments of Ancient Egypt, including the pyramids, the Sphinx and the Lighthouse of Alexandria. Build temples and mausoleums to help manage all aspects of your city's health and culture as well as the predominant polytheistic religion of the time.
Ensure your city is prosperous enough to deal with economic or political crises, or even plundering by enemies. A pharaoh takes care of its people and does whatever it can to earn the favour of the gods.
Pharaoh™: A New Era celebrates 20 years since the release of the famous franchise with a complete remake, including more than 50 playable missions and over 100 hours of gameplay.
The "Campaign" mode teaches you the game basics while allowing you to experience a unique story in the heart of Ancient Egypt. Explore all aspects of life in a thriving city, build and manage all its fundamental elements to ensure it flourishes: the economy, internal and external trade, culture, health, agriculture, education, etc.
The journey back in time is really brought to life with this new version, which upgrades the gameplay mechanics to modern standards and completely redesigns the captivating soundtrack and gorgeous isometric 2D graphics.
Many indicators have also been added or improved: keep better track of the frequency or quality of the Nile's floods with the Nilometer, or don't lose sight of your population's mood with some unique new tools!
● **A Classic Remade**: Rediscover 4,000 years of History in HD in this remake of the cult city-builder Pharaoh and its expansion Cleopatra: Queen of the Nile.
● **A Rich, Complex and Unique Experience**: Trade and develop your economy with neighboring cities and make your civilization thrive while facing the elements with the flooding of the Nile, wars with your enemies, the furies of the Gods and the plagues of Egypt.
● **A Fortune of Fun**: Lead your people through a rich 50+ missions and 100+ hour campaign, or unwind and build the metropolis of your dreams in a Sandbox mode.
● **Breathtaking Views**: Marvel at the beauty of budding settlements and lively cities sprawling across the Egyptian sands, brought to life through fully reworked, intricate hand drawn art.
● **A Fully Reorchestrated Soundtrack**: Take in stirring recreations of the original soundtrack’s melodies, rearranged and performed with traditional oriental instruments.
● **Hundreds of gameplay changes and improvements**: a fully redesigned UI, new and redesigned mechanics like the Workers Tooltip, the Fixed Worker Ratio or the Global Labor Pool, the ability to quickly copy-paste buildings or to disable predators... And so much more!

Release date: Feb 15, 2023

Categories: City Building, Resource Management, Economic Simulation, Historical Simulation, Sandbox, Strategy, Religion System, Trade

Feature scans:
- Steam Deck: score 30; verdict: Good with Minor Issues; summary: Pharaoh: A New Era generally receives positive feedback for its compatibility and performance on Linux, with users reporting a smooth experience with minimal tweaks. However, there are notable issues with the user interface, particularly regarding readability and design. Additionally, some users have criticized the game mechanics and AI behavior, which can impact the overall enjoyment of the game.

- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Faithful remake with modern enhancements (weight 0.96): The game is praised for being a faithful remake of the original Pharaoh, maintaining the core mechanics and nostalgia while introducing modern graphics, improved UI, and quality-of-life enhancements. Players appreciate the updated visuals, smoother gameplay, and the preservation of the original game's charm.
- Enjoyable city-building mechanics (weight 0.96): The city-building mechanics are highlighted as a strong point, offering a satisfying and engaging experience. Players enjoy the challenge of managing resources, constructing buildings, and overcoming various scenarios, making it a solid city-building game.
- Nostalgic and immersive experience (weight 0.93): The game successfully evokes nostalgia for fans of the original Pharaoh, providing an immersive experience with its detailed graphics, enchanting music, and historical setting. Players appreciate the blend of old-school feelings with modern updates.
- Improved graphics and visuals (weight 0.9): The updated graphics and visuals are widely praised, with players noting the improved textures, vibrant colors, and detailed animations. The game's visual appeal is enhanced by modern resolutions and a pleasant art style.
- Engaging and challenging missions (weight 0.86): The missions in the game are described as fun, extensive, and challenging, offering a variety of scenarios that keep players engaged. The choice between peaceful missions and combat scenarios adds to the game's replayability.
- Relaxing and enjoyable music (weight 0.84): The game's music is highlighted as relaxing and enjoyable, with re-recorded tracks that enhance the overall experience. Players appreciate the nostalgic and immersive soundtrack.
- Sandbox mode and customization (weight 0.06): The sandbox mode is praised for allowing players to create custom maps and experiment with different settings. The ability to toggle various gameplay options adds to the game's flexibility and enjoyment.
- Educational and addictive gameplay (weight 0.04): The game is described as educational, offering insights into ancient city management and Egyptian culture. Its addictive gameplay keeps players engaged for hours.
- Improved combat and military mechanics (weight 0.04): The combat and military mechanics have been reworked and improved, providing a more enjoyable and strategic experience. Players appreciate the tweaks made to battles and army mechanics.

