Rating: 
Summary: a really interesting game
Review: it's a great game filled with suspence and excitement.
When you play this game you never know what could happen.
Hang on to your seats
Rating:
Summary: a really cool game
Review: it's a great game filled with suspence and excitement.
When you play this game you never know what could happen.
Hang on to your seats.
P.s. I know my boyfriend would really love it!
Rating:
Summary: addictive
Review: Once I start playing I can't stop. It is much better than conquest and age of empires.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding!
Review: Perhaps I'm a stickler for playability. One of the design challenges of any empire-building game is that the more territory you conquer and govern, the more details you typically have to manage. If you (and the designers) are not careful, you can eventually get swamped with them-- especially if you are a perfectionist.An outstanding feature of Imperialism II is that this does not occur nearly as much as in other games of its type. It is, instead, a true strategy game. You are not a paper-shuffler, you are the pilot of the great ship of state in a multi-dimensional ocean. You need to think carefully under ever-changing conditions to decide where to chart your course and keep it in good trim. If you are going in the wrong direction, heaven help you if you don't realize it soon and face the facts: and then you need a sharp lookout and patience, because a ship of state doesn't turn on a dime. A key concept is balance. You can never do everything you want or need with available resources. At every turn you face policy decisions: Should you increase your road and port building? Your food production? Develop forests, mines, or plantations? Build transport ships-- oops, not enough food for the sailors, but how do you get more food without more ships? Do you sell goods to get money to buy various raw materials? Do you buy raw materials because you need them, or can you afford buying something just to curry favor with a potential colony or ally? Invade Indian territory, or invest in it and try to keep your rivals from invading? Build up your armies, even if it seems that you never have the funds to send them into battle? Join alliances and risk being drawn into a war before you're ready? Or stay aloof and risk the rest of Europe's ganging up on you? Do expensive research yourself out ahead of the pack, or spend less (usually) money and resources for spies, forever playing catchup learning what others already know? The choices are innumerable and the relationships among them infinitely subtle. I do not place a lot of stock in fancy graphics, but must say that the colorfol look of this game, compared to the muted and vaguely depressing colors of Imperialism [I], is another attractive feature. The sugar... the tobacco... the spices, gold, and gems in the New World: they make your mouth water with the desire to reach out and grab'em. It's hard to remember that they are just means to an end, as territory in the old world is the key to winning or losing. I've played many such games, and aside from Civilization, I think Imperialism II has gotten the most things right to date.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding!
Review: Perhaps I'm a stickler for playability. One of the design challenges of any empire-building game is that the more territory you conquer and govern, the more details you typically have to manage. If you (and the designers) are not careful, you can eventually get swamped with them-- especially if you are a perfectionist. An outstanding feature of Imperialism II is that this does not occur nearly as much as in other games of its type. It is, instead, a true strategy game. You are not a paper-shuffler, you are the pilot of the great ship of state in a multi-dimensional ocean. You need to think carefully under ever-changing conditions to decide where to chart your course and keep it in good trim. If you are going in the wrong direction, heaven help you if you don't realize it soon and face the facts: and then you need a sharp lookout and patience, because a ship of state doesn't turn on a dime. A key concept is balance. You can never do everything you want or need with available resources. At every turn you face policy decisions: Should you increase your road and port building? Your food production? Develop forests, mines, or plantations? Build transport ships-- oops, not enough food for the sailors, but how do you get more food without more ships? Do you sell goods to get money to buy various raw materials? Do you buy raw materials because you need them, or can you afford buying something just to curry favor with a potential colony or ally? Invade Indian territory, or invest in it and try to keep your rivals from invading? Build up your armies, even if it seems that you never have the funds to send them into battle? Join alliances and risk being drawn into a war before you're ready? Or stay aloof and risk the rest of Europe's ganging up on you? Do expensive research yourself out ahead of the pack, or spend less (usually) money and resources for spies, forever playing catchup learning what others already know? The choices are innumerable and the relationships among them infinitely subtle. I do not place a lot of stock in fancy graphics, but must say that the colorfol look of this game, compared to the muted and vaguely depressing colors of Imperialism [I], is another attractive feature. The sugar... the tobacco... the spices, gold, and gems in the New World: they make your mouth water with the desire to reach out and grab'em. It's hard to remember that they are just means to an end, as territory in the old world is the key to winning or losing. I've played many such games, and aside from Civilization, I think Imperialism II has gotten the most things right to date.
