Cultures: The Discovery of Vinland (demo)

This is the latest Settlers clone which I've played recently.
There seems to be so many of them about, which is great for me
because I love 'em! And I find it interesting to see how they vary
from one to another.

Cultures is another fairly jokey strategy game, with cartoon-like
graphics like Settlers and Amazons Vs Aliens, rather than a
serious one like Age of Empires or Caesar / Pharaoh which aims for
more realistic characters and buildings. In Cultures you control
the lives (and loves ...) of a group of Vikings who have just
arrived in North America. Well, isn't that a different idea? All
of them have names like Sven and Hafgrim for the fellas, and
Thurid and Asa for the woman. Yes, these male and female
characters can be easily distinguished, one from the other. The
one who is currently under your control is labelled with a little
heart above his or her head. Cute.


As in most such games you have a main building which contains the
basic staples for your civilisation. In this case, appropriately
enough, it is sometimes shaped like a Viking longboat. Your
initial Vikings are milling about outside. The only scenario that
you can play in the demo is an sandbox level where most items are
provided in adequate quantities and you can just build away to
your heart's content. Several tutorials are also supplied which
teach the basics of life in the newly discovered land.

Taking my info from the sandbox level, Niagara, all the men start
as building constructors with skill of 0%. The more they build,
the higher this percentage goes until they become master builders.
To start them off, you right click on one of them to open a menu.
One option on this is Build a House, but this covers all buildings
as well as roads. You can also Dig for Water which shows the best
place to put a well.

All buildings have constructions costs and can hold varying
numbers of people, for instance a fisherman's hut can hold 3
fisherman and requires 3 wood and 1 pelt to build. Sometimes the
builders will head off into the shrubbery to collect wood rather
than get it from the warehouse. Once your hut is built - which
doesn't take long as all idle building constructors join in - it's
time to pick a fisherman. Right click on one of the chaps (very
sexists, this game, women can't be trained for work!), select
Change Profession, choose Fisherman then click on the fisherman's
tent.  It's as easy as that.

Constructing some buildings leads on to others - for instance, you
can't build a mill until you've built a farm. Similarly one
profession can lead to another - a farmer can become a miller or a
fruit farmer, but a building contractor can't. But you can jump a
few stages once an existing inhabitant has gained a diploma in his
chosen profession, that job can then be learned in record time by
sending another chap to school.

Of course, the fact that you have to make existing chaps change
professions means that eventually you'll find yourself without a
building constructor to your name. What we need is a new
generation and though the Vikings will fall in love eventually,
there's nothing wrong with giving them a subtle push. Right click
on one of them and select Search Spouse and he or she will walk up
to the Viking of his/her dreams, do a happy little dance and,
that's it. It's even quicker than the registry office. Build the
happy couple a dwelling tent, then get them to move in. Right
clicking on the wife has now added two more options - Get a Boy or
Get a Girl. Once she has collected enough food, hubby will go into
the tent and little hearts will emanate from it. 'Nuff said. A few
minutes later and here comes the stork to drop off a little baby
who immediately starts crawling round. Well, that didn't take
long. And it won't be long either until baby is grown into an
adult civilian who can be trained - and so the cycle begins again.

There are complications of course. Dwelling tents hold one couple
plus optional child, but you can get larger dwellings such as a
house for two families. Both types of dwelling need equipment -
crockery, oil, furniture. These will normally have to be made by
craftsmen in the appropriate workshops and the women tote them
home.

People also have their needs, both physical and material. The men
need food, sleep, entertainment and religion. The women only need
food and sleep (I guess they get their entertainment carrying
furniture about). If a person hasn't got a designated home, they
sleep on the grass but this isn't as efficient as sleeping under
cover. Men also need shoes, though I have no idea why.

The demo is pretty stable though I did crash it once by making a
scout explore too far. When he got to the end of the map, the game
froze. Oops.

When I first looked at this game, I thought it looked good. After
playing it for a while, I wasn't so sure, but the more I stuck
with it, I realised this was more down to the fact that it isn't a
good demo.  Apart from the tutorials, which are pretty short,
there is just the one playable level which has no aim and no
challenge because so much is provided. I would also imagine that
the full game makes a lot more of the combat side of the game
which is only briefly touched on in one section of the demo.

So, a few reservations aside, I think this game would be well
worth checking out if you're a fan of Settlers type games.

http://www.thq.co.uk
                                                        Sue














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