Posted December 14, 2008
I've played through most of the scenarios now and think this game is definitely worth the $10.
The place where this game truly shines is in the trading system. There are a couple types of towns in the game (colonial and governor) which are dependent on each other for goods. This gives you definite trading routes that almost always give you profit, and they aren't hard to spot. The most pleasant part of the trading though is when you don't have to do it: once your captain reaches a high enough experience level, you can send him off to do trading while you go do something else with another convoy. This is implemented really nicely too, only requiring you to tell the guy what towns to visit in his trading circle.
Another nice feature is the ability to build businesses. There is nothing really novel here. If you impress the viceroys, you can even manage your own town. This is where building your own businesses really picks up. You're the only one who can build in this town, so you have a monopoly on everything. This also means you have to supply the town with all the goods they need, which can be a bother. But if you have a captain or two going around on an automatic trade route, he'll take care of it for you!
You can also give convoys to different governments and pirates. This activates AI control over them, changing the political climate of the region noticeably. I think its really unique to be able to give birth to a new AI player in the game, and wish it'd get more attention. But maybe that's just me wishing to heck to have an AI ally in a few RTS games where I get stuck mopping up...
Unfortunately, the ship combat could use some work in the game. It isn't too tough to convert your ships into warships by adding cannons and boarding parties. It takes too much coin for the starting player, but it can be very lucrative to capture and sell goods. The ship combat can be VERY hard if you don't have the difficulty setting turned down. You can only take one ship into battle at a time, while the computer can bring in 5. Ugh. Further, attacking a town is a pain because the harbor cannons have to be taken down. On cannon is enough to take down the best warship, and again, it's usually 5 on 1. To make this even more annoying, you CAN'T LOWER YOUR SAILS!! Your ship goes flying by the cannon, and you only get off a couple shots before you have to turn around. Meanwhile, the cannon (and his buddies) get half a dozen.
So that's it. 5 stars for a trading game with swell AI features. -1 star for annoyingly hard combat.
The place where this game truly shines is in the trading system. There are a couple types of towns in the game (colonial and governor) which are dependent on each other for goods. This gives you definite trading routes that almost always give you profit, and they aren't hard to spot. The most pleasant part of the trading though is when you don't have to do it: once your captain reaches a high enough experience level, you can send him off to do trading while you go do something else with another convoy. This is implemented really nicely too, only requiring you to tell the guy what towns to visit in his trading circle.
Another nice feature is the ability to build businesses. There is nothing really novel here. If you impress the viceroys, you can even manage your own town. This is where building your own businesses really picks up. You're the only one who can build in this town, so you have a monopoly on everything. This also means you have to supply the town with all the goods they need, which can be a bother. But if you have a captain or two going around on an automatic trade route, he'll take care of it for you!
You can also give convoys to different governments and pirates. This activates AI control over them, changing the political climate of the region noticeably. I think its really unique to be able to give birth to a new AI player in the game, and wish it'd get more attention. But maybe that's just me wishing to heck to have an AI ally in a few RTS games where I get stuck mopping up...
Unfortunately, the ship combat could use some work in the game. It isn't too tough to convert your ships into warships by adding cannons and boarding parties. It takes too much coin for the starting player, but it can be very lucrative to capture and sell goods. The ship combat can be VERY hard if you don't have the difficulty setting turned down. You can only take one ship into battle at a time, while the computer can bring in 5. Ugh. Further, attacking a town is a pain because the harbor cannons have to be taken down. On cannon is enough to take down the best warship, and again, it's usually 5 on 1. To make this even more annoying, you CAN'T LOWER YOUR SAILS!! Your ship goes flying by the cannon, and you only get off a couple shots before you have to turn around. Meanwhile, the cannon (and his buddies) get half a dozen.
So that's it. 5 stars for a trading game with swell AI features. -1 star for annoyingly hard combat.