So I have now completed it on normal. I didnt realize there was a difficulty selector until about level 20. Though it seems to only impact starting money and perhaps happiness? I usually dont have much difficulty with that mechanic so wasnt readily apparent when I played the last few on hard. A few thoughts...
1 - Confirmed that there is no inherent challenge on any of the maps. What I mean by this, you can readily produce and afford everything you need without establishing trade. In many cases, no need for taxes either. And I mean on the regular folk, forgot about the taxers from the rich. So trade is purely a money maker and provider of employees. Which in turn you wouldnt need employees unless there is a requirement for the scenario victory.
With the impression series I always found myself pressing pause as a map started and reviewing what I had available, trade partners and what they would purchase, where my lack of goods was, etc. I did the same here only found that everything was at hand all the time. The few instances something wasnt available simply meant I didnt have a choice between graphic models. So beer or wine was always available. Always had immediate (ie: fish) and farm-able (ie: pumpkins) food. You get the idea...
2 - The request system needs some definition. Two things seem to happen. First, standard requests for resources from the empire by such and such a time. These always come from the Empire (never trade partners) in packs of three, always for the same good, and seemingly zero impact from succeeding/failing. I fulfilled all three on several occasions and purposely failed all three all seemingly to no end. The only thing I read about was the emperor being less likely to loan you money. Which is never an issue... It may also impact your final "reputation" score, but certainly no in level consequence other than the aforementioned loans.
Second, you will receive occasional notices about a new emperor and are required to provide a monetary gift of some sort. While you have to give something, it ranges from pittance to a huge chunk of your treasury. I was able to detect ZERO impact from this. Like, I went back and reloaded and tried a different selection, etc with zero, zilch, nada difference. To the point I thought it might impact the next scenario and how quickly those requests would come in, nope. Again, it may impact their loan likelihood (useless) or perhaps the end score but no in-game impact to speak of.
3 - The lack of threat makes for a somewhat repetitive experience. To the point I was curious why they included 26 scenarios. They were all essentially the same save for the expected results. And i dont mean "duh, its a city builder". I mean I built the same exact city 26 times. No variation was required to meet the goals set out. I would lay 60% of the city before I ever went off pause and then it was just a matter of waiting for people to move in. No concern for cash, no threats, etc.
- Lay houses and a few food sources with storage. Click start
- Get some employees, lay steam and copper
- Lay steel/auto chain
- Lay gold chain
- Lay silk and jewel chain
- Lay mansions
- Build whatever is required, the end.
- Note: You could do all this with the starting cash alone. Without difficulty. And if you did need more, drop a tax office and youre set. Forget about mansions, thats already been covered many times by others.
The only variation occurred when the mansions simply werent available if you didnt have access to silk or gold. In those cases, they were not required in any way to complete the scenario. In fact, I got the sense that the devs knew that the only actual challenge in the game was happiness and by denying you and endless money source in mansions they tried to ramp that up a bit. Just a thought of course, but you do get that feeling. Not saying there needs to be a military aspect (though it would be great) but something unknown would help with replayability.
4 - Lastly, the maps themselves. As mentioned, everyone provided you everything you needed. However, there was also no challenge in placement. As any Impression builder will know, the housing block is the key to everything. Once you have it settled how you want it, half the fun is adapting it to each map forthcoming. Not so here, no matter what you build there is never a map that will challenge it. Two or three maps claim to require bridges or awash in swamps, or tight space. Never. I didnt get it, why pose it as the expected challenge but never actually have any? For example, one map claims to have a lot of water and require a ton of bridges. It does, no doubt. However, each land mass is more than enough to build whatever you need as you like. Its mind boggling.
Finally, I know the developer is super touchy when it comes to criticism so I wish to make it clear I say all this because I like this game! It was fun and I very much am looking forward to L2. However, the real game lies in the sandbox. The campaign is an orchard of low hanging fruit i would love to see them address. No, these arent "bugs". No, you dont have to think how I think. None of that changes the fact that there are definitive areas to easily improve in the campaign regardless of how/what/why you play. This isnt even all, just the ones I could remember the next day :)
