1701 A. D.: Gold Edition

by Aspyr

Product Features

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

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B001AWMCMQ
• Item Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Media: DVD-ROM
• Release Date: July 18, 2008
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,633 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

1701 A.D. Gold Edition pairs the award winning and critically acclaimed empire building/strategy title 1701 A.D. with the globally successful expansion pack 1701 A.D. The Sunken Dragon. Already featuring nearly limitless replay ability, 1701 A.D. Gold Edition expands the 1701 universe even further. The Sunken Dragon add on pack introduces a 30hour, story driven campaign mode and a world editor that lets gamers create and share brand new maps for single player or online play. In addition, 1701 A.D. fans will find new, fully developed computer A.I. profiles, new buildings, additional sub quests and a devastating new natural disaster.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Different but Interesting., October 18, 2009

By 

Chris M. Cone - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: 1701 A. D.: Gold Edition (DVD-ROM)

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.

EDIT: It seems something was updated with windows Vista, and it has indeed broken the game. Vista is not supported officially and may or likely cause the game to crash. :(

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best of Its Kind, June 19, 2009

By 

Matthew Cooper (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: 1701 A. D.: Gold Edition (DVD-ROM)

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.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun game, October 8, 2008

By 

Laura (EVERETT, WA, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: 1701 A. D.: Gold Edition (DVD-ROM)

I've enjoyed learning this game. Its not simple that I get bored but not so hard I can't play it to relax. I like that each island has its own strengths and weaknesses and items it can't produce which forces you to colonize other islands. I like the diplomacy and the items you can research in the school. It reminds me a little Masters of Orion II which I also love, so maybe I'm biased. I do have one complaint that I can't seem to get the trade function to work. I'm either misinterpreting the instructions or I'm just plain wrong, but manually sending my ships around is very annoying. The graphics are good for a strategy type game, and I enjoy the different characters of the other computer players. I've played for two days straight.