Machiavelli the Prince

The Good
This game had a lot of new elements in it that I hadn't seen before. You could impact your opponents in many different ways, including slandering them, assassinating their representatives, burning down their buildings, or even by attacking their units. The greatest thing about this game is that there are so many ways to go about getting a lead, and you can do it nicely by building up trade routes, or unscrupulously, but the most effective paths seem to be to combine tactics. This game allows for different lengths of games, some diplomacy, and different levels of difficulty. There are also multiplayer features: modem, hotseat, or network (I believe).


The Bad
Well, once you get ahead of the computer players, you can use your wealth to stomp on the computer players and keep them down for a few turns, getting farther and farther ahead. I rarely finish games because there is no way that the computer can catch up when you beat them down for a few turns.

The Bottom Line
A great trading simulator for an uncommon period (for games). I think that this game would hold a lot better interest for me if I were to play it against human opponents, as the challenge factor would hold up throughout the game.