Marco Polo, to be published by I-Motion, is a trading game. It has two main features that set it apart from other games of the genre. The first is the historical period that it takes place in. To the best of my knowledge, this is one of the first games that examines the Mongolian Empire in a non-wargame format. Players will travel from the Christian west, through lands held by the Saracens, and into the courts of the great Khan.
The second feature that sets it apart is the documentary included on the disk. The developer, Philips Interactive Media, used film clips and stills from a Marco Polo TV series (presumably shown on European television û I've never heard of it, and I'm a documentary hound) to build an interesting and informative multimedia presentation on the subjects covered by the game.
The use of multimedia features extends into the game as well. When dickering with merchants, their reactions are conveyed via digitized speech, rather than text boxes. Even the help feature uses full voice. Short film clips are presented during travels as well.
Taken for what it is û a basically simple trading game embellished with lots of glitter, and also containing enough historical fact to teach while being played (and even as light reference material after the game is finished) û Marco Polo should be a hit for its intended audience. Should I-Motion offer an option to shut down the multimedia add-ons, it might appeal to an even broader range of gamers.
