Cultures

Published by THQ
Designed by Funatics Development
Platform: PC CD/ROM
Price £29.99 Released: Out Now

At first glance you would be forgiven for thinking that Cultures is similar in style to the Settlers series. Sure the game is full of cute animations and resource management does play a big part in the gameplay but Cultures goes a step further than the Settlers series in that it gives you a closer relationship with the Viking individuals. Each person has a name and different attributes (which can be increased with experience) and to create more Vikings you have to marry a couple who can then have a boy or a girl. As you can see already, this is a bit different from creating a medium residence and watching people pour out of the building as they do in Settlers. Of course as you can imagine building up a thriving colony also takes a lot longer in Cultures.

Building an infrastructure in Cultures takes a lot of thought and planning. To show what I mean I will give you a brief example of how Sven became a baker. First Sven must learn to be a farmer. Having sewn and reaped the wheat many times Sven becomes a qualified farmer. Once you have a qualified farmer you can then build a mill. Next we build the mill and tell Sven to become a miller. Sven works hard as a miller and turns all that wheat into flour. Once Sven has qualified as a miller you can build a bakery. Finally we build a bakery and tell Sven to become a baker. It would be very boring indeed if every worker had to progress through the different jobs like this but fortunately once one person has progressed through this work chain (or similar ones in other industries) then the building of a school will allow a civilian to instantly progress to any of the trades that have been qualified for. It is also advisable to juggle some workers between buildings if labour is short. Sven (using the above example) for instance could work in the mill until there was a copious amount of flour and then he could go back to the bakery. A great deal of time has to be invested in your economy if your Vikings are to be truly successful.

Cultures offers many hours of gameplay. The single player game has around 17 scenarios and 4 tutorials. However it is the campaign mode where the heart of the game lies. The story revolves around Bjarni and the Vikings discovery of America. Through the campaign you will come into contact with Inuits and Native Americans. The really nice thing about Cultures is that you actually get to make contact with other races without instantly being at war with them. This has long been a problem with the Settlers series and it still hasn't been rectified in Settlers IV. Cultures allows you to designate a tribe as friends and to trade with them.

Text feedback is excellent and the only omission is the introduction which is unsubtitled. This is unfortunate as it explains the story behind the Vikings trek from their homeland to America. Otherwise though all the info is presented textually and because of the gentle pace of the game you never feel rushed into reading something. The briefings can be recalled at anytime so you never lose sight of what you are supposed to be doing.

Multiplayer is great too and if you have a LAN at home then you are in for a treat. You can play over the Internet but because of the duration of the game this may not be an affordable option but having said this the games can thankfully be saved. The options for multiplayer are Deathmatch or Eco race. Deathmatch is all out war while Eco race is all about building up your economy and achieving the predefined goals such as having a population of say 70 people. Again we can see that Cultures gives you the option to avoid battles if you so wish.

Because of the effort involved in creating a population it is not difficult to see that any army you create is going to take time and a great deal of effort. This means that battles are small scale and usually only involve a handful of soldiers. This makes you think twice about waging war as your soldiers are people from your community and cannot be created in a couple of seconds. If you want to replace a dead soldier you are going to have to tell a married couple to have a baby boy and wait for him to grow up. As you can see losing a soldier is a costly business and while some of you will be upset with the slow pace, the more peaceful gamers out there will be pleased with it as it really deters from an aggressive playing style.

Cultures is an engrossing strategy game that attempts to give your people character and individuality in order to create a more personal experience. To a large extent it succeeds. The slow pace initially feels strange but once you create the basis of your settlement the game gradually becomes more and more engrossing and you will find yourself becoming drawn into the game. If you like to invest time in your games then Cultures will definitely be to your liking and well worth your money and time.

Overall Game Rating: 8.3/10 As long as you don't want a fast and furious game you will love Cultures.

Quality of text: 8/10 Everything apart from the introduction is textually represented.

Graphics: 8/10 Good graphics, the animation of the plant/wildlife is good too.

Interface: 8/10 Very easy to learn and control.

Gameplay: 9/10 A very enjoyable experience although it may be too slow paced for some.