Discovery:In the Steps of Columbus - Impressions RRP œ29.99 (Strategy game for ST,PC and Amiga) ST version reviewed by Piotr Tyminski The game comes on one disk (unfortunately, no way to install it on a hard drive but at least no swapping required) accompanied by a very good manual (seems like it's an "Impressions" standard in this respect). The manual is 165 pages in all and includes English, French, German and Italian versions; that's actually a very good idea to have manuals printed this way and it's not the first time I got a multilanguage manual in an "Impressions'" package. It's also nice to read as except for technical things related to the game itself it has lots of interesting historical information regarding the discovery of the New World, starting from the Vikings and covering the voyages of Columbus, Balboa, Cortez, Pizarro as well as the others. All in all it's a well done piece of work. The game itself is set at the end of the 15th century and deals with exploration and conquest of new lands. You can either explore the historical Americas or, in case it sounds boring to you, there are also several other worlds provided, all of them large enough to keep you occupied for a long time. Before you start sending vessels to the high seas you have to choose your nationality (out of Portuguese, Genoese, British, Prussian, French, Spanish, Dutch and colonial, the last being invented in case you are of Zimbabwian or Polish origin), then set the level of play (six to choose from, so you can make it really tough) and finally you should set your objective (i.e. free for all, land race, cash race, and Eldorado). And yes, you can also choose the language for all the info displayed and since there are five of them there's always a chance you'll find the one you speak, ha! And then off you go. You have to buy some vessels first and your local shipyard has several types on offer with different speeds, sizes and armaments. You then set a basic destination for your vessels (e.g. "you guys just keep on sailing west, got it?") and then you have to wait patiently for your crews to discover some nice piece of land. You are not able to move the screen further than your vessel is at the moment, this being quite obvious, since you are not a God and you can't see something which has not yet been discovered. Once your wise guys find some solid ground you are presented with a static screen of a sailor shouting "land ahoy!". You do not have much influence on where your band is going to settle (so it may happen they end up in a completely barren land) but never mind, once they put their feet on a newly discovered continent it's up to you to manage the settlement properly. First thing your colonists do is that they tear their vessel to pieces to get some material to build a kind of primitive harbour (they apparently hope you will keep on sending some reinforcements soon). That's actually where the real game starts. You see some nicely drawn small folks (similar to those in "Populous") who are busy clearing the area, cutting wood, etc. They keep all the building material (wood, I mean) in the harbour, at least at the beginning, unless you tell them to build a warehouse, fort, houses and whatever you may think of. You have to reinforce your new settlement with new vessels/colonists since your original bunch of heroes will soon work themselves to death trying to fulfil all your insane orders (being a greedy person you may tell them to explore as much land as possible and these poor creatures will keep on sinking in swamps, rivers, etc. until you realise it was a stupid idea anyway). Without much pressure from your side the colonists will try to cultivate the land and anything which is grown there will be collected in the warehouses (I told you to build some, didn't I?) Actually that's the point when you can earn some cash. If there's enough wood available you may build a small trader to carry the goods back to Europe. If you are wise enough you may want to process the goods in your colony to get better prices in the Old Continent, i.e. you have to build some factories, etc. If you are lucky enough your colonists may find some interesting resources like gold or iron ore, assign additional people to mine them and you can make some money. Management of your settlements is not easy as you have to watch out for hostile Indians (they look beautiful with their red/orange Mohawk hair-do, just reminds me of myself in the late seventies!), they may cause lots of trouble and can even wipe out whole villages so build forts quickly; they'll produce soldiers later on and if you've got enough of them you'll surely manage to keep all those Sioux cutthroats at bay. Watch out for the competition, too. They're all busy with establishing their own colonies and may attack you if you pose any threat to them (it means you have to wipe them out before they get an idea of doing this to you). In case you manage to take over any other settlement it stays on the map as it was but with your flag displayed (villages/cities gained this way may need some repair as usually lots of buildings get burnt to the ground when combat is vicious). Basically, it all depends on your long term policy. You do not have to fight everybody around, you may just work hard and become an honest trader. When you're rich enough you should buy a couple of big vessels in Europe and make them patrol certain routes, especially those used by your traders - there are pirates and competition ready to attack your ships, so watch out. Do not forget to send your patrolling warships for repair/morale boosting to one of your harbours from time to time since they may go completely astray and become pirates at the end. Morale of your colonists is very important, too. It may go down if they have lots of troubles (i.e. Indians attacking all the time, and all the unlucky events like accidental fires, etc.) so keep an eye on them and build a church or two if things're going bad - this may help in some cases. Generally, there's plenty to do and the game may keep you busy for a long time. A couple of things could still be improved, i.e. naval battles. In case your vessel meets a hostile one you are presented with a static screen of two warships engulfed in clouds of smoke with just three options to choose from: RUN, NEGOTIATE and OPEN FIRE. Whatever you do the screen remains the same, but there are also two small icons at the bottom of the picture representing two vessels - if they start to exchange broadsides they just start sinking and it's only the matter of your warship having more guns on board. There are also a couple of additional options at your disposal enabling you to take loans from the bank, construct different kinds of ships, check on your competition performance. You also have an access to several maps giving you updated information about overall progress of all nations in the New World (i.e. what is already discovered is displayed in colours corresponding to different nationalities and the rest is just white, waiting to be discovered). Overall display is similar to "Populous" although it seems to be a bit flat. Controls are not extremely complicated, just point and click stuff, but they do tend to be irritating from time to time. The whole thing runs in real time, so if you get one of your settlements displayed, life still goes on for the others. Finally you may have lots of villages to take care about and there's really no time to contemplate activities of certain individuals; you just have to switch all the time from one village to another. Sound doesn't break any barriers here; just some cannons roaring and a couple of other everyday sounds appear (like cutting wood, or shooting, etc.). Generally, "Discovery" is a solid product (this can be usually said about most "Impressions'" releases) but it's difficult to say would it guarantee a long term appeal. It probably depends on what you like but somehow it seems to lack this "something" which for example "Railroad Tycoon" has. Anyway, I don't regret buying it as I had some real fun playing it.