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Upgrading is an important piece of the game because you need to both defend yourself and be prepared for the final battle against the Ancient Guardian which generally has cards no lower than 6 or so in the easy levels and gets harder as you go. Plus, your opponents will be doing everything they can to gather the artefacts and win the level as well. The AI is fairly good and while I was sorting out my strategy on the second level one of the computer opponents went and won the level. So time is of the essence which is why I suggest a short, lucrative two-way trade route.
The game also offers local hotseat multiplayer, up to four players. This could certainly be an interesting way to play but I would have liked to see perhaps some local LAN play as well which would have made that facet far better. It can be rather tedious to play since everyone would have to be gathered around the screen and you would have to continually pass the mouse around. I could see it working for two people without fuss, but four might be troublesome.
The other minor problem with the game is that it’s only mouse-based. Some keyboard shortcuts would have been very useful. To fill your cargo hold with cargo from a port you have to click as many times as you have space you want to fill. Repetitive stress syndrome anyone? A quick key to buy your max would have been nice. Another thing about the controls is that if you click outside of your movement area it will ask you if you want to quit your turn. Numerous times I clicked yes and ended my turn when I did not want to. But really these are just things that would be nice to see and aren’t really all that necessary.
Considering that I had never heard of the game before the weekend I have to say it was a big surprise to find out just how cool it was. I can see why it’s selling well over at
GamersGate and I imagine that it will continue to do so. It’s only $9.95 (also 9.95 Euro) and that’s a price that makes this a must have for all fans of strategy, card battles and even some history buffs. I would definitely suggest you take a look at this title.
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Our Rating for Ancient Trader Review (PC, Gamersgate)
9.0
Replay Loads of levels, hotseat multiplayer as well but not all that great.
9.5
Graphics A pirate sea chart come to life, how cool is that?! Very!
9.0
Sound The ambient sounds are sparse but do an excellent job of keeping you involved in the game.
9.0
Gameplay A turn-based strategy without the tedium. It’s pretty cool and even the card battles have a bit more strategy than at first glance.
5.0
Multiplayer Hotseat multiplayer isn’t bad for two but local LAN would have been really cool.
9.0
Overall Even with the lacking multiplayer it’s still a great title and the price is excellent. It’s worth a small treasure chest full of coins to say the least.
ou have space you want to fill. Repetitive stress syndrome anyone? A quick key to buy your max would have been nice. Another thing about the controls is that if you click outside of your movement area it will ask you if you want to quit your turn. Numerous times I clicked yes and ended my turn when I did not want to. But really these are just things that would be nice to see and aren’t really all that necessary.
