Hammer of the Gods

The Good
Hammer of the gods has kept me for at least one week non-stop,day and night,in front of my new-486 in the old days of smart games,that's it in 1995 The goal of your strategy should not be to develop large and uncontrollable space empires,nor expand your land and conquer your neighbors.Rather,you have to fulfill (and chose wisely between) 28 quests given by realistic gods(although not the historic ones) from the Viking mythology These quests will often trick you and make you not so stubborn about a specific city or site that you should raid,therefore increasing your impatience and game realism In the end,even if you do not dare to look at Odin,the god of Victory and wonder:"how should i get all these 75% of magic,population,territory,gold?" you feel the accomplishment of your mission

The Bad
The last Odin's quest turns the smart player,focused-objective into a conqueror and the game becomes boring The names of the gods are repeating ,but less often than their designations,often inside the same race:"Magni" and "Tyr" are both Gods of Strength The challenge is a bit to easy as you climb up the difficulty levels,i only play on impossible,best AI and always win There are to many raiding,plundering,razing quests,as opposing to exploration ones.I never had to explore more than 25% of the map,which is quite interesting,even Dacia is there ,I think The short version of the game lets you complete 20 quests only and it;s pointless

The Bottom Line
As a must-have game There are many places on the net in which you can find great games of the past,which are much more less-boring ,intelligent and workable than the 3-d recreations of today For instance,Civilization 1 had the senate in democracy and republic,and the diplomacy screen was greatly influenced by their social system,and in the sequels all these democratic enhancements were removed!and the player became the communist with a human face Same thing with this great game,today adventures focus on war and violence,mainly,not on "do your job and let others live in peace" Alongside Civilization 1,Master of Orion 1,UFO 1,Hammer of the gods is a game which will remain in history of strategy games and it was this game who inspired me in my life afterwards.