The Nations Gold Edition

When it comes to 'control an empire' sims German gaming industry was always productive. The Nations is sequel to the Joowood's Alien Nations and in some countries known more as Alien Nations 2. Because of nice cartoon-design of game you can play it for months and game don't loose it's initial charm. Games with super-duper 3D graphic won't be so beautiful after few years and ageing of drawn graphic won't be so fast. The Nations is simillar to any of older kingodm build sims; Seven Kingdoms, Settlers, Majesty. Background story is little thin lika any of those games. In parallel fantasy universe three ships carried each nation seed of life and all landed on same planet. You assume role of a superrior being to lead Amazons, Pimmons or Sajikis to better feauture, uniting tribes that each nation is broken into. The player takes control over one of the tribes, trying to satisfy it's members and if you succed tribe will join you. Different tribes deffine their quality of life by different needs so manageing different tribes of same nations it satysfying and playing isn't borring. Each nations has different strategy and AI. Amazons are focues more on combat, blueskin Pimmons are peace lovers and are harder to play with, Sajikis are insect-like creatures and playing them is something between previous ones. Game possesses few single player modes; campaign, tutorial and skirmish under predefined conditions and multiplayer. Games is harder to play than it's predecessor because it's more like serious management simulation. You start the game only with 'founder' which builds town hall i predefined place, then you receive few workers and limited resource supply. To have more workers you have to build homes etc. More than 20 kinds of buldings are avaiable. You have to pay great attention to all things that influence on mood of your tribe's citizens as it reflects income from taxes and overall production. Your people sometime will have special requirements like to drink (so you must build tavern) or place to entertain (like circus). Few words about combat. You of course can attack neighbour but game is focused more on peacefull solutions so whole bunch if diplomatic options is avaiable to use instead waging war. Main key to increase relations with others is trading. Trade market is used to control it, you can use it to demand and/or offer any goods. Graphically as I wrote earlier, games is quite strong it provide a large amount of eye candy, everything is very nicely rendered. The sound is great also. This is a fine product. If you have never played before in this type of sims I think it's nice intruduction to the genre. Good way to spend much time and little money. Howgh!

Let's get the 'The Nations' vs. 'Settlers' comparison out of the way first. Sure, 'The Nations' does pay homage to the original 'Settlers' game, but unlike it's distant cousin 'The Nations' injects some much needed personality. Nations citizens are truly unique and there's a distinct feeling of knowing your towns folk. Critically, this provided me with a real connection to the game where I almost cared about each persons personal development (unlike Settlers 3 where town folk seemed like any other resource). If memory serves me correctly the only distinction I could make from Settlers 2 to 3 is the introduction of Gods? Nations has some complex interdependencies and players new to this genre need to prepare for a steep learning curve. Initial campaigns (not that I've managed to play all of them so far) immediately get you accustomed to the development cycle i.e. gather resources, build and research. Later on you'll get to trade, network and even fight, but the real addiction comes from micro managing your community (that was the real hook for me). Graphically I love the look. Sure it's old, but the artwork used is affective and looks different to any other Settlers genre game I've played. There's no issues camera zooming, you can zoom out far enough to observe your community and similarly zoom in and track a specific citizen. The music is functional if not a little mundane, but then again this isn't a fast moving action packed FPS shooter, so maybe that's just as well. To finish off, it's worth mentioning that there are three races, each with their own campaigns, which would indicate there's plenty of game time to be had here (not forgetting multiplayer modes too, though I'd guess you would need to organise any such on-line event with tools such as Hamachi and a reliable friend). To summarise, this is a deep and rewarding game. You will need to put some personal effort in to start, but the game pays dividends later on. What are you waiting for? Go load your GOG basket now :)

Doesn't work, will can click to start game but hangs on black screen playing music. Sometimes will load only the ocean background. Please fix I love this game so much

The Nations is not a spectacular game. However, if you've been playing a lot of classical RTS games (like Age of Empires, Starcraft, and Empire Earth) the change in style will be a refreshing one. The Nations is not a standard real time strategy game. That said it takes a bit of getting used to. It is a fun game and a great slow paced way to relax. The emphasis is not on combat like many strategy games. In fact, managing your town is almost reminiscent of Black and White. Adding to its relaxing effect is its great humor. It also has three campaigns which means its long enough to be well worth your money.