This is where the game is at its best – tracking down those key resources and getting them to where they need to be. Unfortunately there will be plenty of times when a faction with a monopoly on a resource won’t offer it for trade or another faction decides it be far easier to take your resources than to trade for them. This leads to military conflict and the game just doesn’t do military conflict well. Wars are waged by devoting far more of your resources than you can spare to building pikemen to throw at the enemy in the hope that you will outnumber them. There’s not much to the combat, it’s not very enjoyable, and yet once you get to the mid-game it begins to dominate play. It’s too bad that conflict in the game wasn’t abstracted somehow because it’s too basic to please strategy gamers and too much of a chore for the sim gamers who’d rather be working on their colonies.

I really like the look of the game. It has a colorful and highly animated cartoon look to that helps add to the enjoyment of the game. The game features 3D graphics so you can zoom in on your colonies or the local wildlife and enjoy the game’s attention to little details. It’s a unique look for city building games and it works well.

You’ll spend most of your time with the game in the main mode. There are 10 scenarios in the game, and while they are enjoyable they are on the short and easy side. The game also supports Internet play, but it’s just not well-suited to it. It simply takes some time to get things up and running to the point where you are ready to begin interacting with the other players.

Overall the game can be enjoyable, but it won’t appeal to all strategy and sim gamers. If you’re a merchant at heart and have the patience to deal with the game’s annoying military aspect, then 1701 AD is certainly worth a look.

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 80%. The game’s battles muck up what otherwise would be an enjoyable and lighthearted economic and trading sim.

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