But what we are now witnessing around the world is the upgraded imperialism, which I call it IMPERIALISM 2.0. But with Imperialism 2.0, Africa is still under new colonialism and will be su Imperialism has been seen as the highest stage of capitalism. African countries were hoping to "develop" soon after colonialism. Under the upgraded imperialism 2.0, the game has changed. The way it is, it's just excellent.Imperialism has been seen as the highest stage of capitalism. Without the election 'feature' (which is really a conceptual bug), a more global scale and more flexibility concerning the scenarios, Imperialism would come very close to perfection in its genre. And all those words of this review still aren't even breaching the surface. Strategic conquest has to be carefully planned and then, battles are carried out on a tactical level which requires different skills again. Economy and military are interwoven, none of them can ever be neglected or viewed seperately from the other. Worst of all: A player can't even control the votes of her own provinces!Īlthough both major points of critisism shouldn't be taken lightly, Imperialism still offers an amazing experience, because the gameplay takes place on so many levels. There's apparantely a huge imbalance here concerning the reasons why a province votes for someone: Pure sympathy is given too much weight, and too little to power. In some scenarios, it happens that one country is suddenly just elected winner - although it's really not even all that powerful, sometimes even when they're practically extinct already. Victory can only be achieved through the mentioned election. The second (and unfortunately bigger) problem is the way to win the game. These palisades didn't last long against the artillery fire
So the smaller countries are really just cannon fodder without any real relevance. At least from the few African parts, goods always have to be transported between ports, but that's it. There is no problem with 'natives' rebelling against the foreign rule and there are no 'exotic' goods being imported from the colonies. Once they're conquered, everything looks and works exactly the same. There is actually a gameplay-related impact: There isn't really any difference between the 'core' countries and the potential colonies. Of course, all materials and products may be traded as well, so the game isn't necessarily lost just because one country has a shortage of something.īack to the irritation about the nature of the smaller countries. Paper, on the other hand, is used to train workers to higher qualification levels. Wood can be used to produce chairs, which are required to recruit new workers, or ships. There's even a small and simple production chain: trees can be turned into wood or paper. At least until oil drilling is discovered (new technologies are discovered and can be 'bought' from time to time), enough workers have to be assigned. Obviously, these have to be present at all and they have to have the appropriate capacity. Then, the raw materials have to be processed in factories. Specialists who have to go through a long training are reponsible for that: Miners build mines, engineers build stations and railroads. Raw materials like coal, iron, wool and wood can be found all over the country, but they have to be mined (or chopped or.) and then transported to the capital. At least the very northern part of Africa is there, but only what you'll see on a map of Europe anyway.Įven further down the scale, military expansion requires a functioning and strong economy. This is where one of the very weird design choices of the game comes up: The small countries which are candidates for colonization or to be conquered aren't located in Africa (which was the actual playing field of the time), but in Europe itself. Alternatively, smaller countries can be taken over the diplomatic way: Building up good relations, they might agree to become colonies. Armies can be trained and sent to other countries in order to take control. Indirectly, the way to go is territorial expansion, of course.
The final step for this is to be elected by the one of the council meetings which occur on a regular basis. powerful) countries trying to achieve total world domination. In several scenarios (defined by their starting date, each representing a slightly different historical situation) or on a random map, the players each take over one of the 'relevant' (i.e. Whether it is direct wars and takeover of land or acquisition of 'colonies' - these were troubled times. Views: 22112 Screenshots Review by Mr Creosote ()Įurope in the 19th century: military superpowers trying to take over the world. Theme: Business / Historical / Multiplayer / Politics / War