Cultures

Cultures
developer	Germany Funatics Development u. a.
Publisher	United States THQ JoWooD Austria
First title	Cultures: The Discovery of Vinland (2000)
Last title	Cultures Online (2010)
Platform (s)	Windows
Genre (s)	Building strategy

Cultures is a series of real-time strategy games from the game developer Funatics based in Oberhausen .

Basic aspects of the series

Cultures is primarily a strategy game, similar to the first two Die-Siedler parts. The series is about the adventures of a Viking tribe, especially the hero Bjarni.

However, the series shows new traits within the genre through the so-called “micromanagement” : every Viking, whether farmer or soldier, has his own needs. So every tribesman must z. B. be provided with enough food or have to sleep. When a worker is tired, he stops work for a short nap until he is rested. In addition, a distinction is made between the sexes in Cultures , and a “supply” of new Vikings can only arise if married couples are formed and asked to have children.

This micromanagement and the resulting rather high learning curve are on the one hand the great incentive for many fans of the series, on the other hand, for many critics, the reason why the series was granted a rather moderate success.

Cultures: The Discovery of Vinland (2000)

The Vinland Discovery ( DEV ) is the first installment in the series and was developed by Funatics in collaboration with the developer Joymania Entertainment , well-known for the Knights & Merchants game . DEV was released in September 2000 and was published by THQ . The campaign is about the search for the sun shards (after part of the sun broke off, it exploded over America in many parts that landed all over the country). In the course of the campaign you have to fight, trade, tribute, etc. the sun shards. a. recovered as most are stolen or worshiped by Indian tribes.

Cultures: Revenge of the Rain God (2001)

With The Revenge of the Rain God an add-on for DEV was released in March 2001 . It expands the game with a new campaign, new races ( Maya ) and new single and multiplayer maps. In the new campaign, a friendly Indian tribe known from DEV is threatened by Mayas. One must defeat the enemy Mayans or pay tributes.

Cultures gold

DEV and the add-on (The Revenge of the Rain God) later appeared together in a so-called "Gold Edition", supplemented by some new cards.

Cultures 2: The Gates of Asgard (2002)

Cultures 2: Die Tore Asgards was published in spring 2002 by the Austrian publisher JoWooD .

The player takes on the role of Bjarni, who fought against evil forces alongside his father Leif Erikson in the previous game The Discovery of Vinland . In Cultures 2 , Bjarni has a vision in which he sees a new threatening threat to the world, the Midgard serpent Jörmungander . In his vision he fights alongside three strangers who become friends in the game and with whom he fights side by side: Hatschi the Saracen , Sigurd, a famous hero from the Franconian Empire, and Cyra, the pretty princess from Byzantium. Together they must face the danger and take on the Midgard Serpent in the final battle.

Cultures 2 offers an expanded military and trading system, interesting role-play bonds, more complex economic and diplomacy functions and a high level of bustle compared to its predecessor .

Stories from the world of cultures

The two parts, originally intended as add-ons to Cultures 2, Reise nach Nordland and Das Echte Weltwunder , were published under the title Tales from the Cultures World in self-distribution with the support of Halycon Media and NBG Multimedia , as JoWooD no longer wanted to maintain the contractual relationship with Funatics .

Both parts have graphics that are more detailed than Cultures 2 , weather effects (snow and rain), an editor with which the players can create their own maps, and an adjustable level of difficulty. Together they later appeared in the Cultures: Die Abenteuerbox package .

Journey to Nordland (2002)

Reise nach Nordland ( RnN ) was published in October 2002 as the first title by Funatics Software GmbH after Funatics Development had to file for bankruptcy due to the financial scandal of the parent company Phenomedia AG . The restart of the company and the resulting scarce funds explain, in addition to the original planning as an add-on, why RnN does not use a new engine , which "real" new parts usually do.

RnN was published in 2003 in English under the title Northland by the publisher GMX Media . Ports for Mac and Linux were made in a reduced form (no multiplayer mode, no editor) by Runesoft (formerly epic interactive).

In RnN the heroine Cyra is kidnapped to Asgard . A demigod who mingles with the heroes gives Cyra an amulet so that the god Odin falls in love with her and no longer pays attention to what is happening in the human world Midgard . Through this the demigod wants to gain dominion over the earth. You have to free Cyra from Asgard and destroy the amulet.

The eighth wonder of the world (2003)

Das Echte Weltwunder ( DAW ) appeared in March 2003 as the second part of the mini-series Stories from the World of Cultures . Also DAW appeared later than Mac version, and in English-language version by GMX Media than 8th Wonder of the World .

Changes compared to RnN are a slightly revised version of the editor, an earthquake effect, as well as new buildings, which, however, cannot be actively built by the player, but are either already on the map and e.g. B. must be protected, or placed by mission scripting after the appropriate building materials have been delivered. There is also a new people with the Egyptians.

The aim of the campaign is to rebuild the seven wonders of the ancient world in order to unite their power in an eighth wonder of the world, thus averting an unspecified phantom threat.

Cultures: The Adventure Box (2003)

In August 2003, the two stories from the world of Cultures appeared together in one box, without any innovations, so this box should have been especially interesting for newcomers. It is not known exactly why this box was published. It seems paradoxical, however, as only four months later a similar box with a larger scope and some innovations appeared.

Cultures: The Saga (2003)

With Cultures: The Saga a compilation of the titles The Discovery of Vinlands (without add-on), Reise nach Nordland and The Eighth Wonder of the World was published in December 2003 .

The interesting thing is that The Saga is basically a new game, which contains the campaigns as well as single and multiplayer cards from RnN and DAW under a common interface. In contrast to the adventure box, you only install one game instead of two. In addition, it contains the new "Drachenland" campaign as well as two exclusive campaigns that were created by a map maker from the community .

However, due to the different engines, DEV is included as an independent game on a second CD .

In the new campaign, the dragon Norbert disappears together with Bjarni and Cyra's son. You are kidnapped and must be rescued by Bjarni and Cyra. With 5 missions, this campaign is not as extensive as the two previous ones.

Cultures Online

Funatics Development is developing an online version of Cultures together with Gamigo . The player not only controls the fortunes of his colony, but also a group of "heroes", so structure and RPG elements are connected with each other. Cultures Online is based on a Flash client and was tested from April 30, 2010 in an unfinished preliminary version ("closed beta"), which was released on June 28, 2010 in a short further ("open beta") version. The final version ran from July 7, 2010. In 2010 Cultures Online was nominated for the audience award at the German Developer Award in the "Best Browser Game" category.

Cultures Online ceased operations at the end of March 2018.

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Browser games
^ Cultures Online - Funatics. Retrieved July 12, 2019 .

[1] Browser games

[2] Cultures Online - Funatics. Retrieved July 12, 2019 .