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A really cool idea for a game, just a few glitches.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: December 28, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This game is really built on a neat idea, but there are just some things that are really wrong with it. First of all, the tutorial doesn't go over everything needed to survive in the game. The tutorial does not explain how building a marketplace expands territory, or how you can further expand your kingdom with a second warehouse. Second of all, the rivaling nations progress WAY too quickly than is possible for you, the human player. These nations pick the best islands to colonize without taking any time to see if they really are the best. They also have construction layouts less than a second after colonizing. This makes it harder to keep up with international trade. Finally, this game has too many things to keep up with. I sometimes feel like it was a mistake to let my colony develop, as I later have innumerable tasks to keep up with, like building a military, expanding teritory, mining, farming, as well as pleasing my citizens. Perhaps a sequel or patch could really help me out with this game.

SimCity with Supply Lines!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: February 06, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Has anyone else ever noticed that Germans seem obsessed with supply lines? This series, "Settlers", "Stronghold", etc. (I think "Stronghold" is British, but there seems to be a strong influence from German games.) You plant the wheat to take to the mill to grind into flour to send to the baker to bake the bread.... So it goes. One link in the chain goes out and, suddenly, you're breadless. (Well, it's not really sudden, but it seems that way.)

So, is it fun? Well, as they say, if this is the sort of game you like, you'll find you like this sort of game. It's not really a combat-heavy game. In fact, there is a points in one of the tutorials where you have to run from pirates--you have no way to defend. That results in some annoying micromanagement.

I tend to find these games sort of hypnotic. Once you get your supply-lines set up, there's not that much to do but watch your ships go back and forth and your workers tend the fields or what-have-you. That, and figure out where your supply-lines are failing. This game requires a bit more management than "Settlers", which you can read a book whilst playing, but I was never truly inspired to venture much into more combat-based scenarios. It's more "model train" than "combat simulation" in my experience.

There are a lot of good things to say about this game. Heck, look around and you'll see a lot of enthusiastic reviews. Whether or not you personally should buy it depends on a number of things: If you've played similar games (like "Settlers") and liked them, you'll probably like this, too. It has a less intimate and cute scale compared to "Settlers". If you're a die-hard combat fiend, you probably will want to give this a miss.

But uf you haven't played similar games and you don't require a lot of battles, there's really no way to tell whether or not you're going to like this one without trying it. (Unless you try "Settlers" or the sequel, "1503 AD", of course.) And this is as good a game as any to start with. You might find you really love it. You might, also, find yourself playing and waiting, waiting, waiting for the game to begin.

Hours of Fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: February 19, 2003
Author: Amazon User

1602 has been, for me, quite alot of relaxing fun. I sometime enjoy just setting up an easy going game that requires a few tweaks a watching what developes. There are senarios that will tax your strategic prowess, but not to the extent of some of the newer games. If you want 3D action go somewhere else, this has good graphics, but is on par with the Civ3 graphics or Railroad Tycoon II. you are able to zoom in and whatch most of the action, but small controls on most of the proceedings. This is not a shootem up. The reason for the five stars is, no two games are exactly alike, hence no two outcomes are alike. This hit the spot for me. Most games, beginning to end on some of the bigger senarios, took several hours. Hope this helps and enjoy your game.

Blossoming Talent

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: December 01, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Sunflower games based in Germany is coming out with "Anno 1503" or "1503 AD" sometime in February. If there were no other such "god games" yet created, 1602 AD would have swept the US as it already did Europe. I think this game appeals to people with more mature tastes and an eye for illustrative richness. It's an easy game to learn and play with a decently addictive engine. "1503 AD" will have a completely different engine based on the now older "1602 AD" and will try to out do its original success.

A must have game for RTS enthusiests.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: February 13, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Wow, I can't beleive I didn't get this game sooner. It is definatly a must have. It plays like Sim-City on steroids. Game play is a bit long and involved, however it does keep you interested. The only negetive thing I have to say about this game, is that the opponent AI is too smart. I have a hard time trying to keep up with the computers advancements. I have noticed that each time I play, I don't seem to be as far behind. So, eventualy, I should be able to get ahead of the computer.

I highly recommend this game to anyone who enjoys Sim-City, The Civilazation series, or Age of Empires.

This game would be a LOT better if it had good documentation

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: August 12, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Did I play the same game the other reviewers did? Seriously?

Maybe it's just the version I got, but this game is far too flawed to enjoy on any kind of consistent basis. Commands are not detailed in the manual or on the tutorial (for example, how to QUIT). There is no ingame help system, either. There is no explanation for important concepts like question marks over buildings in the tutorial.. the manual just says to look at them, decide what to do, and handle it. Overall, the tutorial was almost useless as a way of learning the game. Each segment of it appeared to last about 2 minutes and provide about 10 text lines of material, most of it encouragement. The manual, incidentally, can only be retrieved from the CD using Explore -- the CD auto-runs any other way you try to access it. It sure has a lot of pretty pictures, but it doesn't tell you how to quit either, or how to get tools, the shortage of which I tended to knock up against on a regular basis.

Graphics are blocky, but survivable. There is no explanation of what stars mean in the initial game setup -- I thought it was a rating system, but turns out it's probably a difficulty level. I still have no idea why I couldn't build a warehouse on the scenario I tried -- I had enough stuff, but it just didn't want to do it.

I suppose if I were more intuitive or more patient I could probably figure it out, but as it is, it's just too frustrating to play.

1602 A.D. is very good, well, most the time...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: January 21, 2002
Author: Amazon User

1602 A.D., or Anno 1602, can be an extremely good game to play. Like every game though, it does have its flaws.
Basically, you get your basic ship at the start of the game. You then have to find an island of your choice and settle upon it. Throughout the game, there are many changes, such as, the upgrade of your houses, and constantly are given new buildings to construct.
But though all of this time, your buildings also have running costs, and your people may not pay the amount of tax you want them to, so you see your money decreasing very fast. Using free traders and trading with your opponents can increase your budget for you to enjoy playing.
Overall, a good game.
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Playing experiences

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: April 04, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I've played this game a lot when i was in Europe and I had a lot of fun with it - the Random game gets boring quite fast but that's why Anno 1602 has its campaigns! All in all you can have hours and hours of great fun with this game - and when u find out the cheats even a few more *g*!

Versatile game with art-quality graphics

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: June 27, 2001
Author: Amazon User

We've enjoyed playing this game individually or on our home network of 3 computers. When networked, we can help each other out by paying "tribute" or selling a ship full of supplies for $0 and selling it back again. The graphics are different from many games in that they have the appearance of a textured oil painting. For me, this adds to the beauty of the game. The game is versitile in allowing either a peaceful settlement or conquest and offers the option of designing detailed scenarios. The variables seem endless and my teenage sons and I haven't gotten bored yet!

sircharles

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 24, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I own this game and have played many other PC games. 1602 A.D. is a hard game to learn because the manual (in my opinion) is not very clear. It took many hours of experimenting to grasp the controls and functions of the game. I really do enjoy playing 1602 A.D. but I never could get pass the Pirate's attacks. Every time a pirate ship would fire its connons, my computer would shut down and go to my main menu. I believe this was caused by my computer operating on Windows XP. I Highly recomend this game to anyone that likes to build cities, economies, and empires. I am looking forward to the release of 1503 A.D.

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