Are you looking for a game that deals with life and times in the Middle Ages? Are you looking for a game that deals with planning and decision making? Are you looking for a game that is challenging? Well, look no furtherl Look to Castles.

Castles is a game by Interplay Productions that was made for the Medieval Adventurist in all of us. You play the part of the King (circa 1280 - 1305) who is trying to subjugate the outlands and open the way for settlers to go and prosper. There is political intrigue, wars on the border and other interesting aspects (half the fun is not being told everything) associated with the game.

The bulk of the game is designing and building Castles. Designing a castle is not difficult as there are a group of basic building blocks that can be used. There are walls, towers (both circular and square) and the main""gate. You can build small or large castles to your hearts content. My first attempt at this took about 3 minutes for a nice size castle. If only the rest of the game was this easy.

The building of a castle requires the hiring of builders (7 types) and defenders (infantry and archers). There are subtleties and pros and cons to every decision as well as the choice on how much you have to pay each type of employee. The balance between taxation versus building (and defending) the castle can run the gamut from fairly easy to pretty difficult, especially when everyone and their brother is tugging at your coat tails with request for money.

The basic game requires the building of a single castle while the tournament game requires the building of multiple castles in different portions of the territory. Each territory poses its own problems.

One of the really neat things about this game is the graphics in both the building and combat portions. You can actually see the building of the castle walls, moat and towers. You shift the workers to areas that need more workers while trying to utilize them efficiently. Accidents do happen and occasionally a scaffold will collapse killing some workers, a wall will come tumbling down or attackers will destroy a portion of your castle (or the whole thing). This is all part of the tension and fun. It should be noted that Castles can be a bit addictive as you rush to finish your castle before money time and the onslaught of the enemy come to bear.

There are some things that you should be stated. The more building blocks in place (actually constructed, not just designed), the longer it will take to allow the cursor to move across the screen. On a 386 PC with a mouse this was never an issue but with a 286 machine using the keyboard commands it was ponderously slow. Also, it should be noted that those looking to use flashy tactics to win the battles will be somewhat disappointed. You can position your archers on the battlements and your infantry to seek out and destroy the enemy. You can not group them into sections and have real control over them. All infantry will move to meet the enemy except those behind a wall or a moat. Again there is no great control once you have placed them outside/inside or on the walls.

As a quick hint for those who have the game or will get it shortly, try putting multiple towers along a row of walls. The more wall sections linked in a row without a tower between them the greater chance (or it just may be my bad luck) to have something foul happen. It takes more time to build and they generally do not have the support so they crumble.

Finally, it is worthwhile to note that this is a fun game. The few items on the wish list for this game do not diminish its appeal. Castles gives great thrills (as when a castle is completed or an apparently successful enemy attack is wiped out at the walls) and at times feelings of hopelessness (as when you have run out of money in the treasury and the enemy attacks and wipes out your castle). Nonetheless, the game is extremely well designed, fairly well documented and tons of fun. Certainly your computer game collection will be richer in getting this unique game.