Common complaints:
- Numerous bugs and glitches (weight 0.62): The game is plagued with numerous bugs affecting various aspects such as buildings, troops, and victory parameters. These bugs lead to frustration and can make the game unplayable at times.
- Clunky and unintuitive UI (weight 0.56): The user interface is described as clunky, unintuitive, and difficult to navigate. The menu system and controls are poorly designed, making the game less enjoyable.
- Game is too easy (weight 0.41): Many players find the game too easy and not challenging enough, leading to boredom and lack of replayability. The difficulty levels are limited and the game lacks the depth of the original.
- Missing features and combat (weight 0.34): The game is missing several features from the original, including combat and military control. The automated combat system is criticized for being dull and unengaging.
- Game crashes and stability issues (weight 0.17): The game frequently crashes and has stability issues, leading to loss of progress and frustration. These technical problems significantly impact the gameplay experience.
- Lack of language support (weight 0.15): The game lacks support for several languages, including Russian, Polish, Turkish, and Portuguese. This limits accessibility for non-English speaking players.
- Outdated and simplified mechanics (weight 0.06): The game mechanics feel outdated and overly simplified, lacking the depth and complexity of newer games. This makes the game feel less engaging and enjoyable.

Gameplay feedback:
- Combat and military mechanics (weight 0.4): The game features an automated combat system and includes army management. However, combat is not real-time and is often criticized for being clunky or poorly implemented.
- Religious and cultural aspects (weight 0.37): Religion and culture play a central role in the game, with players needing to organize festivals and manage temples to keep the population happy.
- City-building and resource management (weight 0.37): The game is a city-builder set in ancient Egypt, focusing on city planning, resource management, and monument construction. Players manage resources, balance population needs, and build monuments like pyramids and obelisks.
- Campaign and mission structure (weight 0.34): The game features a campaign mode with historically grounded scenarios and increasing complexity. Missions are designed to be progressively challenging.
- Remake of a classic game (weight 0.34): The game is a remake of the 1999 classic city-builder, retaining the core gameplay and essence of the original while updating graphics and mechanics.
- UI and interface issues (weight 0.15): The game's interface has been criticized for being poorly designed, with issues such as a high number of pop-up notifications and a confusing menu system.
- Worker and labor mechanics (weight 0.13): The game includes a global pool of workers and labor mechanics, which can be toggled on or off. Players need to manage the workforce efficiently.
- Trade and economic systems (weight 0.12): The game includes trade routes, economic layers, and resource management. Players need to balance food production, trade, and monument building.
- Difficulty and challenge (weight 0.09): The game offers varying difficulty levels and progressively challenging goals to prevent boredom and keep players engaged.
- Technical limitations and missing features (weight 0.03): The game has some technical limitations, such as bridge building rules and missing advanced gameplay features, which can affect the overall experience.

Performance notes:
- Frequent crashing and bugs (weight 0.17): The game suffers from numerous bugs and crashing issues, including save game crashes and corruption. Players report game-breaking bugs and a generally buggy launch.
- Performance and optimization issues (weight 0.16): There are optimization problems and performance issues, particularly on Linux. Some players experience smooth performance, while others encounter loading issues and crashes without reason.
- Aspect ratio and resolution issues (weight 0.13): The game has issues with the 16:10 aspect ratio and hard-coded resolution, which affect the display and gameplay experience.
- Technical workarounds needed (weight 0.01): Players have identified important technical workarounds to address various issues in the game, indicating a need for manual fixes.
- Long load times (weight 0.01): The game has long load times, both for the game itself and for individual cities within the game.
- Game freezes during gameplay (weight 0.01): Players experience freezes during gameplay, which disrupts the gaming experience and requires restarts.
- Vulkan and Fullscreen mode conflict (weight 0.01): There is a conflict between Vulkan and Fullscreen mode, causing additional technical difficulties for players.
- Runs smoothly on cheap hardware (weight 0.01): The game runs smoothly on inexpensive hardware like cheap notebooks, indicating good performance on lower-end systems.
- Edge panning not working (weight 0.01): Players report that the edge panning feature does not work, which affects the gameplay experience.

