Age of Sail II

"A must have for all Horatio Hornblower fans"

Age of Sail II is Talonsoft's battle simulator in which you can command American, British, French, Spanish, Dutch, or Russian sloops, frigates, and ships-of-the-line during the years 1775-1820. The sizes of ships range from mere privateers with just a dozen guns to the massive 130-gun ship-of-the-line Santisima Trinidad. You can fight in over 100 historic battles that range from single ship actions to massive fleet engagements. About 90 of those missions include the British due to the fact that they were the supreme naval power during that timeframe. However, that doesn't mean that you can't defeat them in battle. There's nothing like commanding the Constitution in it's three actions against the British in the War of 1812. Also, it's fun to change history in this game. If you want to, you can defeat the British at Trafalgar, Copenhagen, the Nile, or several other major battles. You can also fight in 4 hypothetical missions, which include a fleet engagement between American frigates and a few British ships-of-the-line. To add even more to the game, there are several campaigns where you can be an American privateer or a Russian Admiral.
The gameplay is very easy to learn yet very hard to master. You can change your ship's shot type, where you want your shots to hit, and the amount of sail by simply clicking a button. You can also order the crew to repair the ship, sails, and cannon, put out fires, or construct a jury rig to replace a mast that was shot down. You have to avoid running aground on the coast or on a shoal, and you have to watch out for battery fire from the shore when you're in the middle of battle. You also have to learn tactics, like raking your enemy's fore or aft and to never leave your fore or rear exposed. Those two spots are the weakest place on these types of ships because the majority of weapons are on the sides. In many cases, your ship won't have any weapons at the fore or aft of the ship unless you order otherwise.
Within a few minutes, you'll be able to lead a single frigate to victory on easiest difficulty level but it will take several hours to master single ship battles on higher levels of difficulty. Also, I suggest that you don't jump into fleet actions until you've mastered the controls. It's one thing to lead one ship against another one or two ships, but it's entirely different to be in charge of a general engagement where there's 50 ships-of-the-line in battle. Given time though, you'll be fighting those battles as if you were Lord Nelson himself.
The music in this game is very appropriate, consisting of classical European sonnets. The sound effects are very good as well. You could have your eyes closed and still tell whether or not most of you shots are hitting their targets or simply falling into the ocean. The graphics are beautiful, and every part of the ships from the cannon ports to the rigging is in excellent detail.
However I must warn you, THIS GAME WILL BE VERY BORING UNLESS YOU ARE INTERESTED IN THIS FIELD OF HISTORY! Trust me, my brother and most of my friends hated this game when they played it because they didn't like this specific historical subject. Only buy it if you enjoy studying naval battles of this time frame or if you like the Hornblower or Bolitho novels about this subject.

Overall score: 8/10 I would have given this a higher score except for the fact that your crew has a tendency to strike your colors (surrender) without your permission. It can get very annoying when they do that and you're still able to fight.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/05/03, Updated 06/05/03