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Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile

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8.5 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 28 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 8 votes
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Game Info

Publisher: Myelin Media

Developer: Tilted Mill Entertainment

Genre(s): Strategy, City-Building

Players: 1

ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)

Release Date: November 8, 2004

Summary

Children of the Nile is the next generation of city-building game, where, as Pharaoh, you lead the people of ancient Egypt, uniting them as you elevate your status, striving to become a supreme and god-like ruler. You design and build glorious cities in which hundreds of seemingly real people live and work in an interconnected societal web, each facet of their lives played out in vivid detail. Eventually you will forge the most advanced civilization of the ancient world, achieve works of wonder and build a lasting and unique empire to stand for the ages with you as its personification. You'll dispatch your armies and navies to all corners of the known world, and erect monuments of splendor, including your own magnificent tomb. Come, enter your realm: the black land, Egypt. [Myelin Media]

Cheat Codes & Hints: Cheat Code Central

Also On The Web: GameSpot Hands-On GameSpy Preview IGN Hands-On Official Website

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Worth Playing

Twisted Mill games has come up with a City Building Sim that follows in the rich traditions of its predecessors, adds new depth and complexity, a superior graphical presentation, and a more realistic AI model.

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IC-Games

If you’re into all things Egypt then this one if for you, even if your not there’s still a few hours of your life to be lost to (in our opinion) one of the better city building games currently available.

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PC Gamer

Carefully balanced and well-rounded, Children of the Nile will be great fun for armchair history fans or anyone who digs smart RTS simulations. [Jan 2005, p.78]

PC Gameworld

A great ancient city build strategy game. Despite some design flaws, it's a winner!

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Game Over Online

A nice game but not a great one. It’s slow-paced and thoughtful, it looks nice and it’s polished, and while it has some problems here and there, none of them are major. It’s just that nothing about the game made me say "wow!"

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G4 TV

Children of the Nile isn’t an excellent game merely because it’s innovative. It’s an excellent game because those innovations make for a more compelling, and generally less frustrating experience for the player.

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Computer Games Magazine

Once you break yourself of the mindset that trade is about money and that taxes are for a treasury, you find this new way of playing much more satisfying. [Feb 2005, p.68]

Yahoo! Games

If you come to Children of the Nile with a spirit of investigation and if you're willing to learn the nuances of this complex model of ancient life, you'll be richly rewarded with one of the most serene and gratifying city builders since the genre began.

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Game Informer

An incredibly enjoyable and complex city-builder. [Jan 2005, p.143]

Warcry

Fun to play, engrossing and challenging. You can't beat that in a game.

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Times Online

The construction sites are nicely animated, and newly ordered buildings pop up quickly.

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Games Radar UK (Pre-2006)

Moving at a more restful pace than your average game, some may find Children of the Nile a little slow and unchallenging. But when you've put in the work, seeing your population grow and prosper is certainly rewarding, engrossing and even a little educational. [PC Gamer UK]

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IGN

The core idea of the family was a great move forward in this genre, especially for a game like this that deals with ancient Egypt and smaller communities unlike those found in games like SimCity.

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GameZone

Most fans of city-building simulations will be well-pleased. The interface could use some improvements, and for my part, I would like to see more focus on planning well-laid out cities, but this game is enjoyable to play and will please most.

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Computer and Video Games

If you're in the mood for some easy-to-learn but hard-to-master city-building gameplay, Children Of The Nile is as good a game as you're likely to find. Hardly as unique as is claimed, but good all the same.

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Jolt Online Gaming UK

Sometimes it’s too complex and sometimes it leaves you feeling hopelessly powerless over certain situations, but these facts are more of an inconvenience and don’t significantly affect your chances of success.

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GameSpot

Has a lot of personality and some interesting city-building gameplay, but is weighed down by a few problems not found in some of the previous games of this type.

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Detroit Free Press

Despite these odd moments, the game is playable and lots of fun, especially if tinkering with Sphinxes and ancient temples sounds exciting to you.

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PC Format

The challenge of maintaining your reputation in the face of a weak Nile, defending the city from attack and completing the scenarios is gratifying, but there's not really enough here to justify long-term play. [March 2005, p.99]

Game Chronicles

Despite some minor flaws and an occasional frustrating bug (that will hopefully be resolved in a patch), Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile keeps many of the classic elements of city-building strategy that made its predecessors so much fun to play, and innovates in ways which make the game much more interesting and involving.

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Play.tm

I still enjoyed playing Immortal Cities a good deal, yet I was content to help the Pharaohs out for a far shorter period of time than I would have given them in the past.

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games(TM)

The city-building genre has been crying out for a boost, which is what Children Of The Nile delivers. Unlike many games of this ilk, it caters for both micro- and macro-management, allowing for as series of small challenges to take place within a much bigger story arc. [March 2005, p.120]

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Adrenaline Vault

Micromanagers and fans of "Pharaoh" have cause for celebration with the arrival of Children of the Nile, and should be thanking the god of their choice for the abundance that has been provided.

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Eurogamer

If you're the sort who, when presented with a river, like to crouch and examine the eddies, this may be for you. If you just want to know what's downstream... well, less so.

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Next Level Gaming

The basic problem is they were too ambitious with this game and put too much into it. If they had trimmed it down and focused and made a few things really well they would have had a better game.

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GameSpy

When taken as a whole, Children of the Nile is a disappointment. It's not that it's a bad game. In fact, buried under the rubble of the game's interface is the germ of a classic.

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1UP

If you're a patient gamer who can ignore the tedious aspects, you'll find COTN a good city building game with several original ideas. For the rest of us, the good background music and pleasing graphics make it feel like a very good interactive screensaver.

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Computer Gaming World

Everything from basic commerce to trade has been significantly revamped. [Jan 2005, p.105]

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this game is 8.5 (out of 10) based on 8 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Fonkel gave it a7:
Intriguing game and highly original, it's almost cult. Citybuilding in glorious 3d is fun, even though the graphics aren't always that interesting. I would almost give it a 8 but for the High Gamespirit who told me no. The interface is a litlle awkward and quickly becomes a nuisance. Sound is nothing special but suffices. Historically highly inaccurate but what really matters is you get to play pharao at large and larger, so hey what! Picked it up for 10 Euro so it's worth it.

Unzar J. gave it a5:
I was looking forward to this game but found it to be more work than pleasure.

Alan C. gave it a 9:
Great game needs a strategy guide and more available workers to make the city building a real success. New patch is a must.

Macc M. gave it a 10:
!Top Game! This game is a great city builder game and is the best of its kind out. It talks about the facinating life of anciant egypt. It has tought me a lot about their glorious civilisation. Better still you can create your very own civilisation with this game. I found myself living in anciant egypt when playing this game. If you liked the game Pahroah, then you'll like this one. (Pahroah is a great game and so is this one) Cant reccomend it enough if you like city builders or like the history of aciant egypt. (I like both) Be warned it is challEnging :)

Tom V. gave it a 10:
This game has really moved CB's ahead. cool graphics, very cool gameplay.

H. Arrow gave it a 7:
If you like city builders, you should really give this one a shot. If you don't, then no loss if you give it a miss. The focus of the game is unique, and as a whole it's deceptively simple (meaning "hard"). The UI could use some work, and I find myself missing some of the SimCity-style stats/management tools, but in the end, it's a lot of fun in spite of the weaknesses, and I recommend it highly to any builder-types out there.

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Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile

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What The Critics Said

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