Reviewed: December 8, 2006
Reviewed by: Jeff Gedgaud

Publisher
Aspyr

Developer
Related Designs

Released: November 6, 2006
Genre: Simulation
Players: 1-4
ESRB: Everyone

8
8
6
9
7.8

System Requirements

I kind of get tired of the same old design and theme of city building simulations but many have their good points. 1701 A.D. has very good gameplay and everything works very well together. I just can’t get the city to look like it is designed at all and yet it works. There are a few things that could work a little easier but overall they did very well taking the idea and theme of the time period and packaged a well-rounded city building simulation.

Of course in any society large enough to require a gathering place, i.e. a tavern, you need to have alcohol so one of the first things you need when your town gets a decent size is to start in on alcohol production or importing. Of course this starts after more important things like food and religion are accomplished. The nice thing with 1701 is you can import a lot of items that you cannot produce but the trading is a little tricky to figure out but you get the hang of it quickly.

You do get some help from the tutorials but it would be nice to have a fully automated trading in one of these city builders. I find that trading is one of the most difficult parts of the city building simulations. You will get a ship from your Queen pretty early on in your gaming and you get to explore the rest of your world that starts enshrouded in fog. You can buy your way out of the fog by paying the free trader for the information of what is under those clouds to see what the rest of your world looks like. The main game screen has your land areas and some interface menus on it. There is a mini map to help you move quickly across the world or choose the various menus from.

During gameplay you will have various types of building and developments available according to population and availability of land and resources. For instance hops can only be grown on certain soil so some islands you land on or start on cannot grow them. If you want to produce beer you would need to import hops. It is just easier to import the beer or try your hand at another type of alcohol. Each island will have its own type of natural resources like jungle or deciduous trees so the island you find yourself on will support different kinds of resources.

The more population you have the more resources like different building types become available and the more things you will also need to supply your people with to keep them happy. At certain levels of population alcohol, education, religion and several other things will be required for your people’s happiness to be met. The land areas are small islands so you are forced to import more items and start populating other islands the further into the open ended game you get.

There are also side missions that pop up at random times like rescuing stranded people who got shipwrecked. Your ship can be attacked by pirates or scuttled in storms so venturing on the high seas is not without its risk. You can escort other ships for security so goods are safely transported. You will also have the opportunity to build more ships when you build a shipyard and create your own fleet. You also have to protect you town so training and equipping troops and creating fortifications, cannon towers and walls will come into play if you want to protect your investment.

The game has diplomatic relations where you trade and bargain with the other leaders of adjoining islands as well as espionage and other fun things. The lodge is a place that draws the spy as well as a meeting place for people. The lodge is also where your secret diplomacy occurs like plotting and planning against other leaders. 1701 A.D. comes complete with natural disasters like earthquakes, fire and plague so when you get pretty populated you need to worry about these parts of civilization. You can also tax the people to earn money as well as the trading to help pay for all the stuff you need.

There are various preset missions where you have to get out of trouble like you’ve been shipwrecked and you have a certain amount of time to get off the island before the volcano erupts. The ten single player missions include a good variety of goals and difficulties to get yourself out of or work toward so the game will not get boring quickly if you enjoy city building Sims. There is also the open-ended game where you start with some capitol and a warehouse and you build your island to suit you.

The multiplayer portion of 1701 A.D. allows you to play over a local area network, over the Internet on a specific IP address or on the Gamespy network against up to three other players playing against each other or in a coop mode. There is a variety of maps and end goals to play on as well as the choice to play with one or two computer controlled opponents to make up to four players. The gameplay is pretty much the same but you have added more realistic opponents than the computer and all the various choices that a human player will bring to the game that is different.

The little animations like whales breeching and splashing in the oceans or the fights between ships look very good. The animations occur pretty frequently so you have plenty to view while you’re whiling away the time waiting for goods to be produced or a ship to make port. I really liked the realistic and textures that did not look like they had just used a small block of texture over and over again. It was varied enough to give the entire playing area a real feeling and look to it.

The voice acting for the general messages and the tutorial was very well done as well as the actors portraying the other landowners and the queen. The music in the background during gameplay changes often from flutes to a lyre or other musical instruments with a general theme that sounds appropriate to the time period.

During gameplay on the main screen you hear various sounds you would expect to hear like cows mooing, hammering of a smith and birds chirping in the woods. They all sounded good along with the general background music to make a very peaceful and pleasant accompaniment to the gameplay. When you venture to the ocean or while clicked on your ship you hear bells and creaking of that ship and the voice of the ships captain is very appropriately gruff and commanding.

Learning how everything works will not take long but the various aspects of trading and diplomacy will take a little work to get the hang of. The game does not have too much micromanagement like many other city building simulations I have played so there is not a concentration in one area that gets tedious. All the areas of the game have been given appropriate attention so one part does not have too much work done while others feel incomplete.

I found that the general lack of help in the area of getting specific information about what you need to build to increase your town’s happiness was more of a lack of the need for it and not an oversight by the developer. One problem I found with many city builders was you needed too many of one building and not enough room for all your city but with 1701 there was little problem in this area.

One area of gameplay that I really like is the playground scenario, no rules only building. You start on a large island with all options open as far as buildings and resources. You build your city, as you want with no worries about pirates attacking or having to pay tribute to the queen. You build and create only with no other problem; consequences or money worries during gameplay.

The combat and diplomacy features work well and are involved enough to be interesting but does not dominate over other areas of the game. Overall 1701 A.D. is a very good city building simulation game and very fun to play.