You have to respect a game that knows its own strengths. About two hours into my first game of 1701 A.D. I had a warning pop up on my screen and a mellifluous voice say, "You've been playing for two hours now, shouldn't you take a break?" 1701 A.D. is the third iteration of the strategy game series that started with 1602 A.D. and continued with 1503 A.D. While this series has enjoyed enormous popularity in Europe, it's never reached more than cult status in the North American market. Hopefully that will change with this iteration because despite a few missteps, this is easily one of the most enjoyable city-builders I've played this year.

1701 A.D. takes place in… well… A.D. 1701. The location is a heavily fictionalized version of the Caribbean. The player takes the role of an explorer on a ship in the middle of a blank map. He or she's been charged by the queen to colonize this new world, building up a network of colonies on various islands that can exploit its vast wealth. Naturally, players aren't alone here. There can be up to four other computer-controlled or human players also jockeying for supremacy along with a group of lesser civilizations that the player can trade and ally with.


Colonies are constructed using the now-standard conventions of the city-builder. Players place down resource-gathering, production and residential buildings on a piece of land and wait for their simulated citizens to move in. Each citizen has a hierarchy of needs the player must satisfy in order to keep their populace happy. Fulfilling their needs allows them to climb up the socioeconomic ladder. As citizens move up in the world, their needs get more sophisticated, ranging from raw pioneers who are satisfied with a full stomach and comfortable clothing to an aristocracy with a raft of needs ranging from chocolate and tobacco to access to a government building.

Despite a fairly straight-line economic model, putting together these economic daisy-chains is easily 1701 A.D.'s strongest suit. Citizens have a very clear socioeconomic progression that allows players to focus on one type of economic expansion at a time. If the majority of the player's residents are at pioneer level, it doesn't make sense to monkey around with tobacco plantations until the rum or beer supply that they need to evolve into settlers is assured. While this might have had the effect of simplifying the game's strategy, the developers made up for it by making sure that no one island can grow everything needed by a colony. If the player's initial island can grow cacao, grain and hops, for example, it means that they'll eventually have to start up splinter colonies on islands that can grow other commodities such as tobacco or honey, or trade for them with other civilizations.