I have played many strategy games in my time and Merchant Colony is one of them. The graphics are what you would expect from a DOS strategy game. The writing and the images aren’t so pixelated that you can’t understand them. Certainly, there are worse graphics on similar strategy games.
I liked it because I have never seen a merchant/strategy game set in this era in history. I thought it was quite unique; if you are looking for something different, then I would look here as most of the merchant/strategy games I have played are set in medieval times.
Some of the screens I found a little confusing, such as the trade screen which I disliked as I prefer trading to combat but the combat was good because it wasn’t too complex. I would recommend a different game if you prefer combat, probably Tribal Wars which is an online game set in Medieval Times.
The game would be better if it had a multiplayer function so the game was more social as I found the game to be a little boring with no one to talk to. Still, the computer's AI was challenging, and once you got into the game and started concentrating on succeeding, you forgot about chatting anyway.
I found that the game was hard even though I was playing on
the easiest difficulty. It started easy but then things started happening too fast as my empire began to grow. It is no suprise that I had no idea what was going on as new players don’t receive much help at the start of the game so I had to look online for help. After I found some help on a message board, the game became alot easier and I suggest you do the same thing. It depends on what you look for in a game I suppose.
If you liked this game then you should try Tribal Wars, Travian and The West. These are all new, online games. Other DOS games similar are High Seas Trader and 1869. These games recently came to my attention as I was browsing though web pages trying to find other games like this brilliant game.
I would give this game 8.5/10 because I think the playablility is more important than the graphics which face it, were made in 1991. Even if it’s not your usual game, try it; you will see what I am talking about.
