I spent so many hours on Pharaoh and Cleopatra growing up.
There was a game released in 2015 very similar to these style games called Lethis: Path of Progress. I never got into it, but maybe other fans of Sierra games will
I got 22.5 hours on Lethis: Path of Progress. Its only sin in my eyes is that it makes a great impression of being a reskin of Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom (which I thought was the most refined of Sierra's old city builders) meaning it doesn't really offer anything radically new.
There are a few touches here and there, particularly the use of steam - you need to build a network of pipes to transfer steam in the places where it's needed (e.g. factories that produce automata that you need to run the service buildings that will attract a bourgeoisie who will pay the most taxes, similar to elite housing in Emperor). But in general it's a game that stays very, very close to the Sierra formula. Even down to walkers starting to get lost as you build more new buildings, leaving swaths of your city without essential services and causing them to cycle between the lowest and highest possible house quality periodically. Exactly like good old Sierra games!
Which is fine by me, I'd probably not like it as much if it was indeed radically new. Weird, huh?
That said, I would sure like to see a genuinely new take on the old formula that didn't also trample all over what made the old formula work.
There were also some follow-up games with Egyptian and Greek themes (called Pharaoh and Zeus) which I recall being similarly fun. And looking it up just now, there's also one I missed, called "Emperor" and set in ancient China.
I got Emperor on GoG. It's where the game design formula that started with Cesar reached its apex. It's just such a great game. And it looks really pretty too.
And as usual you learn a ton about Chinese mythology- because you gotta keep the ancestors happy... or else.
