Cheap 1602 A.D. (Jewel Case) (Software) (Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me) Price

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Customer Reviews of 1602 A.D. (Jewel Case)

please any1 out there wiht the same thoughts on this game i would love to share some secrets of help you out. my email address is raspberryfish@hotmail.com and i have got MSN messenger!

This game would be a LOT better if it had good documentation
Did I play the same game the other reviewers did? Seriously?

Maybe it's just the version I got, but this game is far too flawed to enjoy on any kind of consistent basis. Commands are not detailed in the manual or on the tutorial (for example, how to QUIT). There is no ingame help system, either. There is no explanation for important concepts like question marks over buildings in the tutorial.. the manual just says to look at them, decide what to do, and handle it. Overall, the tutorial was almost useless as a way of learning the game. Each segment of it appeared to last about 2 minutes and provide about 10 text lines of material, most of it encouragement. The manual, incidentally, can only be retrieved from the CD using Explore -- the CD auto-runs any other way you try to access it. It sure has a lot of pretty pictures, but it doesn't tell you how to quit either, or how to get tools, the shortage of which I tended to knock up against on a regular basis.

Graphics are blocky, but survivable. There is no explanation of what stars mean in the initial game setup -- I thought it was a rating system, but turns out it's probably a difficulty level. I still have no idea why I couldn't build a warehouse on the scenario I tried -- I had enough stuff, but it just didn't want to do it.

I suppose if I were more intuitive or more patient I could probably figure it out, but as it is, it's just too frustrating to play.

SimCity with Supply Lines!
Has anyone else ever noticed that Germans seem obsessed with supply lines? This series, "Settlers", "Stronghold", etc. (I think "Stronghold" is British, but there seems to be a strong influence from German games.) You plant the wheat to take to the mill to grind into flour to send to the baker to bake the bread.... So it goes. One link in the chain goes out and, suddenly, you're breadless. (Well, it's not really sudden, but it seems that way.)

So, is it fun? Well, as they say, if this is the sort of game you like, you'll find you like this sort of game. It's not really a combat-heavy game. In fact, there is a points in one of the tutorials where you have to run from pirates--you have no way to defend. That results in some annoying micromanagement.

I tend to find these games sort of hypnotic. Once you get your supply-lines set up, there's not that much to do but watch your ships go back and forth and your workers tend the fields or what-have-you. That, and figure out where your supply-lines are failing. This game requires a bit more management than "Settlers", which you can read a book whilst playing, but I was never truly inspired to venture much into more combat-based scenarios. It's more "model train" than "combat simulation" in my experience.

There are a lot of good things to say about this game. Heck, look around and you'll see a lot of enthusiastic reviews. Whether or not you personally should buy it depends on a number of things: If you've played similar games (like "Settlers") and liked them, you'll probably like this, too. It has a less intimate and cute scale compared to "Settlers". If you're a die-hard combat fiend, you probably will want to give this a miss.

But uf you haven't played similar games and you don't require a lot of battles, there's really no way to tell whether or not you're going to like this one without trying it. (Unless you try "Settlers" or the sequel, "1503 AD", of course.) And this is as good a game as any to start with. You might find you really love it. You might, also, find yourself playing and waiting, waiting, waiting for the game to begin.