Game: Fate Of The Pharaoh
Genre: Simulation, Strategy
System: Nintendo Switch (also on Steam & iOS )
Developers | Publishers: Cateia Games | Ocean. Media
Age Rating: US E | EU 3+
Price: US $9.99 | UK £8.99 | EU $ 9,99
Release Date: May 20th, 2021
Review code used, with many thanks to Ocean Media
Ocean Media and developers Cateia Games have released a time-management city-building game, Fate Of The Pharaoh. Lets have a look at it and see what it is about.
Rebuild the Kingdom
After a long war waged upon Egypt by its enemies, the once-great country was left in chaos and ruin. It now falls to the Pharaoh to rebuild the kingdom and restore peace and prosperity to the land and its people. He then progresses into light shenanigans with space aliens and pyramid-building, yes, aliens and pyramids, never thought I’d see those two words in one sentence!
You play the role of the Pharaoh as Fate Of The Pharaoh steers you through 44 levels, with two modes of play and a few achievements to grab along the way. The first thing you’re asked is: which game mode do you want to play? Relaxed with no timer, or Adventure mode where you’re up against the Time of Ra.
I tried both modes and completed the levels before the timer ran out, I didn’t see a lot of difference in the modes. I played about five levels of the game when I realised I’d played this game many years ago on iOS, and it’s exactly the same game on both systems.
Time-Management
Fate of the Pharaoh is a time-management city-building game, and as such it adheres to the genre norms. On each level, you need to complete certain tasks such as building certain dwellings. But those need money and resources to buy, which then requires you to gather taxes from your citizens.
The flow is similar to other games in this genre, at first you just need to build a few tents and collect some taxes. But soon you need to build more things than you have resources to construct. So you need a quarry to provide materials, and taxes you collect are used to get building resources from the quarry. You’ll need water for your citizens because you live in a desert, then you learn how to upgrade properties, after that you get more house types, and eventually things like a marketplace.
Unlock New Buildings
New buildings are generally unlocked when it’s story-appropriate, rather than through player activity. Houses crop up at a point in the story that feels very random and have little do to with the story. Breaking up the types of new buildings you get does help a little when it comes to repetition. As the game’s level goals seem to become variations on a theme after a while.
Unlike other games in this genre where you have a limited number of helpers, Fate of the Pharaoh gives you limitless helpers to perform tasks. In other games you need to hire helpers, here you just order a task to be done and they appear!
At the end of each level, you get rewarded based on how quickly and efficiently you accomplished your tasks and the happiness of your citizens. Overall, the game seems to be designed for coffee-break gameplay, since each level can be finished quickly. Much of the game’s challenge comes down to figuring out how to finish a level within its allotted time.
Visuals and Controls
The music is cheerful and suitably Egyptian and gels well with the gameplay mixed with vibrant 2D scenes. Fate Of The Pharaoh has touchscreen controls, which is fine as they work pretty well. It might be more awkward to control the game on the touchscreen if your fingers are big since some of the icons that need to be pressed are small.
Conclusion
Fate Of The Pharaoh is a perfectly enjoyable game, though without much of a challenge. The game would be a great starting ground for a young child who is interested in playing time-management games as it’s accessible to just about anyone. As for adult gamers, as long as you don’t take it too seriously then there’s no real reason you shouldn’t enjoy it.
Final Verdict: I Like It 
You must log in to post a comment.