Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile

Developer: Tilted Mill | Publisher: Sega Europe / Myelin Media | Format: PC

Words by Cian Ginty When you first approach Children of the Nile it is hard to know what to make of it. It is a strategy game, more so a city building and management game, you plan your city, satisfy your subjects, and decide where to explore to open trade routes and where to attack - you do not control troops all the way into battle.

Basically, you are a royal family in ancient Egypt (no, not just one Pharaoh, but a line of them); the Children of the Nile are your people. So, all you have to do is get the whips out and put the slaves to work on the new tombs? Maybe a few Pyramids?

Not quite that simple, the people who build Pyramids are skilled workers - Overseers, Labours, and Stone Carvers. They are just a part of the network of people who have to keep pleased, whether it is a need for bread, medical care, or to worship the gods in modest to massive temples. When people are not treated well they will emigrate, sometimes leaving you without an important social group, which can paralyse growth.

The game reeks of realism, everyone, bar some children, play a part in the workings of the city, from man-servants who work for shopkeepers and woman-servants who work in the noble’s estates, to workers and their woman who buy goods in shops, to Priests who work in social services from schools to mortuaries.

CotN uses Stainless Steel’s impressive 3D game engine, also used in Empire Earth. Along with allowing you to find whatever view you think is best suited to building, it also enables you to sit back a follow people going through their day-to-day routine in the city you have build, which is a nice, if not a rewarding, touch.

Children of the Nile should be one for all city-building fans; besides frustration when things go wrong, the only thing is a sense of disconnection - possible the disconnection once felt by Pharaohs?