I always fancied sci-fi above fantasy, however, Gothic gave me tens of hours of fun and made me to replay the game multiple times just to enjoy the story in different castes. First, I cursed the XP and fighting system - at level 5 and in the possession of a sword the first wolf tore me apart... what the heck? Then I gave it a second chance, and learned to appreciate the viewpoint of the game. You are not a superhero, or a noble adventurer. You are the 621st no-one in the colony, not skilled in any form of martial arts, so you have to learn, and adapt to survive. If your face is too big, you'll easily get mauled by the first guard, before you even had the chance to comply your mission. Later on, you'll learn to appreciate the power you wield, and in the final stages you truly become a hero among mortals. I aslo like the ethics of the world you are in. As you are mainly among convicted criminals, you have to know, when and how to talk and act with NPCs. Sometimes, downtight cheating and stealing will lead you success - sometimes, it gets you beaten up, and even getting stabbed to the back in a dark alleyway. If I had to mention negative things, there would be two: thief skills are mainly useless, and the fire magic is way superior to the other classes. All in all, you won't be dissapointed with this one.
Just like its predecessors, CTP games are massive and time consuming. But hey, that's why we love them! I really liked the steamlines, which were introduced in CTP 1, and though at first I was furious for taking the Space colonization out of the gameplay, later I found it a good streamlining. The AI was criticized, yet, it has some good moves. I must admit, it uses sometimes blantant cheating, especially in the case of wonders. But even on easy levels it utilizes spies and slavers, defends the cities adequately, attacks with combined force, pillages tile improvements, and pirates trade routes. Though there is the possibility of dplomatic victory, it is pretty shame, that the diplomacy, as a function is quite useless. No matter, what wonders do you have, no matter, what tone you speak, usually the AI understands only the language of force. There's no room for subtle gameplay, go for outnumbering, outgunning, and outteching, and after conquering a few cities (preferably the capital) of them, they will get off from the high horse. Apart of that, it's a must-have game!
Today, the time of fun a video game can provide you with is measured in hours, and the life-span of a game in weeks. We can safely say that TA truly stood the test of time. as we play that even 15 years after its release. Look behind the graphics, and get this game. Skipping it will be one of your direst mistake in your life :) + incredibly great game mechanism + tons of mods + still an active gaming community + one of the best soundtracks ever wrote to an RTS - somewhat dull AI - balance and diversity issues in the original game (but nothing a patch cannot solve)
A decent RTS, with good visuals, and some flaws in game design. Buying Earth 2150 is a better deal. + nice visuals + very different factions + atill some remarks of the old, E2150 feeling - annoying characters - overly and unnecessarily complicated tech-tree - steep learning curve
