Common Sense Media Review
By Claire Crossman
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
City-builder remake is educational, hectic, and fun.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 10+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Play
Videos and Photos
Pharaoh: A New Era
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's It About?
A recreation of its 1999 predecessor, PHARAOH: A NEW ERA is a city-builder game that can be played on Microsoft Windows. This game requires the player to start their village from scratch, building homes, irrigation, crops, and everything in between. Working along the Nile, players have the freedom to design their town any way they'd like, while still following the mission guidelines. The game offers a campaign mode (with 50 missions) or an individual mission selection mode. Missions come with "win" and "defeat" conditions, making the goal of each section pretty straightforward. You can save and reload multiple different towns, allowing the player to stop and start whenever they'd like. Throughout the game, the player travels through 4,000 years of Egypt's history – through its humble beginnings to its legendary rule. This includes the creation of monuments that Egypt is widely known for, like the pyramids and the Sphinx.
Is It Any Good?
With over 100 hours of gameplay, this game will certainly keep fans of simulation and building games busy. For this demographic, Pharaoh: A New Era, is a blast. It's a faithful recreation of the original game, with updated graphics and logistics, while keeping the same 2D animation style. There are a seemingly infinite amount of customizations you can play around with, like speeding up time in different increments and adjusting how enemies or predators interact with your town.
For players who are not savvy with the genre, this game may be a difficult play-through at first. Instructions come quickly, without much time to process. This makes the need to absorb new rules, while also learning what a city-builder is in the first place, overwhelming – particularly for younger kids. Despite this, a few hours of gameplay, combined with the lengthy 50 mission campaign, will most likely adjust the player to the ins and outs of a city builder. Pharaoh: A New Era, is as educational as it is graphically stunning. Between navigating road construction, putting out fires, warding off enemies, and bringing your historic city to life, there's always something going on. Even if you haven't been a fan of city-builders in the past, this game is compelling enough to draw you in and keep you there, teaching you plenty about Egyptian history along the way.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about historical video games. Pharaoh: A New Era takes place in ancient Egypt, but do you have an easier time learning about history when it's in video game form?
The developers for this game consulted with a certified Egyptologist to create a historically accurate environment, but does a game's historical accuracy make it more or less interesting for you to play?
Game Details
- Platform : Windows
- Subjects : Social Studies : cultural understanding , events , exploration , geography , global awareness , history , power structures , timelines
- Skills : Thinking & Reasoning : decision-making , logic , prediction , strategy , Creativity : developing novel solutions , Self-Direction : achieving goals , goal-setting , Responsibility & Ethics : fiscal responsibility , learning from consequences , making wise decisions
- Pricing structure : Paid ($22.99)
- Available online? : Available online
- Publisher : DotEmu
- Release date : February 15, 2023
- Genre : Edutainment
- Topics : History
- Character Strengths : Perseverance , Teamwork
- ESRB rating :
- Last updated : September 29, 2025
Did we miss something on diversity?
Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by
Suggest an Update
Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
See how we rate