"What a strange game..."

I'll admit it. I'm a PC Game bottom-feeder.

I look briefly at the ''New Releases'' rack at the local software store, at all of the first-person shooter clones and the real-time strategy clones and yawn. Then, I scour the bargain bin and see what's there. My philosophy is this: I'd rather spend $10-$15 and be disappointed than pay $40-$50 and be disappointed, with about the same chance of being pleasantly surprised. And even if a game is a total bomb, if I get a week's worth of play out of it, I broke even.

And every once in a while I come across a nice little gem--games like The Corporate Machine, Europa Universalis, and this game--Europa 1400: The Guild. None of these games are out-of-the-ballpark smash hits with me, but for the money I've paid for them I'm very glad.

Europa 1400 allows you to play as a merchant in medieval Europe. You can take any number of paths--you can be a stonemason, a tavern owner, or a thief. It has some of the elements of role-playing, but it's by no means a RPG--there's a few bones thrown, such as ''action points'' and personal statistics. The big surprise comes from the types of activities that you do. You wouldn't think that making spinning tops or polish would be an interesting game, but the act of buying lavender or granite and converting it to a finished good is satisfying in an uncomfortably indescribable way.

While the game isn't only about economics, that is the main thrust of the game. You can (and should) dabble in politics; getting civic rights and the lowliest of positions (Night Watchman, for instance) are only the bottom rungs of the ladder. You can also deal extensively in above-the-board skulduggery (publishing lampoons and slandering rivals) and blatant illegal acts (bombing buildings). The game presents a nice mix of strategy, allowing you to balance any number of these.

This is all the tip of the iceberg. There's marriages, the church, enhancing your buildings, generating alternate income, random events, etc.

The graphics are serviceable and quite good for this type of game. Music is appropriate. I occasionally encountered system issues, mostly with the game ''hanging'' on an opening screen.

Probably the best part of the game is its ability to allow you to pursue any strategy you want. Most games, such as Age of Empires 2 or Civilization III--pretend to give you a range of strategies to pursue, but the AI actions pretty much force you to take the same route every game with only slight variations. Not so in Europa 1400. If you want to ignore sabotage and slander, go right ahead. If you want to forget politics, feel free. The game setup allows you to pick you victory condition, but even in a ''free'' game, which purposely forces you to address (if not actively participate) in most of the areas, you can deal with it in a variety of ways.

If there's something wrong with the game, I would have to say that it is the strange elements of role-playing inserted into it. You can actually ''use'' items (you even have a little bag you can click on that carries up to six items). These ''items'' grant you temporary bonuses, much like a standard RPG, but in an economic simulation just seems weird. If you ''use'' a protective cross, you're safe from lampoons. If you ''use'' a walking stick, your walks are more relaxing and you get +1 action point per turn. Uh, sure.

Every once in a while strange things also occur. IN one game I had a lucrative perfume factory. However, I needed Ethanol--lots of it--so I build a lot from the market, and my actual cash reserves were reduced to next to nothing. (I still had plenty of stock and an excellent credit rating, so getting quick liquidity was not an issue.) However, the end of the day came, they subtracted my expenses (not significant), and found that I was in arrears--and immediately threw me into debtor's prison. I had been in debt for more in earlier years with no problems. I could have easily fixed the problem simply by buying one bottle of ethanol less or taken out a loan, but I never got the chance. Things like this do not happen often but they do occur.

The final verdict--this game is a strangely compelling game. The clunky tutorial and poorly-organized (but otherwise chock full of information) manual will make your first few starting games a head-scratching bore, but it's worth the wait. There's an excellent game in here.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/26/03