Cultures 2: The Gates of Adgard is an isometric management strategy game, sequel to Cultures (released almost two years ago). In Cultures 2 you have to explore the Age of the Vikings as hero Bjarni and his fellow Vikings (well known from "Cultures - Discovery of Vinland") are living on the coast of Greenland. One day Bjarni has a vision in which he is fighting with three unknown heroes against the horrible snake Midgard to prevent the end of the world. Now he must search out the answers to his vision... On his way he comes across the realms of the brave Franconia's, the technologic Byzantines and the mystic Saracens. The goal of the game is to unite these three realms and then to go fight the final battle with the snake.
Cultures 2 features ten missions with several subquests and flexible game design allowing non-linear play, 4 heroes that join forces to fight the final battle (each of them with a distinctive character and look), over 30 different occupational groups, updated job and skills systems, improved graphics and AI, and of course plenty of new models, textures, peoples, animals. Similarly to the original, you can choose from several game modes: Single player (Mission based or Free play) and Multiplayer (up to six players via LAN or Internet). I liked the unique game play that provided Cultures, though it had a little of everything from all the RTS games out there. While the gameplay of Cultures 2 remains quite the same, it adds lots of micro-management or rather too much micro-management, along with ability to search for hidden chests (they can bring you a lot of goodies such as production speed up, soldiers, weapons, armor, food, health potions etc) and possibility to upgrade existing buildings. If you have enjoyed the original you will like this Cultures 2 though prepare your self to spend so much time maintaining your people. Download playable demo (72MB).