Merchant Colony PC

Merchant Colony by Impressions is an economic game that takes up the subject of maritime trade on a global scale. The player takes on the role of a beginner shipowner with little cash to develop his own business. The plot of the programme throws us to the 18th century - a period of blooming colonies and distant expeditions to exotic countries.

The game is divided into two phases: management and sailing. In the first case, the player decides about buying new ships, hiring employees, searching for profitable trade routes and general cash management. The second stage - as the name suggests - is already connected with issuing orders concerning the destination of our ships. The two phases are closely interlinked, because before we go to the selected port, we first have to find out whether the raw material that we want to load on board will pay off to sell there. The big advantage of Merchant Colony is the global character of the game. The cities in which we can do business are spread all over the world, from North America, through Europe and Asia, to Australia.

Merchant Colony is not only about "buy it cheaper, sell it more expensive" type of trade. Long sea expeditions are vulnerable to pirates' attacks, so most ships, apart from goods, should also have soldiers on board. You can also create special convoys, in which fast but not very capacious ships will take care of the carnivores before you try to get to the valuable contents of the cargo holds of transport ships. Teachers, warehousemen, engineers, labourers, scouts and settlers can also be hired in the harbours, loaded on board and sent to the New World. In this way, we will create new colonies that will produce a variety of goods for us - and we can, of course, sell those, as you know.

Impressions' product does not stand out from other marine games of marine colour, but it is certainly so interesting that it should attract fans of the genre. The weakest point of the program is undoubtedly the modest graphic design, the strongest - the need to take care not only of trade, but also other aspects, such as those related to the above-mentioned establishment of new colonies. A big advantage is also the access to rich statistics and a simple, intuitive interface, which is characteristic for Impressions software.

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Last updated on 10 December 2007