Great Invasions

[goodwoodrw]

G'day all, has anybody here played this game at at around 20 bucks it seems good value any comments

[ravinhood]

$20 bucks did I hear $20 bucks? hahah Usually a game that cheap right out of the chute isn't very good. What I read about it I didn't like. You start out playing one faction and could end up playing several factions and the faction you started out with is going to be dissolved and I just didn't like the concept idea of the game at all. I pretty much want to live and die with the faction I choose, not have the game choose which factions I am going to play and how long they last.

[Gibbon]

Great Invasions is a 2005 game, to find it at 20$ is no surprise to me.

Pros:
The whole concept of moving from one nation to another is pretty weird at first, but when you get into it you realise this is the only way to play this period where empires rised and fell in turn... Barbarians became Kingdoms, became Empire, became decadent and were crushed by new Barbarians.
If you are interested in the Dark Age, the game is quite historically accurate. You understand a lot of things in Europe playing it. Also, the game depth is awesome. This is the kind of game, you can discover new tricks each time you play it. However, just like WitP, to actually finish a grand campaign asks for a lot of time and commitment. I finished one, I had a hell of a fun, but I don't think I can afford to try again!

Cons:
- the User Interface set easiness standards for the Forge of Freedom interface (sigh);
- The game was buggy upon release and we had to wait patch 1.04 to be able to actually play it
- GI uses the Europa Universalis engine, or a clone (no surprise as they were designed by the same guy). I don't like RTS too much. I have always felt this game should have been Turn based, just like BoA, CoG or FL.

I don't play it anymore as it's not Vista compatible, but if you are smarter than me and have kept an XP computer, I think 20$ is a good bargain as the game engine is now pretty neat.

Cheers

[Hertston]

I took the plunge on this after my similar post in the Birth of America forum went unanswered. A very good game actually, despite a few UI quirks.

Despite Ravinhood's usual uninformed comments the system used was chosen for a reason and it works very well as a way of dealing with the historical period chosen. You always get a reasonably balanced game, and you can do so with some surprisingly realistic 'historical' results that you would never get with the usual "conquer the map" stuff. You can influence how long one faction lasts to a limited extent, but rise, decline and fall is rather built in and is more-or-less inevitable at some stage, and the trick to to accomplish with each what you can. The bidding system is cool, too.. you can bid to adopt new arising factions but only at a subrtantial cost in VPs - is it worth it or not?

Imagine a more refined and entertaining version of the Medieval Total War strategic game but without the tactical game, with a large dollop of Europa Universalis. Worth the money, and it's one of those that is genuinely educational, too; you will learn a lot about the period.

[ravinhood]

Uninformed? Hardly I descirbed the game exactly as it is you start out playing one faction and end up playing many more than the one you started with. Quit lying about how informed I am Hertson. Thanks. If you want to talk about a game of your opinion that's fine. Leave me out of it with your uninformed lying words about me. Thanks Herston knows no more about the game than I do. He likes to make elitist comments about others like that, typical of the troll he is here though.

[cdbeck]

It got pretty bad reviews, the graphics are HOI 2 level (if not a bit worse) and I hear the learning curve it rather steep. Not sure what the above fight is about, as Ravinhood is correct about the game leading towards leading different factions (you start as say, the Goths, then you create a kingdom that subsequently can break apart of get invaded by other factions (that you eventually get to control). As with the orginal Europa Universalis games (not III) there is an extensive and somewhat scripted historical event system that can really ruin... ummm... augment your plans. I understand that the religion system is rather fun, although I know little about it. I haven't played it, even though I love the time period. It just now became available in the US, at the aformentioned discount price.

Here is a link to a pretty exhaustive review that captures a lot of the problems/high points of the game:

Worth Playing Review of Great Invasions

Personally, if you link the EU series, you can't really go wrong with the price. Be warned that there initially a lot of bugs and the learning curve was fairly high. Of course, I recently acquired the JoWood game The Guild 2 for $12, so I'm not one that gets bothered by these sorts of problems.

SoM

[ravinhood]

How is the Guild 2 SoM? I found it for $7.40 and was thinking about getting it. I had visited the official forum and many are saying it's not as good as The Guild 1400 Gold because it's real time all the time now and much of the features that are in The Guild 1400 are not in the newer version, but, there are new things that aren't in The Guild 1400 Gold something to do with family relationships and marraiges and such now. Please INFORM this UNINFORMED person that Herston believes I am. lol

[Hertston]

Sigh.... never mind.

[cdbeck]

Weeell... For $7.60 (on Amazon, I persume) you can't go wrong IF, and really only IF you are a big fan of Europa 1400 Gold. I'll agree, they left out lots of the old offices, and it seems like there are fewer items to manufacture. The marriage system is sooooooo banal, but once you hook yourself a lady you can quickly forget about it and move along (until your child comes of age and you have to do it with them). I have found that the system allows for a bit more diversity, and it is fun to build a farm, then marry a craftswoman and built a tailor shop to use all of the leather and wool created by your farm. I wouldn't say, other than graphics, that the game is a huge leap forward from Europa 1400, basically the same mechanics.

There are tons of little quirks and bugs, I even had problems applying the 1.30 patch! Finally got it all patched up and ready to run, and things are a bit better (thank God I didn't buy it when it first came out, apparently it constantly CTD and the like). There is a new add-on out that adds some of those old offices, adds the pirate, fisherman, and medicus profession, but they play relatively the same (at least it seemed so from the demo). Give it a shot for $8.00, you probably won't be overly disappointed. I wouldn't buy it for more than $19.99 though...

SoM