Loading ...Crazes, frenzies and fashions in the world are constantly changing. Presently the world is currently hyped-up to pirate frenzy by a famous pirate, not Captain Black beard or Captain Hook no; he is Jack Sparrow captain of the Black Pearl. Anno 1701 by Sunflowers and Developer games for its promotion sports a beautiful old gallon on the cover yet the game is much into city building than piracy. But in spite of its misgivings, it is quite a fun game to play. In fact it is actually a historical city builder which is concerned with the 1701 Caribbean colonies. This game is the sequel to 1501 New World and 1602 A.D so they have touched numerous aspects of the game for instance combat been more stressed upon. Yet it has a great interface and is easy enough of to understand and that makes it one of the best city builders to be released this year. The game begins with an introduction movie a starring a man with dreams to find new worlds, build cities and trade asking Her Majesty to give him a boat, his wish is soon granted and he off to adventure. The game is simple and elegant. Instead of get lost in the details it is much simpler to organize the city and see to its resources. Most people think city building game means micro-management and with micro-management once thinks of different spreadsheets for taxes, expenditures etc but this game is different in that aspect, no absolutely no spread sheets (Hurrah!) nor does one have to think about calling in 911 to know why the hell aren’t the homes developing. The objective is to colonize the tropical islands gather wood, fish and raw materials produce tools, bricks, etc. The building resources are tools, wood, gold and bricks. There are 4 excellent tutorials which cover all the basics and guarantee smooth sailing. The game is mostly user-friendly which makes it very easy to spot the problem and rectify it. Excellent sounds and visual interface keeps the player’s attention from wandering. The world seems like a tropical paradise in which the players zips and zooms around to check on his residents. The mood of the people is represented by a face which appears on clicking the homes or the village centre. Easy to recognize laughing in the green background represents euphoric citizen while scowling with red background obviously says something is wrong. If that it isn’t enough one also hear’s occasional comments like “Free beer for everyone” or “What a wonderful day” etc. The game starts with the establishment of a warehouse near the coastline which in turn creates an inhabitable area around it. The further establishment of a village centre in the middle of the homes ensures the community after which the need for cloth, food, faith, and wood arises. The construction of sheep farms, fish farms, lumberjack huts and chapels soon fulfill these needs. When these needs are fulfilled the people evolve (the basic pioneers evolve into the settlers and the settlers into citizens etc). When the people evolve they bring with them more needs like alcohol, education and tobacco and open more building for the production of these items. The game isn’t as simple as making a warehouse and creating whatever is required. The islands themselves are suitable only for producing a number of resources, for others one can either trade with other AI or in multiplayer mode players or one can explore other islands which are suitable for making the specific resource and set up shop there. Example mostly the basic island does not have sugarcane or hop to create booze or tobacco needed to create smoke; this gets you in search of the other islands. Actually the player is not the only European power trying to colonize in the Caribbean, so one faces competition. Things may turn ugly when one encounters an island rich in a resource but is already conquered by a hostile player. So one must be ready to put up his dukes. Although warfare is the least enjoyable aspect of this game. Ships are simplistic like Sid Meiers pirates and land war is more like taking a bunch of pike men and throwing them at the enemy. The Queen keeps an eye over the player and keeps giving comments on his success. It is useful that the player can ask for help from Her Majesty in the form of gold or army. All in all Anno 1701 although lacks the “15 men on dead men’s chest” song it is still quite an enjoyable treat all the same.
Archive for September 20th, 2007
It is said that just by painting portraits one cannot become Picasso .Similarly, not every game can be expected to succeed. The Glory of Roman Empire by Haemimont Games is one of the flimsy attempts, which far from posing as a dangerous competition, merely cause a rise in eyebrow, a wicked smile followed by a cry of “Ok. Next game please!” The creators have, in a low-budget simulation game tried to create a remake of the classical Caesar III, depicting the glory and magnificence of the mighty Romans at the peak of their power, but have sadly only accomplished in making a mockery of that so-called might. The player assumes the identity of a Roman governor who travels all over the countryside using his expertise to solve the problems of various roman settlements large and small, dealing with issues that range from barbarian attacks to outbreaks of plague. The game begins with a live handy dandy tutorial, that makes the experience, cakewalk. The basic objective remains clear-cut; the player is expected to create a healthy and thriving metropolis, free of employment problems, commercially sustainable and has an ever-increasing and developing population. There are only two modes, scenario and sandbox, which is a free play mode with no end. The game starts with the establishment of the Town Hall, which is done automatically with a well for water and structure to store resources. The players unlike some other games continue with other missions from the same cities that they build earlier on hence reducing the hassle to begin each level from scratch. Surprisingly the buildings are constructed without the use of gold, instead only raw materials. There is a lack of diversity in the structures and buildings as most scenarios are content with the repeated of use of a few common structures. On a positive aspect, the buildings on clicking do give proper information to player. Resources are gathered and distributed automatically as they are received. Upon the construction of a few resource-gathering structures like the pig farm, wheat farm and woodcutter along with the business structures like butcher and bakery will ensure the governor runs his town smoothly. The people are divided into two types the normal Roman residents and slaves. Gold is used only to buy the slaves, who, in turn are used to construct buildings and to transport goods from one place to another. Hence, the player is required to balance the number of slaves with the workload because if they are over worked, they start causing riots and strikes, which may cause fires. The towns are not very difficult to plan, as there are no negative impacts on the desirability of the neighborhoods e.g. a pig farm and butchery can be placed smack between prime real estate but if there is a presence of a shrine, the houses will continue to evolve nonetheless. The houses have the capability to house only four people, the mother, father, child and old person. The game menu portrays a serene and stunning scene of a waterfall with a Roman Structure at its top, which gives the player a feeling of expectation of high quality graphics, but sadly the illusion shatters as soon as the game begins. There also no active influences of the Gods or any religions on people like storms, floods or other disasters signaling the wrath of an annoyed God or bounties and benefits of a delighted God. Although scenery is quite striking, lush green grass, blue sky, purple mountains in the horizons and golden sunlight, the overall graphics of the games are uninteresting. The flora and fauna are unimpressive and so are the people. The game uses an old and outdated graphical engine, which in its turn produces old and outdated results. The ambience of the game as compared to its brethren like Pharaoh, Caesar III is not even close. The background music is so tedious the player may forget that it is even playing also there are no sounds of the hustle and bustle of the city. In games like Pharaoh, each person clicked on gives some remark about his or her opinion of the city in clear sentences. In this game however, on clicking some people give a muffled grunt. The overall ambience is also quite boring and is better to turn off the sounds and put some background music. In conclusion, Glory of the Roman Empire looks glorious only when observing it on the racks.
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