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The Settlers: Rise of an Empire

The Settlers has been around a long time - I first recall playing a Settlers game on the good old Amiga, almost fifteen years ago, and the current incarnation is the sixth title in the series. Settlers has always been a Real Time Strategy (RTS) game with the emphasis on building a city with complex supply chains to support the expansion of the population and recruiting of an army to crush the opposition. Blue Byte has kept on moulding the concept along the way, and it has stayed incredibly popular in Germany.

However, I'm not German, and I must admit straight up that while I'm familiar with the original Settlers from the dawn of PC gaming, I've missed most of the numerous sequels along the way. What I've gathered from various sources, is that it appears that Blue Byte has returned to the roots of the series and simplified the game in major ways, while the visuals have been upgraded to modern standards.

My own initial impressions confirm these reports - things do start out very simple. In some ways the game starts out simpler than in the very first Settlers, with key parts of the city pre-built and with very few available building types and simple mission goals. The tutorial has been included as a part the single player campaign, with game concepts introduced in small chunks as the campaign picks up. I would have personally preferred a separate tutorial, included for those who need the hand-holding, but in a way the built-in tutorial makes things tidier, as you learn all the nuances of the game by playing.

Page 1: IntroductionPage 2: Managing Cities & SettlersPage 3: Creating an army to expandPage 4: Quests, Art & IssuesPage 5: Hardware Reqs & PerformancePage 6: Final Thoughts & Scores

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