Smooth as butter, hard as iron... A smooth game, with excellent gameplay and controller. Lack of controller or gamepad is not that bad when the customization is this good. Graphics are okish, for a 20 year old game... Recommended...
But first! The manual sucks. It doesnt really describe hub-trading, the intricate mechanisms of buying and selling in your ware-house. It explains nothing. The most players fall back on piracy, and that is not what this game is about. It has a deep deep, Hanseatic Simulator it is backbone. Well researched and graphically smithened to perfection. The graphics are beatifully excecuted and doesnt feel dated or odd. Its just fit the genre. Well, you could say a bit outdated but compared to Patrican 4 it is 400% better in every way. Patrician 3 has something extra for every player. If you want to understand it i suggest you start at the highest setting and starting from there. Investing in a warehouse-manager and a 1-2 way Hub-system is the way to go with this one. You cant just endlessly rooming from port to port. use Cogs,Crayers and Hulks. Producing Salt, and Timber the two most foremost valuable goods to start with, (although) Salt is valued as number 8 of 19 i would say it is number 4. Irongoods, Ore , Timber and Salt is a good way to begin. Without Salt no fish, no fishoil, no meat, so Salt is very valuable for the production, not so much for the population (8). Patrician 2 is also very good, but is very unforgiving and cumbersome because you cant save your traderoutes and you have no warehouse-manager. My recommendation is of highest order. If you want to stop looking at the outdated and mundane graphics, overcome the struggle of bying and selling goods at the right prices, you can earn your first millions in the first 2-3 years. Start stockpiling grains, salt,hemp and you are ready for the Alderman in no time,.. God Speed...play Patrician 3 so much better than 90% on the GOG.com. Sometimes is wish that every game has to offer. You still can play if after 20 hours. And that says a lot.
The perfect paus-game. Enjoy for 5-50 minutes. You set the time-span for delivery. Not so much a game as a lifestyle. I wish that all games had this complexity yet easability and learning. Its not brutishly hard but yet demands all your attention. Well worth investing. And that says a lot by comparing it to 25 other games on GOG.com.
Fun but not great. I can see what the producers thought. An easier version of Patrician 3. And it works sort of. Not really great, fun but a halfworthy thought. The trade-system is so,so. The auto-trade is great. The map is so so (prefer the Patrician 3 version) The graphic is cool and cleverly designed (but a real resource-hog). It needs at least a huge graphic cards and not for a older laptop so beware! If you have an older laptop (2011) this games is not for you. So is Patrician 3 a better game. Yes it is, but i give credit to Patrician 4. IF the producers given extra time and not nodded to the younger players this would be great. Further optimized the graphic would have been great.
Worth bying for the Mods. GZMod Brutal Doom Create a map called Doom. Copy Gz-Mod files and Doom.Wad into Doom-map. Copy Brutal Doom inte Doom-map. Create Doom.bat file (read the manual). Create a shortcut on the desktop! You can now play both GZMod and Brutal Doom. With this combination its a serious competition, 30 years later, still surpassing 80-90% of todays shooter. Excellent Gog. Excellent, blood,gore, galore. Just like the creators thought of it. Go buy one copy today! You dont need DosBox. Copy the Doom.Wad inte your GZ-mod-folder (together with Brutal Doom. Create the batch-file (its very,very easy). Basically its open a notepad file and creating a .exe and the Brutal-Doom file. Its not hard. (it maybe sounding) But dont screw with DosBox its totally unworthy of Doom... Doom=meeh...bland, but ok...a 3 of 5. GZDoom=fine, 4 of 5. GzDoom+Brutal Doom=this is what i talking about. 5 of 5.
An old mule in a desert. A workhorse. You just cant wait to play with it and use. Dont abuse it. Treat it well, kindly. And it will come back to you year after year. A solid game that gave way for countless copies...with various sucess.
Ahh, if only Paradox had done it right. Included all the patches and mods in one. Just like Reign Of Ancients (ROA). ROA is the only mod thats worth spending time on. IN my humble opinion, its their best mod. And if im not correct the modder got hired at Paradox shortly after the mods release. Thats say something. Although its still some tweaking at some groundlevel, its just perfect. PERFECT. As an historical buff, its emulates roughly 80-90% of the actual beast that Rome was. Know your limits, and not necessary aggresive but if you start the first scenario (which is the most fun). You start yourself sandwiched between the Etruscan/Greco-Roman and the Punic alliance. Which is a hard battle. Very hard. You should settle for hard in the settings. Its a very rewarding, because the AI is not limited to landbattle, and would occasionally also settled for sea. The Punic wars and the invasion of the Pyrrhic Generals are a fun experience. But only with Reign Of Ancients, and only with Europa Universalis Rome. Imperator Rome is a vague resemblance and a cash-grab. With Reign Of Ancients you dont have to pay all the unecessary money to get all the goodies. They are built in. All lands are playable, all factions, all tribes. Note: This is only for the Mod, Reign Of Ancients (2.0+) in the Paradox Forum MOD-area. Withouth the MOD i would give a very fainthearted ok, with a mild gesture. Reign Of Ancients give the game the necessary needs it needs. Nevermind the bleak graphics, sometimes the game, and the strategic needs is all you need. If i had one wish i wish that Paradox converted this Reign Of Ancients MOD and applied to all of the Imperator Rome line. In that way it could in my opinion would be worth playing.
Great game when fully set in. You can buy it here at gog.com or buy it cheap of Amazon. Nevertheless the key is Magic DosBox or just DosBox. The mouse can be finicy to dial in but when adjusted (dont forget to middleclick and use the wheel). -Voila! But the mechanics are wonderfully crafted and a 20 year dated eloge should be granted to the Microprose-game. Its their masterpiece the piece tha resistance in my meaning. Not to long to get in to but a couple of weeks to master. Not for the faint of hearted, but names.txt can be edited to mod it into a slightly less worrying matter. You think the slaves and the peasants are to costly? Edit their values in names.txt for a value more historically accurate. Surpassing many if not all strategy-games. Not because its graphics but because its game-mechanics and focusing on... Colonization...
