Trade Empires Preview

Once in a while, I find a game capable of bringing the tradesman in me to life. Trade Empires is one of those games - a trade simulation which incorporates all key elements for success in this genre: a good math model of supply and demand ratios, authentic historical and geographical background, good graphics and a large number of ways to success.

Game concept is fairly simple: you have to build a powerful trade empire and constantly increase its economic potentials by exploiting the natural resources available. You will be able to sell those resources to those who need them, or later even turn them into products, which pays even better. All this is achieved through several basic interloping activities. First, you will have to hire a sufficient number of merchants. After that, you have to establish trade routes and assign your merchants to them. Finally, you will have to or build necessary infrastructures (trading posts, resource producing buildings and all forms of production buildings as smelters or weavers, for example).

Your basic goal is to make all the population satisfied with your goods. Therefore, you will always have to carefully watch the market, supply and demand of goods and your competitors, while trying to keep in track with the technological development. Focusing on a certain type of merchandise will do you no good as goods easily become obsolete and uninteresting to the consumers. Each technological advance is a high risk for your business, but it may also be a chance for a great success.

The game has fifteen episodes in different historical and geographical settings: Shang Dynasty China, Ancient Sumeria, Ancient Egypt, Mycenaean Age, Phoenicia and Carthage, Persia and Greece, Roman Empire, China (The First Silk Road), Tang & Song Era in China, Islam and Byzantium Era, Europe (High Middle Ages), Mongols Era (The Silk Road), Indian Ocean, Atlantic and British Industrial Revolution. As you can see the game covers a major part of human civilization - from 2500 BC to mid XIX century. Each of these scenarios has unique technologies and resources, and different complexity and length. The technology and means of trade will develop through all fifteen epochs, and the final version of the game should feature some two hundred types of structures and thirty types of units.

A simple interface will show you the level of supply and demand for certain goods on each marketplace. Each item has a bar that shows whether or not that demand is being met. Blue means that there are sufficient quantities of the item, while orange indicates a shortage. The tick marks in the blue field show you how much more demand there is. There is also a satisfaction meter, which lets you know how well you're meeting the needs of the citizens of the various trading centers. If you do not respect the laws of the market, your disappointed consumers will start leaving your marketplaces and turn to your competitors. And, just like in the real world, your competitors won't sit on their asses all day long waiting for that to happen. There are various ways to tackle your competition, from heavy technology advance that would make your competitors' merchandise obsolete to clean dumping.

As for the game controls, they are quite straightforward. The windows will display all vital data - about trading routes, merchants and about the infrastructure supporting them. In the current stage of game development, the interface has not yet been finalized, and there is still some work to be done there. The problem is that it can be pretty hard to figure out when you first start playing the game. The tutorials also need to be simplified and a decent manual is expected to be shipped together with the game.

One big downside to Trade Empires would be the lack of a free game mode, in which the player could truly enjoy all features and potentials of the game. For the time being, the developers only announced the single-player campaigns, which do not offer much freedom apart in the way you choose to accomplish the scenario objectives. There is no multiplayer mode, which is understandable, concerning the nature of the game.

This game has some indisputable qualities. What we saw was what we liked - excellent graphics in a fully 3D world with a lot of details and fantastic textures. Historical authenticity and the long supported timeline are also important features, but the richness of options, non-linearity and the realistic trade-market model are there to insure Trade Empires' most important trump - its dynamics.