Rating:
Summary: Everything the First Game Should Have Been, and Then Some
Review: Plenty of people have said what's right with this game, so letme take a different tack. What was wrong with Imperialism One wasprimarily three-fold: 1) Time-frame. By setting the game in the 19th Century, rapid technology change was inadequately represented and often overwhelmed the game. Imp. II two solves that by stretching over three centuries, and not only that, but three centuries where the change is extremely significant and yet not overwhelmingly so (plus Imp. II has a better tech tree anyway). 2) Victory conditions. The victory conditions in Imperialism One were so horribly put together that you almost *never* got a truly satisfying victory, and "victory" often got in the way of a good game. Imp. II corrects that and then some: the victory conditions are realistic and well-designed, but more than that, they actually drive the game the way it ought to go, and force you again and again to act as you "ought", by which I mean within the economic and political realities of the time you are modeling. 3) Lack of scenarios. Because of all this, scenarios were vital to making the original game work, because you usually didn't want to play the game "as-is". There were a few scenarios included with the game (and two of them were pretty good), but no additional scenarios were ever released, and there was no way to program any of your own. This game, by contrast, is so well done that any scenario would be a waste: simply altering the starting parameters will create just about whatever scenario you're looking for, and I never found myself longing for one the way I did with the original. (ONE KEY TECH NOTE: I've played this both on a Performa 6400 with a 200MHz 603ev chip and on an iMac with a 233MHz G3. The iMac, which should have been a lot faster, wasn't. The box minimums will work, but you'll be frustrated and it will run almost intollerably slowly. Try to run this game on at least 300MHz G3 machines if at all possible.)
Rating:
Summary: Imperialism II: very good
Review: Probably my 2nd favorite game of all time, next to Civilization II. The economic system is well designed, and so is the combat... somewhat more sophisticated than just sending in one unit at a time to attack. The AI is also very smart... the only thing I would change is adding a map/scenario editor
Rating: 
Summary: Okay but could have been much better
Review: The game puts you on the throne of a European empire around 1600 A.D. You get to discover, explore, and conquer the new world, while fending off imperialist rivals and vengeful tribesmen. Usually, a certain number of provinces need to be conquered to win. These are taken from neutral states in Europe, from other empires, and from natives in the New World. The oversees provinces bring some new resources like tobacco, sugar, and precious metals, which are important in the technological and industrial trees. Meanwhile the metropolis pulls standard resources like coal, wool, wheat, and wood from the homeland provinces and converts them into skilled workers, weapons, and ships. Pros:
- excellent baroque music and atmosphere
- balanced overall model where compromise, combined arms, technology, and strong economy are intimately related
- okay technology tree
- nice drawings of ships and ground units
- nice details in shipping and naval blockades
- entertaining turn-based battles with okay combat system Cons:
- Civ-like boring and old land-development system.
- The diplomacy model is substandard. Alliances mean nothing. Declaring war and shifting allegiances in a trice is ubiquitous. In such chaos, diplomacy is virtually meaningless, as is anybody's word, which turns the game into a perpetual clawfest among crabs in a barrel. It is exceedingly hard to reach critical mass. Bribes are very ineffectual too.
- There are no psychological factors like grudges, animosity, and obstinacy. Very bland and uncharacterful.
- The economic system is tedious and repetitive. There is pretty much one good way to win, so once you learn it, there is no replay value in terms of economy. It gets tedious and boring after a few games to spend all this time worrying about number of fabric rolls and cigars in one's stores, while one would want to deal with general strategy and geopolitics.
- Spying does not reveal any strategically significant information.
- Armies are not difficult to maintain, but are horribly expensive to use. The opposite should have been done for far more playability and historical accuracy.
- Little European neutral states are armed to the teeth with state-of-the-art weapons. Later, the same is true for natives too. Ridiculous, since the player has seen how hard it is to research and build these weapons even for a mighty empire. Proper maintenance fees would have fixed that in passing.
- Graphics is mostly outdated, even if most units are beautifully drawn. Overall impressions are positive, but there was clearly potential for much more with proper design choices. I sold back my copy for store credit after playing it for a month or two, so it comes to show.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best games ever made
Review: This game is way better than the first imperialism, and has earned the place as my second fav game ever, after Age Of The Empires. I would recomend this to everyone, it is one of the most addictive games I've ever played.
Rating: 
Summary: What a Great Game this Was
Review: Up until OS 9.1 this game was a favorite. But it is no longer supported and will no longer play.
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