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Merchant Prince II

Score: 75%
ESRB: Everyone
Publisher: Talonsoft
Developer: Holistic Design
Media: CD/1
Players: 1 - 4
Genre: Turn-Based Strategy

Graphics & Sound:

Er. There's no way to put this politely, so I'll just get to the point: Merchant Prince II is ugly. Real ugly. The map is muddled and way too 'large'--you can't see enough on the screen to properly plot your movement. The interface is confusing, using pictures instead of helpfully named buttons, making it all the more confusing. The font is . . . well, I'm not sure what it is, but pretty it ain't. While these sorts of graphics may have flown back when the game was originally released as Machiavelli The Prince, they certainly don't cut it now. The minimap may indeed go down in history as the most useless implementation of a minimap. The fact that the map itself barely scrolls does nothing to help the situation.

Despite the awful graphics, Merchant Prince II has some solid music. It's haunting, lyrical, and completely in step with the Renaissance theme of the game. I found myself genuinely listening to the music, instead of just ignoring its existence, which is a rarity for tunage in video games. As for sound effects, well, you've got dings and bings, and that's just about it. Like the graphics, the sound effects are weak and outdated.


Gameplay:

Fortunately for Merchant Prince II, the gameplay isn't outdated, despite the fact that it's years old--it's basically a Windowsization of Machiavelli The Prince, with a few additions but the same core engine. I never played that game, though, so I came to Merchant Prince II without having known what came before. And what I found was an engrossing trade simulation with enough intrigue to keep it interesting, albeit with some interface flaws that really keep the game from shining.

First and foremost, Merchant Prince II is a trade simulator. You and up to three other opponents vie to trade with other cities during the Renaissance, starting from your home of Venice. By buying low and selling high, you can build a trade empire that overshadows the rest. Every city in the game has its own supplies and demands, which fluctuate as the game progresses, and keeping track of what's hot where is necessary for victory.

While you're tinkering with the trade engine, however, there's a lot more going on. You can (and generally must) also get involved in politics, doing such things as bribing Senators to your side and perhaps even becoming the Doge, the head of Venice. You can assassinate and slander your opponents, or even burn down their villas. And then there's the religious side of the game, which lets you purchase cardinals and perhaps even control the Pope. You can then excommunicate cities (which doesn't make much sense, at least the way it's implemented in the game, but whatever), raise the rate for indulgences, and so on. There are also events that occur in the game--the Plague hits, storms trash your boats, pirates try to steal your goods, and brigands assault your overland trade routes.

All of this combines for a very complex turn-based game. There's a lot to see and do in each turn, from exploring the world and finding places to trade to keeping yourself in power in the govenrment. Some cities won't trade with you, and you may have to take them by force with mercenaries. You may also become an officer of Venice, and have a stipend that you must use for a particular goal--expanding the road system, increasing the Fleet, and so on.

If this sounds fun, well, it is. There's a lot to see and do in Merchant Prince II, and the fact that the game is subtly different every time you play keeps it interesting. You can also do random scenarios, which build entirely new worlds for you to play on, and the game comes with a number of scenarios that you can attempt, from trading in the Orient to Marco Polo's overland routes.

The problems crop up when you really delve into the game, however. The interface gives you nowhere near enough information, and controlling your units is absolutely frustrating, especially since you have to constantly scroll the map to see what's going on. The aforementioned almost-useless minimap does nothing to help this. It's also hard to get the information that you need--setting up complex trade routes is much harder than it should be, and frustrating. The interface itself has a lot of issues as well, not letting you back out properly and so on.

The game also supports multiplayer games, whether you prefer hot-seat, play-by-eMail, or play over a network. The amount of time spent taking your turns may turn off most people, but Merchant Prince II supports a simultaneous-move mode that may keep people playing it. Unfortunately, multiplayer just doesn't quite work for a game with this amount of complexity, unless done through eMail.


Difficulty:

You can set the AI to varying difficulty levels, ranging from Novice to Expert. Even on the higher levels, though, the game never really seems to shine when it comes to beating you. Careful management will win every time, despite the best machinations of the computer. It's a shame, too--a really challenging AI in this sort of game makes it a lot more exciting to play by yourself. Fortunately, human opponents are much craftier than their digital counterparts, so a good PBEM game will probably engross you a lot more. Now you just have to find people with the game . . .

Game Mechanics:

The interface, as I said earlier, is needlessly confusing and complex. The main menu's buttons are all pictures, some of which are in no way indicative of what they do--I mean, doesn't a wineglass mean End Turn to you? There are a number of bugs in the interface as well, even after you update the game--accidentally click 'Start New Game' and you're going to lose your place in the game, whether you cancel it or not. The game also had issues starting once or twice when I played, although thankfully a reboot cleared that up each time. The core trading/fighting/machination engine is solid enough, but the skin around it is woefully inadequate. I've never been one to care about graphics, but the interface in Merchant Prince II is not just ugly--it actually hinders gameplay.

Hardcore fans of complex strategy games that don't mind dealing with confusing interfaces would do well to check out Merchant Prince II, assuming they don't already have a copy of either of the earlier games. If you already own Machiavelli the Prince, chances are good that the Windowsization isn't enough to make you spend the money for another full-priced game. Those people who are graphics-obsessed should also stay far away from Merchant Prince II. However, if you don't mind a deep simulation with some annoying flaws, you may find a lot to like with this game--it's a little too niche for its own good, but when Merchant Prince II shines, it shines bright.


-Sunfall to-Ennien, GameVortex Communications
AKA Phil Bordelon

Minimum System Requirements:



Win9x/Me, P166, 32MB RAM, 4x CD-ROM, 300MB HD Space, 16-bit video card, sound card, mouse
 

Test System:



Athlon 1.1GHz running Win98 SE, 512MB RAM, GeForce 2 GTS w/ 32MB RAM, SoundBlaster Live!, 8x DVD-ROM

Windows MechCommander 2 Windows MonkeyBrains

 
Game Vortex :: PSIllustrated