Merchants of Kaidan

Possibly the most transformative title in the history of gaming, Elite, was essentially a trading game.

Ever since games have sought to follow in its hallowed footsteps. Its perfectly balanced formula of exploration, unpredictability, upgrades and excitement has been elusive, however. The latest game to try and capture the magic is Merchants of Kaidan.

It transports the action from the cold dark of outer space to a rich and detailed fantasy land. Instead of piloting a gleaming spaceship, packed with technology you're pulling a rickety old cart. That's Merchants of Kaidan's first mistake.

Its second is the same one that many other trading games have fallen foul of - what made Elite so enjoyable was the marriage of trading with real-time action. Trading on its own is not only a bit dull, but an often precarious and difficult proposition.

There are various game modes, one with a plot to follow and the others free-form careers of varying lengths. There's also a little box underneath saying "realistic trading model (easy mode)".

I'm flummoxed by why the developer might have done something unrealistic to increase the difficulty. Whatever the reason, you want to check this box. Because this is a very unforgiving game indeed.

You spend most of your time trudging from city to city, buying and selling from a large roster of goods. But the economic model seems somewhat arbitrary.

You might imagine you could buy food and olive oil on the cheap in a village, and sell for a profit in the city. The game also slips you hints about certain places being good to buy or sell particular kinds of goods.

The prices look to be random, however, so you're left guessing until you stumble onto a profitable route by accident.

And after you've made a couple of money-making journeys, the supply and demand economic model flattens the prices. So you're back looking for a workable transaction again.

Trading isn't the only way to make money, though. On your travels you'll have a variety of random encounters.

Sometimes it's robbers or bad omens. Sometimes it's abandoned chests or lost nobles. The latter kinds of event are a good way of making precious extra money.

The pool of events is limited though, and it doesn't do much to add to the narrative.

There are also lots of little side quests to do as another alternative source of income. Again, there's a lack of variety, with most being variations on the pick-up and deliver theme.

Your final major source of moolah is the ability to employ monks and miners to run enterprises on your behalf. In some respects, this is the most interesting method of profiteering.

To found an outpost you have to clear out a likely site, which involves hiring hordes of mercenaries to get ride of monster infestations.

Then you set up your employee to make and hawk their goods. So it's a shame you can only afford the manpower to do this late in the game.

Indeed, much about the game seems to be a mish-mash of poor design decisions and rushed execution. One resource, the illegal Hill Herb, always costs about four times as much as it sells for, everywhere on the map.

The map itself looks lovely, but without place names on the towns and villages, navigation can be a nightmare. And dreadful grammatical errors litter the dense and ponderous flavour text.

There also appear to be some outright bugs. In some taverns you can play a knife game where you have to time stabs between the fingers. But the speed seems to suddenly change from easy to impossible.

It's unfortunate. Merchants of Kaidan has all the constituent parts to be a successful game. The idea of a trading game with role-playing elements is solid. There's a variety of options to explore to make money. Its setting is full of detail and vibrancy.

Yet the title throws these tasty ingredients together in slapdash fashion, with little care for how they work together in the end product. The result is more of a mess than a meal.