Knights and Merchants

By Barry Brenesal (10/15/98) Game at a Glance Recap: Medieval real-time strategy, similar to Settlers II Ups: Great graphics; well-balanced resource model Downs: Too few combat unit types; confining missions Multiplayer: Very good Single player: Fair Demo: Available Patch: N/A Some game companies are like well-known film directors; you're never exactly sure what they'll create next, but once you see the results, it's immediately clear that only they could have designed it. Take, for example, Sierra's graphical adventures, Origin Systems' role-playing games, and Joymania's real-time strategy simulations. What? You've never heard of Joymania? You're probably familiar with this German game developer's popular releases, Settlers and Settlers II. Now Interactive Magic has just released an English-language port of its latest best-seller, Knights and Merchants. Resource Allocation 101 From the game concept to the game mechanics, K&M feels like an old friend. As with the Settlers series, you create a complex resource chain of medieval shops in order to train and arm troops. (These are used to defend King Karolus's kingdom and to assault the opportunistic allies of his rebellious son, Prince Lothar.) For example, a farmer grows wheat, which is sent to a swine farmer, who produces hides and meat. The meat is sent to the butcher and turned into sausages for the inn, while the hides are sent to the tanner, made into leather, and given to the armorer for leather armor production. It takes the work of 18 businesses to produce and maintain a scout, the cheaper of your two cavalry units. The game mechanics, however, are far simpler--and better--in K&M than in Settlers II. Gone is the arcane road system where flags indicated potential road segments you could build, and flag colors indicated elevation. Instead, you just click on an area where you want a road tile laid. The overly elaborate and confusing diagram-based help menus from Settlers have been replaced in K&M with a streamlined help system for construction, resource allocation, and statistics--complete with a line of explanatory text at the bottom of the screen whenever you run your mouse over a building, unit, or resource item. As for the look of K&M, it features beautifully detailed, 16-bit isometric landscapes that can be displayed at resolutions up to 1,024 by 768. Finished buildings don't simply shade into reality, as is the case with so many games. Rather, you watch them grow through ten or more stages, as laborers pound them into existence. Character animations are not only fluid but abundant, whether showing the preoccupied serfs conscientiously transporting goods or stuffing their mouths at an inn, or the merchants dozing or working. All this activity creates the feeling of a busy and occupied city. Further mood is provided by more than a dozen well-crafted tunes with a folksy, Renaissance feeling.

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