Plebs - that's what Caesar IV's rulers call their citizens, a commoner, the type of person you'd make an effort to avoid if you ever saw them approaching you in the street - and you know what? Having tried to craft a sustainable and economically sound city for these people, I'm beginning to wonder whether calling them plebs is a little too flattering.

Caesar IV is the long awaited return (eight years in fact) of one of the finest city building games around, where you are tasked with the rather difficult job of turning barren countryside into a flourishing city full of well fed, well paid and extremely happy Roman citizens. However, with an ever-increasing population of ungrateful plebs to appease and advisors who quickly point out your failings as governor, it's a job that'll test the skills of even the most competent of city builders.

The gameplay is easy enough to grasp. You begin by making an effort to set up a low income colony, by building farms and low cost housing to attract the plebs needed to work there, soon expanding to exploit raw materials and setting up industries to construct goods for trade and to sell to your citizens. As cities expand, so do the demands of its citizens, with healthcare, education and entertainment all fast becoming important aspects of your ever-expanding metropolis to cater for. With these new demands comes the need to appeal to a higher class of citizen in order to fill the new vacancies that your plebs just aren't cut out for; the middle class equites need bigger housing and more attractive surroundings before they'll set foot in your city, while the high class Patricians don't work, but do spend small fortunes as they tour your city, just so long as you provide the adequate services to appeal to their lavish tastes.

The trick to all this management is trying to balance everything; it's a constant struggle to try and please everyone with the resources at your disposal. If citizens are too unhappy due to low food supplies or a lack of jobs then there's a chance they'll revolt, so you try your best to compensate by building more farms to produce more food and employ more people, but there's a problem, as doing so may not only provide your city with so many jobs that you need to build more houses to fill them, but if your citizens prosper due to an abundance of some services then their housing evolves, meaning it'll accommodate even more people, which means even more mouths to feed and more jobs to fill, starting the whole cycle over again.

Things become decidedly trickier as your city grows and you find yourself with a colony demanding more services, such as clinics, bathhouses, libraries and theatres, all costly to build and all needing a new class of citizen to make them work, who in turn also require even grander accommodations with cleaner water supplies. And all this before taking into account the possibility of having to build military bases to fend off aggressive attacks from neighbouring enemies, the expanse of trade routes that can cost a fortune, or the hoops you have to jump through just to get Patricians to live in your city. This delicate balancing act you have to manage does make things more difficult, but they you're forced to make impulsive decisions does make the gameplay more enjoyable and slightly more addictive than it should be.

But however well you may do at your job, expect nothing in the way of congratulations from your continually complaining citizens and the group of advisors who should be there to point out the areas in which you need to improve, but instead quickly tell you how rubbish you are. The advisors, while providing the adequate charts and statistics to help discover the areas of your city that are failing and need your attention, also never seem to shut up about everything that's wrong with your civilisation - too few jobs, not enough food, no entertainment venues - it's a struggle just to keep your citizens happy, but rarely will you wander into the advisors' screen and be met with anything positive.

This is, however, not the problem - the real trouble you encounter is with Rome and their ever increasing demands. Often they send requests for resources or items that you produce and failing to fill these requests loses you favour with Rome, which can jeopardise your standing with the hierarchy, eventually threatening your job. Relinquish the supplies they request and your colony can suffer; entire food stocks can be cleared out in one go, while goods have to be stopped from entering markets or trade depots just to fulfil these demands. It is possible to sweeten up Rome by sending them a gift or two - throw them a festival or send them an obelisk - they're expensive, but they do keep the folk back home quiet for a little while at least.

There are further complications in the form of attacks launched by barbarian hordes, who send small squads of soldiers to pillage and burn down your city. The response to this is to build military structures to train troops of your own, a great idea for the defence of your city, but not so great for the rest of your city, as in order to train an adequate amount of soldiers you need to part with a staggering amount of food supplies. It's not at all helped by a dreary combat system that only really handles small-scale fights that aren't really that exciting or intense enough to warrant the extra time and effort spent on them. Thankfully, the campaign offers you the choice to go the military route or stick with plain old fight-free management instead.

As for looks, this being the first of the Caesar games to go the 3D route, it's inevitably a good looking game if never quite as much as it should be. While from a distance the sight of your thriving city looks pleasingly detailed enough, zoom in and you'll see just how basic it all looks up close, with fairly standard textures plastering the walls of each building and townsfolk who look like faceless mannequins. It's a definitely game best viewed from a distance.

Caesar IV's biggest sin however is with its awkward build interface. Once you've selected a sub-group from which to build, a rather large toolbar fills the screen, giving you the different types of building that you can construct, making the task of actually building structures far more cumbersome than it should be. This isn't helped by the fact that once you do select a building these toolbars remain open until you've closed them yourself - a little problem you may think, but not so much when you're in the middle of the game trying to spruce up your city but finding yourself having to bypass an absurdly large toolbar that's blocking your view.

Beyond the flaws, once you've grappled with the basics there's a lot to enjoy in Caesar IV. It lacks the scope and scale of most city builder games and despite the delicate balancing act if forces upon you it's not that difficult once you've figured out how things work. Nevertheless, it's a pleasing new addition to one of the best city builder franchises around and while it doesn't quite surpass its predecessors, it's still an enjoyable and accessible management game with enough challenges to keep fans of the series and the genre building away for weeks to come.

Reviewed by Kieron Giacopazzi for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).