Customer Reviews

Merchant Prince 2

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Merchant Prince II is a painful twisted mutation that sends most old Machiavelli fans packing. The core of the game is good, because it's the old one. However, the new interface is awkward, the trade routes don't work as well anymore (Especially in Multiplayer), and crashing is always right around the corner.

Yet again, this is an excellent example of a product not tested enough before it hit the shelves. However, what makes this case of lackluster testing really offensive is that there was a base game built approximately 6 years ago. The game did not change that much, so how can you take a working old game, totally screw it up and then release it as a working product? Save your money, or better yet, build an old DOS system and find the old game, and play that.

Merchant Prince is one of the great classic strategy/sim games out there. Holistic has re-released the game as the original version would not work on most computers. Unfortunately it seems that they did not manage to fix the game's bugs and while the game is playable, do not expect to complete a full game, though you should be able to get in at least several hours of very entertaining play before any problems arise. To those who have never played Merchant Prince, it is a very good game, and to those who love the game (like me), but can't get their original versions to run on a new PC, this game is for you. I would just recommend you wait to see if a successful patch is released. If you are interested. Check to see if the patch is out at http://www.talonsoft.com/merchantprince2

If that patch appears you can consider my review a **** review.

As the other reviewers have noted, this release is basically a slightly upgraded version of the original Merchant Prince/Machiavelli. I never had the first MP, but I did have Machiavelli & this game looks & plays just about exactly as I remember that game looking & playing. The graphics seem to be upgraded & there is now a tech tree that must be researched before you can do certain things. But otherwise it's just good old Machiavelli, a game I enjoyed in its day despite the fact that I was never able to finish a game of it due to bugs that always crashed the game after hours & hours of play.

Your reaction to MP2 will largely be determined by your reaction to its two predecessors. If you never owned either of them I would avoid this game since there are so many deeper & more interesting games out there on similar topics. MP2 just doesn't bring enough to the table to cut it in today's computer game market. On the other hand, if you remember the previous games with fondness, & are willing to spend $30 on your nostalgia, you will get to re-live some of the good old days of 1995 & earlier. But even for such people, the game will wear thin more quickly than you might think.

The best plan, if you really want to buy this game, might be to wait for it to hit the discount bins & save yourself some money. I suspect MP2 will find it's way there fairly soon.

Even more so, I think, than Master of Orion III. MoO III at least introduced new concepts and made some serious attempts to improve the gameplay.

This game has at its core the titles Merchant Prince and Machiavelli: the Prince. It makes few innovations on them, so the core game is good. But somehow it went wrong. The music is turned up WAY too loud, for a start. But after that it doesn't get better: the UI could have been improved over Machiavelli: the Prince, but instead it got much worse. In particular, the minimap shows much larger icons, with the result that it shows such a small area as to be almost unusable (the minimap is one of the most important screens in this series for manipulating your pieces and playing the game). The graphics were made more flashy, but they lost the crispness of those in Machiavelli.

I can't think of a reason to play this game when the others are still usable. My advice: get ahold of Machiavelli: the Prince (it's freely downloadable from the Internet) and run it in an emulator. It runs well in DOSBox.

Here's another game that has a wonderful story line and great potential, but doesn't live up to it's promise. First, a skimpy manual that leaves out a lot of "how to's" and offers no hints or suggestions for good game play. Also, alas, no tutorial. Second, no on-line help. Want to know how to do something -- then try trial and error (and hope you can remember), 'cause that's all there is. Finally, bugs. Lot's of 'em. And commands that don't work. And commands that, I think, should be there, but aren't. There is a patch, but you can't tell if it has been applied (no version number appears at start-up). And on my machine at least, the game was worse after I ran the patch. All this is a shame, because this COULD have been a outstanding game.

I own about 30 computer games, and this one is as good as the best of them. Sure, the graphics aren't the most sophisticated. Sure, there are civilization games that, overall, are better than this one. BUT, there's no substitute for this game if you want to capture the feel of Italy during the Renaissance. You have to trade efficiently, but you have to be ready to wage war when necessary. You have to play politics with the government, but you also have to play politics with the church. You can build popularity in high-minded ways, such as the funding of art. And you can build popularity by baser methods, such as throwing parties. You must contend with various threats, such as the plague and the risks that go with discovering new lands. You must maintain and enhance your infrastructure. Also, with advanced play, you must pursue various avenues of research. If you don't have a fondness for the Renaissance, there are plenty of games on the market that might suit you. However, if this period interests you, you MUST get this game.

This is the "Plan 9 from Outer Space" of computer games. It is so bad, you might want to buy it just to experience the misery. What makes this game so bad and ultimately unplayable is the user interface, which is a cryptic and bewildering collage of badly-rendered artwork. Once you have found the random icon that lets you actually trade goods, you are left with a number of important questions, such as "Am I buying now, or an I selling now?" "How much money do I have?" and "What is the object of this game, how do I win, and what should I be doing?" I tried to play this game three times and I never completed a single turn. This one should never have been released.

Merchant Prince 2 is a fun, absorbing and informative game for you who have never played this type of discovery/trading/diplomacy/war game. There are a few nice new twists dealing with the Roman Catholic church. The movement and graphics are years out of date. I would be most eager to play against live opponents, rather than alone. Then you can consentrate on strategy instead of the familiarity or weaknesses. Good enough for the price.

If you played Merchant Prince or Machiavelli a few years ago, then you've already played this game. The graphics are basically the same, the interface is the same, the gameplay is 98% the same. Except that this time it doesn't work right out of the box, rather than getting buggy in the end game like the original.

If you haven't played the prior versions, then this would be a great game - but wait for Holistic Design to fix it. There's already one patch out that didn't help, and appeals for technical support and on the Talonsoft message boards have so far been ignored.

The game is mostly about making money. Buy from a city that sells a commodity for a low price, haul it to a city that pays a high price for it. But there's a lot more to it, including historical religious, political, and power struggles galore. It's fairly easy to learn, but it takes a long time to master all the intricacies. And it's extremely addictive, you want to keep playing - one more turn, one more turn.

The original games worked until you were hours into them, then they started getting corrupted until finally they were unplayable. This was never fixed in any patch, I kept checking because I really wanted to finish a game. This same bugginess was in their next game, Emperor of the Fading Sun, also. I don't know if that same behavior will happen with this version, because you can't even get through the getting started section of the manual before you hit a bug that won't let you continue playing the game.

The premise for the game is as good as it is familiar. Take stuff from here and trade it there for more than you paid. You build up trade routes, buy influence at court, etc. Unfortunately, the game stinks. The trade route option doesn't work, you are forced to micro-manage at every step even the piddling ones that really should be automated.
If you are looking for a good trading sim, don't buy this one.