Spice Road

The graphics are cheap and cheesy but the systsem requirements so low this game will probably run well on a George Foreman grill. Spice Road reminds me of Railroad Tycoon -- optimizing finances and spending a good bit of time interpreting spread sheet data -- logistics. But where I got tired of Railroad Tycoon rather quickly, this game keeps my interest by having a bit of Civilization (the Sid Myers series) thrown in. The ability to train guard units and send them out alone or embedded in caravans really rounds out the game nicely. In the future, I hope there are more types of military units than simply "Guards," or some small expansion of combat. There are many types of buildings to put in your cities and choices to be made about when to level them up which also helps this game be more compelling than simply optimizing spread sheets. The depth of game is quite good. Don't be fooled by early missions; there are like 20 missions for a good reaon -- it takes that long to learn the basi...

I can highly recommend this game to anyone who enjoys logistics & economical strategy games. It reminds me a bit of some of my old favorites, such as Railroad Tycoon 3 or Capitalism 2. To the people who say this is an easy game, they didn't give it enough time. If you put it on hard, some of the scenarios in the first act even can be difficult. I'm sure it will increase the challenge in later acts as well. It isn't just "put down some buildings and watch numbers change". That would be like saying the Civilization series is just building units and sending them to fight. You have to think about: - where to place camps - when to upgrade - which buildings to build RIGHT NOW, vs which to build later, vs which to never build. - There are a variety of considerations to deal with: limited budgets (this is the main restriction), competing factions taking up good spaces if you aren't fast enogh, bandits taking out your caravans, etc. With a limited budget, you really do have to think ab...

Some of the other reviews give this game a thumbs down for not being SimCity; I give this game a thumbs up primarily for not being SimCity. It tries to do something different, and while it could use a TON more polish and mechanics that add a bit more depth and variety that keep it fresh for a longer period of time, the game is different enough that it scratches a managerial itch of mine I have trouble finding good ways to scratch. Unlike a lot of trading games that demand you manually perform boring, routine transactions yourself, Spice Road automates nearly all the routine tasks. That said, this is where it starts to run into problems, because it has the Final Fantasy XII problem of automating the simple, routine actions, but then not adding in anything else for you to actually do once you've set up the routine. That said, to counter one of the complaints about the game made by some of the other reviewers, there's nothing particularly wrong with being able to hold TAB and spee...

This game is a pure indie gem. It scratches the trading itch Railroad Tycoon III had left and the Port Royale series failed to take over with very nicely designed game mechanics. Add to it a bit of citybuilding and strategy and... voila ! It is very replayable.

"~5/10" According to My Own Ratings. It's an interesting game. Rather ugly even for a merchant/management one. But the main problem is that you can't really play the sandbox mode without going through the whole (boring) campaign mode. The sandbox mode is unlocked from the start, but everything is locked there. So far, I couldn't find out if it has anything new at all. I tried the sandbox mode, found it a bit annoying that I couldn't figure out how to unlock the new buildings, read the in-game help, it didn't help at all. So, I assumed it would take some illogical sequence of steps and went to campaign mode to check how it's done... it's exactly how I expected it to be in the first place. And when I hopped back into sandbox mode, the option had magically appeared. I thought I didn't pay enough attention the first time, so I tried some more and that's just how it is. The options are missing from sandbox mode or locked until you do the campaings to unlock them. It's a deal breaker f...

Based on the description, I felt it had the potential to be a fun city builder in the same vein as Pharaoh. Unfortunately it's a bland game where the TAB key becomes your best friend to fast forward through mundane objectives. Simply put, this game is a disappointment.

Game got old pretty quickly. You throw buildings down and wait for numbers to change.

I thought had potential... I like it's attempt to work but it's too clunky. The camera pan is all but useless along with zoom etc.. The game could use some loving... but I wouldn't buy it if I were you...

I find these raving positive reviews about this game highly suspicious. This game is very small on content, feels like a simple flash game. And it still looks more like an early beta game, even though it is advertised as a finished product. Beware.

I bought this game when it was in early release -- anyway, a few months ago. Played the campaign through and enjoyed it immensely. Fairly quick learning curve. Fun to play.