Knights and Merchants

I had fond memories of Knights and Merchants. I had it when it premiered and spent countless hours mastering it, although I remember barely beating half of the game. I remembered how demanding yet satisfying it was back then. So I decided to give it a shot. And the backfire hurt. The game is difficut, this didn't change, but the satisfaction did. You see, a big part of this game difficulty is how unforgiving it is. You often can't just reload the last battle you lost, you need to go way back, to remodel your whole strategy. Now, that itself is not a great sin, some might say it's a virtue, but the problem is that the game is also terribly time consuming and not really dynamic. It takes a grinding forever to set up your base the way you think you need to, only to find out that you are dramatically underprepared for the opponent's assault. The thing is, gaming has changed and I changed with it. Back in the day, this grind-punishment cycle was just part of the experience. You took on a hellish game like this, spent countless hours on it, tinkering with your strategy, tweaking it this way and that, untill you got something working and you moved on to the next mission. Back then it just felt like a challenge. Today, gaming is way easier and dynamic, which makes Knight and Merchants feel like a chore by comparison. And I don't want that in a game today. I have enough chores in my life, thank you very much. That is not to say that the game is bad. It's not. If you like strategy, if you like a challenge, have a lot of time on your hands and you don't mind the slow progress, you might want to give it a shot. Beware however, if you don't know what old games were like, you might be surprised how modern gaming has spoiled you and made it impossible for you to appreciate this game the way it deserves.

Such a great, detail-focused game. It's like a hyper-focused version of Anno.

I used to play it as a kid and I'm so happy to be able to play this agian. I guess my Christmas break is going to be about playing this :D quite addictive but overall a really good game.

Classic old game, Settlers style. Super low and chilling... I recommend

Great game. The economics is wonderfully designed. Army management is a bit challenge though. Game freezes sometimes, haven't yet figured out why.