The description of 1849 - Play With New Friends
Yeeehhaaawww! Giddy up 'cause we're heading out California way Grab your pickaxe and get caught up in the California gold rush in Somasim's western town-building sim, 1849.South of the Oregon Trail1849 was a crazy year in the United States. People traveled from all over the world to go out to Northern California to try their luck at striking gold. Small settlements that had hundreds of people, such as San Francisco, turned into "boomtowns" that housed thousands of people over the span of months. 1849 puts you in charge of these towns as you to try to expand and exploit the land.striking goldSan FranciscoEach level in 1849 is based in a town in Northern California and has a number of objectives that must be completed in order to advance. Usually these objectives involve shipping a certain number of goods to another city or raising your population to a certain number. You're also given a bonus to start with in 1849 which is something along the lines of cash, free trade routes, or some buildings.shipping a certain number of goodsYour settlement in 1849 initially starts out small with a few shacks, a depot for storing your supplies, and some place for your settlers to work. As you construct more buildings and open up trade, your city will expand and more people move to the town. In terms of gameplay, 1849 is fairly standard town-building sim fare. You manage your steadily growing town by resource-producing farms and ranches while also keeping an eye on safety and welfare by building sheriffs offices and fire brigades.resource-producing farms and ranchesThe best way to ensure that your city will grow is to check out the resources you can export. If you don't, you run the risk of getting caught in the frustrating trap of making just enough money to pay the bills, but not expand.The gameplay works well in 1849 and there's something oddly satisfying about achieving the objectives and watching your sparse plot of land grow from a couple of shacks to a vibrant, mansion-filled city. If there's two glaring problems I found with 1849, it's that it requires a bit too much micromanagement and it's too realistic. There are tons of resources in the game including stone, gold, iron, hides, salt, meat, pickaxes, lumber, fabric, cotton, grapes, and so on. Each of these resources needs to be micromanaged which can become daunting, especially given how fast they get used up.gameplay works well in 1849too much micromanagement too realisticAs your city grows it needs more types of complex resources. For example, to upgrade your housing from large houses to small mansions, the residents will want furniture. In order to make furniture you must log or import lumber, refine the lumber at a saw mill, and finally build a furniture makers shop. It feels convoluted, albeit realistic, and can make 1849 drag on a bit. large houses to small mansionsIt's also difficult to keep up with resource usage. Your town burns through resources and citizens start moving out almost immediately if they can't get access to something like fabric. Since there are so many different types of resources, it's difficult to tell how many you have. To avoid this, it's a good idea to periodically tap on the buy/trade button which shows your stockpiles. It can also be frustratingly difficult (and realistic!) when your only option for something as crucial to lumber is to import it.difficult to keep up with resource usageHow to grow your townThe controls in 1849 work surprisingly well on a tablet. The screen isn't overloaded with alerts and control panels are hidden away and pop out when tapped on which frees up the rest of the screen. The tapping feels intuitive and the only real issue I found was when laying down roads which was tricky because it's not possible across the map.screen isn't overloaded with alertsOddly enough, buildings in 1849 can't be rotated, but they're easy enough to place and more often than not, cities turn out looking more neat and orderly rather chaotic. There's also helpful hints to push you in the right direction and the game's learning curve is appropriately implemented. buildings in 1849 can't be rotatedUnderwhelming graphicsUnfortunately, one of the weaker points of 1849 are the graphics. Instead of going towards a hyper-realistic look, the graphics are quite cartoony. However cartoony as they might be, they still look a bit dated and you're likely to see lots of repeated character models. Most people don't play sim games for the graphics and they won't take too much away from the gaming experience.graphics are quite cartoonyThe music for 1849 is generic Western guitar Musak that sounds like it's from a cowboy town at a theme park. Like the graphics, the music isn't of a high quality, but it doesn't take anything away from the game and definitely doesn't distract. There's also a wide array of sound effects from all the buildings which can get irritating due to how loud they are, but it does admittedly add to the realism in 1849.generic Western guitar Musakwide array of sound effectsA bit too realistic, but still a good timeAlthough it's possible to get bogged down in micromanagement of your resources, 1849 is still a fun and addictive town-building sim.
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