Ultimate Domain

Ultimate Domain is a game strategy developed by Microïds and published by Mindscape International Ltd.. Originally released in United Kingdom, United States in 1994. Currently you can download and play the game for DOS.

A very underrated empire-building game, Ultimate Domain (or Genesia, as it's known in Europe) is a bit of a cross between Bullfrog's Populous and Sid Meier's Civilization, but with some unique twists.

The plot is as follows: long ago, the king of Genesia defied the gods by giving the sacred jewels to his beloved. Angry, the gods cursed the land, resulting in years of drought and famine. Years later, three of the king's descendants return to the land. Only one can obtain forgiveness from the gods by retrieving the Jewels of Neort.

There are two ways to win the game: either you are the first to recover 7 of the 9 jewels, or you eliminate all your opponents. However, as the jewels are scattered all over the territory, the two ways require similar strategies, as you must invade the enemies' lands to capture their jewels and defend yours against attacks.

The gameplay of Ultimate Domain is undoubtedly its strongest point. It's multifaceted, varied and gets deeper and more engaging the more you play, although it bogs down in the later stages due to micromanagement (there's no 'auto-build' option, for example). As in other empire-building classics, success in Ultimate Domain requires a fine balance between economy, military and research into new technologies. Trade is crucial to obtain the raw materials you don't have in your lands, needed to construct buildings. As in Sid Meier's Colonization, you have to assign jobs to each citizen of the land, e.g. settlers, architects, lumberjacks, farmers, and so on. Therefore, proper allocation of your manpower is the key to winning the game.

Ultimate Domain features many small details that set it apart from other games, such as seasonal effects. For example, autumn is the best time to cut wood, and you'll need plenty of surplus food to survive the winter. The graphics change to reflect the season you are in, and are quite nice to look at (although the overall tone of the game is a bit dull). Another interesting detail is the numerous technologies (here called 'crafts') that you can research and implement through inventions built by your inventors (who must work in workshops built by architects). There are over 70 inventions you can develop, most of which (such as balloons and swords) are great fun to watch once put into action. You can also hang out in the tavern to listen to adventurers' advice on locating jewels, and make offerings to the gods in temples to boost the morale of your population.

On the downside, the AI is nothing to write home about. While the computer players manage their lands quite effectively in terms of resource management and trade, their military tactics are very poor. This means that the outcome of most battles is determined more by the number of troops and level of technology (e.g., whether they are sword-equipped), than by strategic planning. Ultimate Domain also suffers from the same weaknesses shared by many European games: below-average graphics and a cumbersome user interface. It would be much better if the game's most important functions could be accessed from the icons on the main screen of the isometric map (a la Populous), rather than having to click on each building to bring up a separate screen, and then click on a few more items inside to bring up a menu where you can do something.

However, despite all these weaknesses, Ultimate Domain is a deep and engaging strategy game that fans of the genre should enjoy, once they get used to the interface and poor graphics.Two thumbs up!

It is possible that we have multiple downloads for few games when there are different versions available.