Simulation games were popularized with games such as The Sims, Sim City and Roller Coaster Tycoon. These were the casual gamers’ dream games, and since then the simulation genre has been huge. However, with any genre, there are some iffy games - you might think this is one of those - but they always say “don’t judge a book by its cover.”

Dawn of Discovery revolves around the story of King George’s two sons, William and Edward. King George’s land and people are struggling, and he calls for his two sons for advice. One son says conquer and the other one says expand by gathering resources. So, King George takes the advice of his two sons in good measure, and decides to look for other undiscovered lands to expand to, to make a better life for his people. The basic premise is to help your people in any way possible, and to make sure they are happy. Along the way, you will encounter countless problems domestically along with pirates and your overly paranoid brother.

The object of the game is to expand the kingdom by creating civilizations with houses, material-making buildings such as hemp and clothes “factories,” food farms such as grain farms, and tons of other buildings that will benefit in helping the community you create. You will have to watch many other things as well such as economy, needs of your people, attacks and so much more. There are a ton of things to keep an eye on when building a community.

There will also be some significant challenges players will encounter other than keeping people happy. Pirates or corsairs travel the seas, and have no problem in sinking your ship. Yes, sometimes treasure is available and you must seek it out. Therefore, it is a battle for the treasure - you vs. getting your ship sunk.

The story mode is played through with continuous dialogue and hints throughout the game. It almost feels as if the whole story could be a tutorial at times. Of course, there are options of turning off voice dialogue and lowering the hints, but even then, the dialogue is way too long and gets annoying going through it just to pass another part of the mission. Another thing Dawn of Discovery fell short on is the story. Although the art was good, it felt too much like a storybook than a game. Even for younger gamers, I don’t think this game will appeal to them. Sadly, I’m afraid they may get too bored with it, too quickly.

Thankfully, Dawn of Discovery does have an option of continuous play where you can play without missions (a sandbox mode). You specify what you want to do and how much you wish to start with, and you play it until you want to quit. This is what makes a simulation game great.  Adding this mode was a very smart idea, which ultimately will result in the success of this game. The fun of simulation games comes from just creating something and building something of your own without characters talking your ears off at every moment you want to build.

On the more technical side, the graphics were good enough for a Wii simulation title. The controls were great, and worked just as equal as other titles. The Wii-mote and nunchuck definitely brought a more organized way to play the simulation. But again, the best thing was just continuous gameplay where you didn’t have to worry about completing a mission - it's just good, simple fun.

Dawn of Discovery for the Nintendo Wii is a great simulation title that will have you entranced for hours. The problems were the storybook atmosphere of the game, which was a bad idea, and if created a different way, it would have definitely benefited the overall game.  Although the story mode bogged down the game a little bit, the continuous gameplay mode will rise up and make players forget all about the game-long tutorial.

Gameplay: 8.7
Don’t be turned off by the ridiculous story mode. Point your cursor at the continuous mode, and go at it. This will have you playing for hours and you will be glad you didn’t give up on the game.

Graphics: 7.7
Graphics for Dawn of Discovery aren’t the most magnificent you will ever see, but they definitely work well with the title. Some camera options might have been nice to have when dealing with the visuals.

Sound: 7.5
A wide variety of voices, sound effects and tracks were available on this title, and most of them pleased the ears.

Difficulty: Medium
Balancing economy, your people’s happiness and materials can be quite a multi-tasking effort and challenging at times.

Concept: 8.5
Simulations have been popular for a long time now, but this new take on simulations with combination of a point-and-click style of the Wii make for a breath of fresh air in the simulation genre.

Overall:  8.0
Dawn of Discovery will probably be the best game to come out of nowhere in a long time. If you don’t give up on it due to its story mode, you will get many hours of fun out of this title.