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Set in the 18th century, Merchant Colony is all about dominating world trade. You play a merchant who decides on trade routes, cargoes and the exploration of foreign lands, and your aim is ultimately to become extremely rich.

You control the game via the mouse. The main screen is your office and by clicking on the different items in the room you can access the control screens. Click on the ship and you can buy, equip and stock your ships. The map icon enables you to send your ship on its voyage. The book icon tells you about current prices for sailors, settlers, explorers and sundry employees. Your ledger enables you to view detailed accounts of your progress.

After equipping one of your ships, you choose a destination and send it out to colonise the area. The type of crew and passengers you choose for the voyage depends entirely on your ship's ultimate destination. The most expensive employee is the storesman and the cheapest a soldier, with settlers, engineers and so on lying in between. You must manage your resources well to get on.

You can have only one ship in dock at a time, so you need to keep sending ships out to get a return on your money. The date clock counts down at an alarmingly fast rate so you can't muck about if you want to succeed.

Merchant Colony has considerable depth and excellent graphics. It's easy to see this becoming a favourite with strategists because it has plenty of long term interest. It's nice to see a strategy game with decent gameplay and a style all of its own.