Yes, it does, but it also confirms what I suspected (and hinted at here): the computer players are complete crap, cheat at the beginning and then later just stop doing anything - that's the worst type of all.

I also went and downloaded the demo, and that game is alot like an advanced version of conquest of the new world (if only I could get my copy of that working) anywya I'm with you though Mr. C i'll take settlers over this anyday and in relation to your problem NetDanzr's strat explains it on the very first point

Thanks, will have a look at it before I run it next time.

And by the way, if you want some more in-depth tips, I've uploaded my old strategy page here:
http://21ct.goodolddays.net/1602.html

Since I absolutely hate war stuff in such games, I doubt I'll play that far

My regulating growth, I meant not allowing the people to build more advanced houses. But wait till you have several colonies, and producing basically everything, and one of the other fractions decides to invade you. In such a case, Settlers II is a breeze .

I agree with most of the analysis, but not with some parts of the conclusion. I don't have the slightest problem with 'smaller' zoom levels (1024x768).As I said before, I consider Anno 1602 way too easy, way too unchallenging.

And on the 'regulated growth', I never saw people leaving, decreasing their technology state (you know what I mean....) or anything - so I leaving the demands unfulfilled doesn't hurt! I might be wrong there because I haven't played the game that much. So far, I can't see that 'unique and new concept' in this game though.

http://www.epinions.com/game-review-72A6-2AABBFD9-39982D44-prod5

Doesn't apply to me... I'd love to be able to play a strategy game like Anno 1602 but I just can't, because I'm a total control freak in this genre and after about five minutes of playing I get the feeling I'm already in way over my head...

All I'm saying is that I don't think any of these games are "for the inexperienced user"... I tried Anno 1602 once, gave up about fifteen minutes later after losing two houses in a fire if I remember correctly and then never played it again...

All these games do is make me feel either neurotic or dumb...

I can easily agree with most of that. Sure, the graphics are ok, the buildings look good - but it's all a bit too 'cold' for my taste. If it wasn't at least a bit fun, I wouldn't have played it for longer than half an hour and then this thread wouldn't exist The sound is awful by the way: extremely boring music and from time to time, a really bad voice suddenly comes up telling you completely uninportant stuff like "your enemy has built a ship" - in a way which makes you jump from the chair because of the sudden shock! The reason why I consider dropping the game is that it's just too similar to Settler, only inferior (in my opinion). I can't think of one single component which the Settlers doesn't offer or which is worse there. So Anno 1602 is completely obsolete to me.

Edited by Mr Creosote at 18:09 on October, 12th 2002

I don't know, it's probably just me but I like the graphics of 1602 better then those of settlers... Not really for the people or animations but just because of the buildings... You are right however about the simplicity of the economical system. I however don't think this is a bad thing since this way, you keep the game simple and entertaining even for the most inexperienced user... Of course, the other side of the coin is that more experienced players will find it dull and uninteresting so an ideal situation would be a game which is fully customisable (but since I vagualy remember going into this in another thread, I won't go into it here)... So my final judgement over 1602 is that it's an intertaining game with more then adequate graphics (can't judge sound because of lack of speakers on my current comp ) and a fairly intuitive, straightforward interface. The game will keep you interested for a while but don't expect too much in terms of depth and strategic thinking...

Absolutely. In most of these 'global strategy' games, the computer players have an army ready before you have even built up your basic support system on higher difficulty levels! Extremely annoying, especially since I like playing defensively better - but I'm forced to waste my time on building up military instead.

On the comparison to Settlers again, I found Anno 1602 pretty uninteresting so far. The economy system is mostly one-dimensional and linear (produce this, produce that, production chains are almost always just one level 'deep', hardly any goods can be used for different things,.....). In addition, it's lacking the cute touch of the Settlers.

That's one thing that bugs me too a lot in most games... When the pc obviously is cheatng in his own advantage... It really takes the fun out of all but the best balanced games...

Ha! My 'competitors' don't grow anything apart from food, still their cities always grow larger (and quicker) than mine That is one thing I especially dislike about the game: the AI is cheating so obviously.

You can always import it from your competitors...

As I said before: I have the same problem with tobacco, so no cigars either! I don't know if they really need alcohol, I just saw they all demand for it - no matter in which stage the people are.

I dunno, I like Anno 1602 a lot better than settlers 2 (or any other for that matter)... And I believe you don't need the alcohol to progress, if you give them sigars and spices isn't that enough?

Grmbl.... I can as well start over again - none of my three islands supports sugar or wine Maybe I'll just stick to Settlers 2, that seems to be better anyway.

I've only played the demo so this could be changed in the latter versions but on my Island it says: Tobacco: 100% - Vines: 100% - Sugar Cane: 50%... And if I try to grow spice, it immediatly goes fallow so it isn't supported I guess... Better get yourself another Island for the booze

Yes, I saw this row. I've never seen an island which specifically says it supports wine or sugar (it's always giving values for spice, cacao and one other thing I don't remember at the moment), so I assumed the ones which aren't mentioned are supported per se..... could this be?