Recommendations:
- Recommendations for fans and newcomers (weight 0.16): The game is highly recommended for fans of historical city-builders and those who enjoy puzzle-like city-building aspects. Newcomers interested in the genre should also find it enjoyable.
- Nostalgia and original game comparison (weight 0.12): Players with nostalgia for the original game will likely enjoy this version, but those who have played the original might not find enough new content to justify a purchase.
- System requirements and technical tips (weight 0.09): Players advise ensuring your computer exceeds the recommended system requirements and suggest technical adjustments for non-standard screen ratios.
- Purchase recommendations and discounts (weight 0.08): The game is often recommended to be bought on sale or with a significant discount, especially for fans of the original game and the genre.
- Positive reviews and worthiness (weight 0.06): Many players find the game worth the money and recommend it for fans of the genre, including both newcomers and fans of the original.
- Specific audience recommendations (weight 0.06): The game is recommended for those who enjoy building in ancient Egypt settings and for casual players who enjoy playing alongside other activities.
- Strategy and management game appeal (weight 0.05): The game is recommended for fans of strategy and management games, serving as a solid entry point for new players interested in ancient management simulations.
- Requests for future updates and remasters (weight 0.03): Players express a desire for updates to other games in the series, such as Emperor, and remasters of classic games like Caesar 1 and 2.
- Mod recommendations (weight 0.02): Players recommend specific mod fixes to enhance the gaming experience.
- Game-stopping bugs (weight 0.01): Some players report significant bugs that halt game progress, which is a major deterrent for recommendations.
- Recommendations for fans of similar games (weight 0.01): The game is recommended for fans of similar city-building games like Zeus and Poseidon.
- Value for initial gameplay hours (weight 0.01): The game is considered worth buying for the first 50 hours of gameplay.

Other player notes:
- Chinese translation patch (weight 0.01): This cluster mentions a patch specifically for the Chinese translation of the game. It indicates that there might be updates or fixes related to the localization for Chinese-speaking players.

Emotions:
- Disappointment (weight 0.26): Players express disappointment due to the removal of old war gameplay and its replacement with a simulator, along with a clunky building system and various changes in graphics, UI, and combat mechanics. The game feels outdated, lacks modern quality-of-life improvements, and suffers from numerous bugs and missing features, such as the combat system, which significantly detract from the overall experience.
- Nostalgia (weight 0.24): Players feel nostalgic as the game is a remake of a classic city-builder from the late 90s, bringing back memories of playing the original version during their childhood. The updated graphics and quality-of-life improvements, along with the faithful recreation of the original game, evoke fond memories and a sense of reliving the past.
- Frustration (weight 0.2): Players are frustrated by game-breaking bugs that persist years after release, along with poorly designed gameplay mechanics and issues with the UI and controls. The rigid pathfinding AI, save game crashes, and the inability to progress due to bugs contribute to a sense of wasted time and effort.
- Joy (weight 0.06): Players experience joy from the faithful remake of a beloved childhood game, appreciating the quality-of-life improvements and the satisfaction of managing resources and building beautiful cities. The game's charm and the fun gameplay bring a sense of happiness and enjoyment.
- Satisfaction (weight 0.04): Players are satisfied with the well-done remaster, appreciating the improvements in graphics, soundtrack, and gameplay features. The game's faithfulness to the original and the modern updates contribute to a positive experience.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.04): Players enjoy the fun and engaging gameplay, finding the strategy elements and city-building aspects particularly entertaining. Despite some bugs, the overall experience is positive and engaging.
- Excitement (weight 0.02): Players are excited about the improved graphics and modern upgrades in the remake. The potential for future updates and the action-packed simulations generate a sense of anticipation and enthusiasm.
- Appreciation (weight 0.02): Players appreciate the modern graphics, usability improvements, and quality-of-life upgrades in the remaster. The thoughtful enhancements and bug-free missions contribute to a well-received gaming experience.
- Anger (weight 0.01): Players are angry due to poorly designed gameplay mechanics, the lack of significant improvements in the remaster, and the presence of bugs. The game's issues and lack of battles contribute to a sense of frustration and anger.
- Happy (weight 0.01): Players are happy to see the remake of a beloved game, enjoying the experience and finding it pleasant. The game brings joy and a sense of happiness.
- Hopeful (weight 0.01): Players are hopeful for future updates and remakes of similar games. The potential for improvements and the desire for more remakes generate a sense of optimism.
- Disappointed (weight 0.01): Players are disappointed with the changes to the original game, particularly the new combat system and its automated nature. These changes detract from the overall experience and lead to a sense of disappointment.
- Nostalgic (weight 0.01): Players feel nostalgic as the game evokes childhood memories. The remake brings back fond memories of playing the original game.
- Boredom (weight 0.01): Players experience boredom due to the game's slow pace and lack of dynamic events. The game feels too easy and boring, leading to a sense of monotony.
- Happiness (weight 0.01): Players are happy that the game is back and playable on updated Windows. The remade game brings a sense of joy and happiness.
- Love (weight 0.01): Players love the unique atmosphere and gameplay of the game. The game holds a special place in their hearts, generating a sense of love and affection.
- Disappointment (weight 0.01): Players feel disappointed as the game lacks liveliness and real challenge. The ruined army battle system contributes to a sense of letdown.
- Relaxed (weight 0): Players feel relaxed due to the game's calming music. The soothing soundtrack contributes to a sense of relaxation.
- Satisfied (weight 0): Players are satisfied with the improvements in the remake, finding it way better than expected. The positive changes contribute to a sense of satisfaction.
- Excited (weight 0): Players are excited about the game, describing it as thrilling. The engaging gameplay generates a sense of excitement.}