1602 A.D.

"Worth Playing"

Ok I was reading someone else's view on the game here and I didn't agree with what I read. So I decided I would put in this review of my own.

Yes, 1602AD may not be Diablo II (which I love) or Age of Empires (which I thought was great) but it's still worth playing and pretty good.

Why did I like it? Well it's not just start here and build there then take over. It's more in depth. You start out on a ship in the middle of the ocean. Then you have to explore islands and new lands to see what kinds of resources they have. Once you find one you like, and assuming no one else has taken it, then you can settle the island. Now you’re in this Age of Empires/Sim City type of mode where you build buildings, roads, farms, foresters and more to gather resources and make your people happy. However it's not always that easy, sometimes you need more bricks or your people want more tobacco or other product. So you can either search for an island that will produce good tobacco and if you have money you can settle there and build tobacco farms, or you can see what other players are selling and setup trade routes with them.

But that's not it.... It's not about trading resources; it's about taking over the world. It has a bit of 'Civilization' type game play. You can't just build the buildings you need to get the other buildings you need, you have to wait until your people advance. That's based on how happy you keep them. Once you've advanced farther you can then start building ships, then a small army and then defensive structures. Maybe now you can get back at the pirates shooting down your trade ships as you sail the ocean.

You don't just sail around and shoot down ships with your cannons though, which you can, you can even land men on other people's lands, kill the natives, or your rivals, start war and make alliances with other people. It's sort of like Age of Empires but you also get the 'before part' of settling because you can settle where you want. You have an island to your self to you need ships to trade and start war, and you can get down to the hand to hand combat if you need to. I like the idea of sailing the seas and watching out for pirates so this is probably why I like this game.

Every play Railroad Tycoon? I think that's a game you can play straight for a couple of weeks, over and over again but then eventually you get tired of it and might play it again months later because you can build your park differently. I think 1602AD is the same way, you'll play it for a couple of weeks, maybe get far, maybe keep starting over to try a different strategy (like I do) and then stop playing altogether. Then months down the road you might load it up again to play with a friend or because you though of something or had that urge.

I do think however that if you were limited in your purchase that you would not get this game but maybe Age of Empires II or Diablo II or try something new like Black and White. This game is a good game to get as a gift. I think replay ability is decent and that it's a fun game to play multiplayer.

It is more a complicated game to learn at first, I haven’t read the manual so maybe it's easier if you read it. It's just a lot of stuff you can do, but it gets easier as you go on.

Ok well that's the end of my review, it's not a well layout review but I was in a rush and had to put something about this game up.

Game Score (1-10): 6
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Replayability : 9
Graphics : 6
Game Play : 8
Difficulty : 8

Of course these are just the opinions of me and a few friends.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/11/01, Updated 07/11/01