Merchant Prince II
Merchant Prince II is a 2001 turn-based strategy game of economic, political, and military conquest. The game is developed by Holistic and published by Take-Two Interactive.[1]
Merchant Prince II | |
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Developer(s) | Holistic Design |
Publisher(s) | Take-Two Interactive |
Platform(s) | Windows |
Release | |
Genre(s) | Turn-based strategy |
Mode(s) | Single-player, Multiplayer |
Reception
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Kevin Rice reviewed the PC version of the game for Next Generation, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "It's virtually the same game it was eight years ago, designed to run under Windows instead of DOS, but in the end it's still an entertaining, unique turn-based strategy."[9]
Merchant Prince II received "mixed" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[2] So little was added to gameplay that it was properly a rerelease rather than a sequel, and the changes to the graphics were considered uglier, with a zoomed-in and less user-friendly interface. ("End turn", for instance, was represented by an unlabeled wine glass.)[12] It was largely panned by critics[6][4] and even the positive review by IGN called it a "cheap reissue" and pardoned it only because of the difficulty of finding the original DOS games.[8] Computer Gaming World opened its review, "Merchant Prince 2 is the kind of title that gives strategy gaming a bad name," and concluded with, "Mainstream consumers pulled in by the fascinating topic are—once again—going to feel ripped off, confused, dumb, and jaded toward turn-based strategy games."[4] Kent Conrad found the implementation of the research tree "half-baked" and ended his review with "There is a good game hiding inside of Merchant Prince II, and that game is Machiavelli: The Prince. Get that instead."[13]
References
- Walker, Trey (February 1, 2001). "Take-Two announces Merchant Prince II". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
- "Merchant Prince II for PC Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved November 16, 2011.
- Smith, Ted. "Merchant Prince II - Review". AllGame. All Media Network. Archived from the original on November 17, 2014. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
- Jones, George (September 2001). "Merchant Prince 2" (PDF). Computer Gaming World. No. 206. Ziff Davis. p. 97.
- Grey, Bruce (May 10, 2001). "Merchant Prince II Review". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
- Abner, William (May 19, 2001). "Merchant Prince II". GameSpy. IGN Entertainment. Archived from the original on February 17, 2005. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
- Da bomb mom (June 6, 2001). "Merchant Prince II - PC - Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on June 17, 2009. Retrieved March 24, 2018.
- Butts, Steve (May 7, 2001). "Merchant Prince II". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
- Rice, Kevin (September 2001). "Finals". Next Generation. Vol. 4 no. 9. Imagine Media. p. 88.
- "Merchant Prince II". PC Gamer. Future US. 2001.
- "PC Review: Merchant Prince II". PC Zone. Future plc. 2001.
- Horowitz, Josh (August 11, 2001). "Merchant Prince 2". The Adrenaline Vault. NewWorld.com. Archived from the original on February 28, 2003.
- Conrad, Kent (June 25, 2002). "Merchant Prince II". Exploded Goat. Archived from the original on February 24, 2015.