User Reviews

1. Review Date: 2009-10-19

   First off, it plays like Age of Empires, as far as the town building goes. Only it is much more intricate. As you Progress, and your cities advance, you are required to gather more and more DIFFERENT types of resources, and refine the resources in various ways. It becomes a real effort to balance your people's needs, lest they revolt, but to simply build a massive harvesting infrastructure will strap your cash due to upkeep costs. Further, no matter where you begin, you will not have the resources all nearby for you to simply wall around and build. You will have to search and build on various islands to properly supply your evolving economy. Setting up distribution routes, setting their pace properly (to not overflow your warehouses) is time consuming and one of the focal points of the game, and it actually is alot more fun than it sounds. Again the key is balance.
   
   However, Age of Empires type warfare is definitely not in this game. The focus stays on economics, not war. While you can build a fleet of warships and an army, the variety is very limited, and useful only as a cap off in your conquest of a map, and not the main tool to do so.
   
   This game is alot of fun, but as I said, if you are looking for a war-type RTS, this game isn't really it. The learning curve is quite steep, and requires a bit of patience to realize why your empire is not working when you first play the game. This game isn't a brain scorcher, but is a much more delicate process than alot of other RTS games out there, not too challenging, but engrossing and now prefer this game over my old RTS games like Age of Mythology, Age of Empires, and is on par with Rise of Nations, which RoN too, is a great game.
   
   Also, some people have had problems with Vista x64, So, I'd like to say that I have Vista x64, and have had no problems.
   
   User: Chris M. Cone
   Rating:
   Summary: Different but Interesting.
   Helpful Votes: 0
   Total Votes: 0
   

2. Review Date: 2009-10-11

   Great city builder with some simple battle functionality thrown in. Not to hard to pick up but challenging enough to keep your interest. Also works find on Vista (at least for me).
   
   User: SkiTrader
   Rating:
   Summary: Great Game
   Helpful Votes: 0
   Total Votes: 0
   

3. Review Date: 2009-09-08

   If you like to build cities and try to take care of your inhabitants while watching your budget, this game is for you. Unless you start a fight with one of your opponents they will not attack you. An exception are pirates, but they do not harm you much. The point of the game is to became independent from Queen. Different scenerios are also a lot of fun.
   
   User: Zuzana Halbgewachs
   Rating:
   Summary: We love the game
   Helpful Votes: 0
   Total Votes: 0
   

4. Review Date: 2009-08-18

   My wife has been eagerly awaiting this for sometime, so I ponied up the money and surprised her, receiving the program from Amazon on August 18, 2009. We had read reviews that said it installed fine on Vista.
   
   This is definitely not true of 64-bit Vista. After searching the Aspyr web site for updates on 1701 AD Gold, the only update shown is 1.02, which does not fix it. Nor is there any suggestion of issues with 64-bit Microsoft OSes when searching their knowledgebase.
   
   After searching further on Google, I found that those who had it working are those who have illegal copies, called "warez," in which the copy protection was removed. I will never install such items on my computer, so that is not an option.
   
   I contacted Aspyr tech support with my problem and received this as the fix:
   
   "Thank you for contacting Aspyr Tech Support!
   
   1701 A.D. Gold Edition was developed originally for Windows XP which works differently than Vista X64. First, be sure to download and install the patch found here:
   [...]
   
   When this is completed, download and install the x64 driver software found here:
   
   [...]
   
   This should have 1701 A.D. functioning as expected on your X64 bit system.
   
   Feel free to contact us with any further comments or issues.
   
   Thank you,
   
   Aspyr Tech Support"
   
   
   They gave the website link to the place that makes their copy-protection for a new 64-bit update and also gave us a link to version 1.04 of the game, which, for us, never appeared in searches on the Aspyr website. After installing the updated programs from both sites, the program finally worked.
   
   I understand why publishers use copy protection, but when it leaves a user without a program (and being unable to return the opened, semi-installed item), it is crazy. Also, I can't understand how Amazon is selling an old version (1.00 - from 2006), nor can I understand why the link 1701 A.D. gives when the install breaks simply brings up a blank web page.
   
   On the plus side, my wife loves the program, save for the way the map moves at times. She's quite happy, after waiting extra days for the fix.
   
   User: Aaron702
   Rating:
   Summary: Does not work on 64-bit systems out of the box
   Helpful Votes: 1
   Total Votes: 1
   

5. Review Date: 2009-06-19

   I am so glad that the Germans are in love with this type of game, otherwise we in the US would be totally deprived of some of the most engrossing, rewarding, and FUN gameplay I have ever experienced. I have not stayed up until 5 am playing a game in 8 years, and indeed I was wondering if I was even the type of gamer who could get into a game that much anymore. I was wrong. For a person like me, who's not interested in the combat aspect of most strategy games, and who is much more interested in turtling a base to their exact preference, this game is a boon.
   
   User: Matthew Cooper
   Rating:
   Summary: The Best of Its Kind
   Helpful Votes: 9
   Total Votes: 9
   

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Product Details

1. Explore a massive, living 3D world and encounter a host of lively characters, each with unique personalities
2. New story driven, single player campaign introduces 30 new hours of game play over 11 vast missions
3. New world editor gives players unprecedented freedom to create and share maps for online or offline play
4. Discover new buildings, decorative elements, quests and an Earth shattering new natural catastrophe
5. Practice sabotage, espionage, and demagoguery to give you the advantage over other parties

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