Merchant Prince (video game)

The map the player receives from uncle Niccolo resembles those of the period: it is highly accurate close to Venice but grows much less so the further one goes. The mechanic has been praised by reviewers: "Though its gameplay was nowhere near as sophisticated as that of its near contemporary Civilization, Merchant Prince/Machiavelli did a better job of capturing what exploring is really like. Very rarely in the human experience are people pushing into an entirely blank unknown space. There are always rumors, always guesses, always some advice either from locals or past chronicles."[4]

Computer Gaming World called it "an excellent game of strategy and intrigue".[5] Computer Game Review gave it a platinum triad award (high marks from three reviewers) before naming it the magazine's 1994 strategy game of the year. The Swedish magazine High Score scored it as 100%, calling it "a completely brilliant strategy game" (ett fullkomligt lysande strategispel).[6] The German magazine Power Play gave the game a 79%, calling it "a true gem in the genre of economic games" (eine wahre Perle im Genre der Wirtschaftsspiele) and principally faulting its simplistic graphics.[7] On the other hand, PC Player gave it a rating of 56, finding it essentially similar to The Patrician and Hanse,[8] and Game Bytes considered it "almost great", given that the AIs—while otherwise competent—were unable to negotiate and interact at the level of Master of Orion, released the same year.[9]

Merchant Prince was a runner-up for Computer Gaming World's "Strategy Game of the Year" award, which ultimately went to Master of Orion. The editors called Merchant Prince "a strategy game that captures the greed and treachery of medieval Italy even more than the classic Machiavelli boardgame from The Avalon Hill Game Company."[10]

Carter, Tim (July 1994), "Machiavellian Machinations", Computer Gaming World, No. 120 (PDF), pp. 128–132.