First Patrician was released in 1992 and was most complex trading game. I love economic games and this are better ones. It's not some easy tycoon but for me it's godd game was developed this way. If you like economic games Patrician is definetely quite enjoyable. Een graphic side of games, not so important for this kind of games, is made nicely. Terrain & cities are rendered good and detailed. This is advantage of 2D games which I like from always; they getting old much slover than 3D ones. Sounds are good matched to graphic too. Nice main theme and sound effects Patrician 2 has few game modes do discover; small single player missions, campaign and multiplayer up to 8 players. It's another game with 'from zero to hero' schematic. You start as some low-level trader,no one knows you, no one respects you, you have to earn all of it by your actions. Fundamental knowledge about economics and trading mechanism brings you few benefits here. Patrician it's a game which you hae to be prepared to... Fortunatele couple of tutorial missions are avaiable but the don't learn you all. But anyway i personaly don't count it as disadvantage. I like difficult games and especially those satysfying. Patrician is one of those...
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!
