The settlers game review
It might not set your pulse racing on a regular basis but it’s easy to get caught up in a tantalising tussle or two over a mountain that’s filled with gold to mine. There is a lengthy main story campaign to progress through, with specific targets to achieve in each level, but arguably the most fun is to be had from setting a Freeplay game where you have to out build and outfight rival AI controlled Settlers. For the impatient, turning up the game speed can help you rattle through the levels at a less pedantic pace. Just like it did a decade ago, the intricacies of fitting as many vital structures into your initially small home town is a real challenge and moving steadily across the map is still a satisfying experience, if not a particularly dramatic one. This might sound a tad uninvolving to veterans of other modern city builder titles but The Settlers II’s barebones approach is what makes it so engaging. There are no complex tech trees to master, so anyone with a grasp of simple logic, or the patience to sit through the pleasingly brief tutorials, won’t struggle with the game’s mechanics. With the combat relying on little more than a Risk-style odds system (if you have more men then, chances are, you’ll win), the resource collecting and building make up the main meat of the game. Plus, if you secure a beach and build a harbour then your tiny Settlers, who retain the original’s caricature cute appeal, can sail off to find new areas to explore. In the meantime, a geologist can be sent off to find better resources, like iron and gold, and you can happily construct more and more buildings to develop each industry’s productivity, which is essential to further expansion. Armour-clad warriors can then be ordered to invade enemy territory (with just one point and click) or defend your base from attacks. With basic buildings like a woodcutter’s hut and a bakery in place, along with plenty of roads to allow goods and tools to be carried easily, it’s time to start expanding your empire by putting barracks on the edges of the settlement and manning them with soldiers.
Resource management and careful planning are the keys to successful leadership, and your initial goal is to build up all the stocks of wood, food, stone and other essentials that your thriving populace will need.
Your settlement starts off small, with just a headquarters and an army of willing workers, but gradually you can build bigger and bigger towns that expand across each map. Now the Y chromosome blessed must embark on an epic journey to conquer and cultivate vast uncharted territory, sail stormy seas and battle rival races, all in the name of finding more good women of course. To cap it all off, Biblical plagues and disasters have wreaked havoc on their land, forcing the male populace to head to pastures new. The Settlers II is little more than a spruce up job on a strategy classic but, when the design was so sublime to begin with, why change anything drastic?Ī pre-game intro sequence reminds players that the little men under your control once had women to help bake their bread and fill their beds (apparently these were the only tasks they fulfilled but we’ll let this minor sexism slide) but, for mysterious reasons, they have all disappeared. When you boot up this lovingly crafted remake, though, prepare to feel a welcome wash of nostalgia for a time when finding a really good hunting spot or opening your first gold mine was a genuine cause for gaming celebration. It seems impossible that 10 years have past since I first played The Settlers II back in 1996, but time has a nasty habit of creeping past and making you forget some of those gaming classics of yesteryear. Personally, I’d rather keep the ladies and get less milling done but, hey, each to their own.
The settlers game review series#
To prove a point it’s remade the most beloved of the Settlers series to remind lazy men folk what we could achieve everyday if women are taken out of the equation. At least that’s what developer Blue Byte appears to believe. In the absence of the fairer sex, men will mine coal, smelt iron and even bake bread just to keep their minds occupied. One thing you will learn from playing The Settlers II is what men will resort to when all their women disappear for some unknown reason.