Game Review 1 (written by Jcombesk) Added on: 01/21/2007
Imperialism is truly unique among “conquer the world” strategy games. It is by far the best economic and diplomatic strategy interface I have encountered, and after a steep learning curve, it rewards the patient player with a wonderful and incredibly in-depth strategic experience.
The objective of the game is, as the name implies, to conquer the world. But before you can conquer anything, you must spend considerable time developing resource supply chains, training workers, establishing trade relationships, constructing factories, etc. Unlike other “conquer the world” games, Imperialism emphasizes industrial, economic, and diplomatic strategy. Imperialism is truly unique among “conquer the world” strategy games. It is by far the best economic and diplomatic strategy interface I have encountered, and after a steep learning curve, it rewards the patient player with a wonderful and incredibly in-depth strategic experience.
The objective of the game is, as the name implies, to conquer the world. But before you can conquer anything, you must spend considerable time developing resource supply chains, training workers, establishing trade relationships, constructing factories, etc. Unlike other “conquer the world” games, Imperialism emphasizes industrial, economic, and diplomatic strategy. By comparison, the military interface is relatively weak.
Early in the game, military strength is only important to the extent that it deters other major nations from invading you. Also military strength provides an alternative when diplomacy and trade fail to have the desired effect. Towards the end of the game, you invariably will invade and conquer your neighbors, but any military campaign will only succeed to the extent that your industrial strength is able to provide the necessary military resources.
Therefore, military is secondary to industrial and economic strategy. These aspects of the game are incredibly well developed and require extensive thought. Each game starts at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. As in real life, new technologies increasingly facilitate the acquisition and transportation of diverse resources. If you cannot buy a given resource by trading with other powers (in a detailed supply/demand economy) you must train skilled workers, develop the resources, and build a transportation network to bring it to your centralized factories. Here you must ensure that you have enough workers to process the raw materials into refined goods (e.g. once you build a lumber mill, workers can take raw timber and make lumber). Then, the player must convert these refined goods into industrial goods such as furniture, or to expand factories and transportation networks. With a limited number of resources at your disposal to begin the game, the decisions you make are challenging, and each has long-lasting implications on the continuation of the game.
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Game Review 2 (written by Perrin5454) Added on: 10/20/2006
I remember buying Imperialism when I was in the 8th grade. I continued to play Imperialism until I bought a new computer when I went away to college, and the new operating system on my new computer would not support Imperialism. Simply put, Imperialism is a fantastic game. I love the combination of economics and militarism, diplomacy and influence. The graphics are nothing to write home about, but if you are a fan of strategy and the “take over the world” subset of that genre, then this is the game for you. It’s all here, control of production, education of your workforce, building a navy, upgrading technology and units, expanding industrial capacity, acquiring colonies and securing markets for your finished goods. All in all, Imperialism is a fun, fairly accurate, yet not overwhelming simulation of the imperialist period of world history following the Napoleonic wars up until the First World War.
The learning curve for this game is about a medium level. The most important part of the game is the early going. You start the game with so few resources, especially money and finished goods, that it is necessary to be very strict about what you spend those resources on. You will only be able to accomplish one or at most maybe two tasks. But once you have a solid source of income up and running, it is possible to expand all forms of production.
The economic model may seem overwhelming at first, but it is kept simple by using only a few finished goods. The most important raw materials are wood, wool/cotton, iron and coal which are then used to make lumber, fabric and steel. These in turn make furniture, clothes, weapons, ships, etc. which are the real power pieces of the game.
The game can be played in several different scenarios. The first one is a completely random map with generic countries. The other option is to play historically as one of the great powers of Europe, during several time periods beginning in 1820. The game is won when one country conquers the world, or through a vote system, where each country and colony casts a vote as to who the world’s greatest power is. An overwhelming majority in this vote will give a victory; however, if you the player win this vote you can ignore the outcome and continue your quest for world domination. This voting system exposes one of the inherent flaws of the historical scenarios. In most of them, England is overwhelmingly strong, with a developed industry, navy and army from the very beginning. France is prostrate from its defeat in the Napoleonic wars, Austria and Russia weak, and Prussia has usually not industrialized yet. England usually jumps on France first thing, and very quickly the game gets out of hand. Despite that, one of my best memories of this game is playing as Prussia from 1820 on and desperately attempting to stave off English world domination.
Imperialism at Wikipedia
Imperialism at MobyGames
Comments
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Tookey (12/04/2007)
Imperialism is truly the best “conquer the world” strategy game. It has by far the best economic and diplomatic strategy interface I have played.Alex (08/17/2007)
Great game, must be tried, really fun for lots of hoursRaffaele (12/09/2006)
great game. Surely it can be improved, but when you start to play it you can't stop!Brian_d_witt (12/02/2006)
This is a very interesting game. While I believed the game play to be slow it managed to keep my interest very high. I'd recommend this game to anyone.Talexen (05/05/2006)
its one of the great strategy games of its time and then some |
