Knights and Merchants

For all that are looking for a less complex economy-simulation than the settlers, which doesn't consume to much time K&M is just the thing. The city-building aspect is nicely done the economy structure is clear and quite forward. Other than in the settlers series you can't look up productivity tables or assign a certain area to work on for the production houses. Also the delivery lines for goods can't be altered too much. The lurning curve therefore is not very steep and you find quickly into the game. The strategic aspect of battles is not very refined so, you can basically win each scenario with the same tactics. But the battles are fun to watch. All in all it's a nice little game for those who don't have to much time for playing, as I do. I already enjoyed it when it was first released in 1998 (Yeah, that's right. It was released 1998 and not 2001) and it hasn't lost it's charm over the years.

Many years ago I had a demo of this game that I just loved playing. I always found it so much fun to just build up a small little town. When this game appeared on GOG I got so excited that I'd finally be able to play it again, and the full game even. It's definitely a load of fun, but not all the elements of the game are amazing. First things first though, the town building. In order to build buildings, you need three things: Serfs, to move materials, laborers, to do the building, and the materials for the actual building. Once a building is built you'll also usually have to train the correct person at a school in order for the building to work. It's all very simple and fun. Unfortunately, the building up of your town is just means to an end. Usually the objective of a map means defeating enemy soldiers, and combat just is not any fun. Order soldiers around is very clunky, the fighting is slow, and seems a bit difficult. I really find it no fun at all. Improving upon this wouldn't have taken very much. It's a real shame it is how it is because I just enjoy everything else so much. Regarding the presentation, the graphics are actually pretty nice. They do carry a certain charm with them. The music isn't anything special, but it fits the game well and while it doesn't stand alone well at all is nice to listen to while playing.

Knights & Merchants has problems. Enough problems to make the game not enyojable. Fortunately there is solution! kamremake.com - KaM rewriten with great features and less problems. It's still not the best game in the world but I have no problem with sinking countless amount of hours. Try it : 3 :/

Just a quick note for anyone interested. This version of game doesn't feature all songs from original The Shattered Kingdom soundtrack. Also it's in pretty bad quality (both in-game and separate mp3s) in copmparison to original CD audio recording. I purchased this mainly for original soundtrack and was quite dissapointed. Otherwise game works well.

This is the first RTS game i Played in 1999. It took me 1 week to understand (it was in German lol) how to control food (lol). I have played it 1000 times and will play it 1000 times more. I am re-buying it to support developers. I wish of we have some great games like this. All new games are just waste of time and require heavier and heavier GPU to pay out nVidia and AMD (AHH).