If you think the Civ series has become dumbed down or just want something deeper, maybe this game is for you. That said, this is not Civ. I would describe it as a historical world simulation. The game starts in 1444 during the decline of the Byzantin empire and close to the end of the 100 year war., and ends in 1821. You can basically pick any country during this time period (even though some of them has a lot more events and country specific decisions then other countries).
I’m writing this after having spent about 50 hours with this game. That’s how long I feel it takes to really get a grasp of the game. I still don’t know everything there is to know about the game, but I feel comfortable playing and know what to do in most situations.
Graphics
Graphically, this game looks quite good for a strategy game, even though graphics are not that important in this genre. The most important thing is that the map is easy to read.
Audio
The sound effect are ok, but the music is really great. THis is a good thing since you’ll have to listen to it for hundreds of hours
User interface
Despite the complexity of the game, the UI is quite easy to get used to. It’s quite intuitive, even though I sometimes spend time looking for something that I know can be found somewhere (A lot of statistical
Gameplay
This is a grand strategy game, so expect to spend a lot of time looking at a map. Well, the concept is easy. You pick a nation, and control it from 1444 (or whenever you like to start) until 1821. Theis is a very interesting time period in most of the world, and the experiance may differ depending on what country you decide to play. For example, as England, you’ll start out in the hundred year war, but later on probably end up cononizing, trading and exploring the rest of the world, pretty much staying away from the european continent. ON the other hand, if you picka country such as Poland, you’ll end up in a lot of the big european conflicts. The game isn’t scripted per say, but some historical events will trigger under certain conditions, such events can turn out to be both good and bad. There are also a lot of other events that will trigger under certain conditions, such as big revolts, trade events and formation of new nations. The game has no real goal, even though there is a score system. it’s more of a simulation then anything else. The game has the usual features of other strategy games such as research, but things are structured in a slightly different way. When you first start out, it feels like you have very little control over your country’s progress, but as you dig deeper, you realized that there’s a lot of things to manage. I would recommend starting as a decent sized country without to many enemies. I started out as spain, and I feel that was a good idea. Your wars early on won’t be that complex and you can experiance some colonizing right off the bat.
Conclusion
Right now, I love the game. It’s the best strategy game I’ve played for years. If you want a game that’s relatively easy to learn, but has a lot of depth, I would pick this up right away. Just be aware that each game will take 50 hours plus, especially before you get used to the game.
