‘Dawn of Discovery’ a deep, fun game

• By MILES THORPE
• Digital Media Editor/Game Reviewer
• Published: Aug 17, 2009

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

"Dawn of Discovery" is an interesting, fairly deep world-building game that is set in the early 1400s. While a lot of strategy games focus on war, "Dawn of Discovery" is more about exploring and building settlements.

The game starts off with a good set of tutorial-like missions that help you get an idea of the basic building blocks all settlements will need to be successful.

After five or six of these missions, I was ready for more challenges. I also understood the flow of the game.

In "Dawn of Discovery," when you build settlements you'll be responsible for getting resource depots placed, housing settlers and building churches for their faith. You’ll also have to build lumberyards, breweries and many, many other buildings to make sure your settlers do well on their new land.

As you work your way through the scenarios, you soon find that one of the important goals in playing is to discover the lands of the Orient. With special spices and wares to trade, finding the Orient and existing peacefully with its inhabitants is important. Some diplomacy is needed, and there are a few missions that help you learn how to achieve that.

If working through the scenarios gets dull, there is also an option to just play an open random world game. This is a nice option for those players who have become comfortable with the gameplay and want to play the game without the many helping hands that the scenarios provide.

The game is rendered in bright and colorful detail. Ships sway as they brush through the water, soft clouds roll by when you zoom out and rivers peacefully wind around the landscapes. The detail of the buildings is well-done, and the villagers who walk your settlement’s streets help make the game feel alive.

Good sound effects help augment the detailed graphics, but the musical score is of special note. Soft orchestral pieces play while you wander the open seas. This changes to a more lush and robust arrangement when you are in a busy town.

With so much under the hood in "Dawn of Discovery," its hard to make note of it all in just a simple review. Many hours can be spent exploring the islands of the high seas looking for suitable ore mines or foreign people with whom to trade. With the massive selection of things to build, the game really holds a lot of fun for those who enjoy more city building over warfare in their strategy games.