"A Great Way to Kill Time - And Conquer the World"

A simulation able to absorb countless hours.

Imperialism is a strategy games/simulation that allows you to take the reins of an 19th century Great Power, meaning one of the major Imperial powers of Europe during that time, and seeing how well you do in the attempt to dominate Europe. You have many tools at your disposal from your army and navy to trade and diplomacy. Utilizing every weapon you can is the secret to ultimate victory.

The world is divided up on a hex grid, with the various hexes containing a type of terrain and possibly a resource to be exploited. The hexes are grouped together to form Provinces. Your military stations its troops in these more abstract provinces, and you attack and defend them, as opposed to the individual hexes on the map. Aside from the map screen there are sub-screens that allow for the transport of resources, allocation of production, diplomacy, and trade instructions. There's also another screen where technologies become available to purchase once discovered.

The basic gameplay consists of going through these screens every turn (after a while it becomes almost instinctually fast), setting orders, and then moving your various experts or workers around on the map in attempts to gather ever more resources to fuel your war machine. There are numerous resources available, from timber and metal ores to cotton and wool. These resources can then be refined into other products, such as steel or lumber. These products can then be used to create military units, recruit more population to the city, or be turned into lucrative trade goods that can be sold to minor nations around the world to pay for all of your expenditures.

Diplomacy is perhaps the game's weakest point, or at least it seems to me to be that way from the way I play. I frequently find myself setting off a World War that doesn't end until all of the powers on one side of it have been completely annihilated. This simulates the late-game period of time rather well, but earlier time periods were a bit less final in their war efforts, and the diplomacy model in the game makes accomplishing such short-term or limited wars rather difficult.

Technology is gained rather simply by purchasing in it. The very next turn in the game, the technology comes into effect in the empire. This typically doesn't have any immediate effects except to unlock further improvements or military units for construction.

The global war situation feels very 19th century. You have massive troop movements, shifting from one province to another, sometimes launching a huge attack against enemy positions. The tactical situation is heavily tilted in the favor of the defender, which was often the case in warfare in this period - especially once World War technologies are reached. This has the unfortunate side effect of requiring, from time to time, massive troop losses in order to grind the opposition down so that they can be dispatched in a reasonable period of time. Alternatively cutting their ports off and starving a nation's trade can cripple them utterly, giving a victory in everything but explicit terms. Further, the tactical battles stop being satisfying after the tenth or twentieth time you've controlled essentially the same military forces fighting roughly the same enemy forces.

At higher difficulties the AI does cheat. It seems to know where the resources are in its, and other, territories and exploits this ruthlessly. It also gains better starting positions, and possibly more resources, than the human player. Playing a game on Impossible truly is almost impossible - out of ten games played on that level, I've won only one or two of them.

Really though, Imperialism is a great old strategy game, and should be played by any lover of the genre.

Now for a quick scoring summary for those of you keeping track of the numbers:

Gameplay: 9

Pretty solid, though sadly exploitable AI, make the going tough every game. The designers nailed a lot of features of the era, and the only solid complaint is with the shallow diplomatic options.

Graphics: 5

The graphics weren't that good when the game came out, but they get the job done.

Sound: 4

The sounds are simple and convey what's needed, but they get repetitive after a while.

Replay: 10

Aside from the scenarios that ship with the game, there are a few user-created ones floating around, including one on a reasonable world map. There's also the random world generator. Every game follows the same sort of path, but there are always unique challenges depending on local situations. I've probably put in time for a hundred or more games, it's that replayable.

Other: N/A

There should probably be an addiction warning on the box, because it's easy to get hooked on it and lose track of time.

Overall: 9

A great strategy game that can't be recommended enough. Just stop reading this and go play it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/09/07