When I first started up Gold of the Americas - The Conquest of the New World, I couldn't help but remember Colonization, one of the most known and most loved games about the Colonial Age. In itself, though, Gold of the Americas is almost nothing like Colonization. The emphasis clearly lies on the strategic elements, which I will explain later on.
The game features four peoples to choose from, you can either invite three friends and play with them on one computer, or you let the computer take over the others. The former of the two is not to be recommended, because you cannot honestly expect your friends to come back again and again and again to play with you. Because it does take a long long time to conquer the New World.
As I was saying, the strategic elements of the game are the most important ones. This means that you have to be smart about allocating your resources, managing your trading, and organizing your people's moves.
Gold of the Americas has some nice features that make it interesting, like the ability to hire Pirates to work for you and annoy your opponents. Also, you don't just play until the declaration of Independence, you can decide the continent's fate for hundreds of years. Try and do that in real life.
Graphically, the game is not too interesting, it mostly has boring 16-colour EGA graphics, and the gameplay is not too exciting, either. In short, Gold of the Americas will probably only appeal to those that can confidently call themselves "Hardcore" Strategy nuts. 3 of 5 points from me.