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Drastic improvements over the previous, back to the settlers we know

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 31 / 34
Date: October 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If you've played Settlers 1 or Settlers 2, this would be very familiar for you.

1. Focused on building your econ & city planning.
2. Military is very small part, can only build swordsmen and archers. + some siege.
3. Graphics - it's good enough for game like this.
4. Music - very good actually, many different songs.
5. Multiple Generals for you to choose from, each with their own passive ability and special power. Actually makes a significant impact on the gameplay. This really increases the reply value.
6. Length - Haven't finish or gone very far yet. About mid game. Games like this there is plenty of replay value in it even after you finish the campaign.

Some issues:

1. Slow - there is no time adjusting or speed increase, so some parts does feel a bit slow. Nice to have a EGM or some magazine handy while playing.
2. Walling - Very difficult to wall correctly with the 3D terrain.
3. Very long saves, takes well over 1 minute for a save, at first thought my computer froze cause it took so long.
4. Military - Even though this is more of a sim game than RTS, the warfare could of been a little more deeper. Maybe an addition of Cavalry Unit or Kights to spice things up a bit.

Overall, it's an enjoyable game. Nothing major new, if you liked Settler 1 or 2, this one gives you more of it with minor improvements on the overall gameplay.

Consider this a PREview

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 41
Date: July 30, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Obviously I'm uncomfortable rating a game that isn't out and that I have not played. I have, however, spent a lot of time with older Settlers games, the very old ones, Settlers (which was released in the US as "Serf City") and The Settlers II. These original games were much less about combat and more about building up a city. It felt like placing little toy men and castles, only they were alive. They went about their lives, woodcutters chopping wood for the haulers to take to the sawmill for the millman to turn into lumber for the builders to make a bakery for the baker to...

You get the idea.

Now imagine that in incredibly detailed, beautiful 3D graphics. 3D, polygonal graphics have finally come of age, after the jagged, stupid looking (in my opinion) 3D of the PlayStation era, and just looking at screenshots, I can feel myself being drawn into this little world. In many ways, this is more of a simulation than a strategy game.

After Settlers II, the series tended to become more combat oriented. This was a mistake, in my opinion, and the games suffered critical disclaim and generally poor reviews.

I am sincerely hoping this is a return to the roots of the series and that it's successful on all fronts. I'm quite looking forward to playing it. In the words of the producer, "This is no longer a game about combat; it's about building," and in the words of a British game journalist, (paraphrase) "It feels like the perfect game for a relaxing Sunday afternoon with a glass of merlot. While other games seem anxious and frantic, this one seems peaceful."

That's what I want to hear, as I'm quite tired of frantic, difficult strategy games, and this kind of world creation, and watching my world operate, while still existing in a goal-oriented environment, is exactly what I want and what I'm looking forward to.

I am (perhaps erroneously) basing my review scores on my rather high expectations for the game, so please keep that in mind. Again, this is a preview. I have no played the game, nor has it been released at time of writing.

Just fun - that's it.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 16 / 19
Date: October 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The game is just damn fun. It starts off very easy (a little too easy) but towards the end it gets pretty dang hard. So far, I'm having an absolute blast with it and am almost done with the game. I'd love to see a custom map generator.

My only complaint is the sandbox games; some of the maps are just boring. However, since the campaign has been so much fun; I gave it a full 5 stars.

(and the guy that gave it 2 stars - played 15 minutes.. um, hello?

How to get around the "please insert original disc" message.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 12, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The game is great, but the copy protection is annoying. Ubisoft offers no web-based support for this game, but BlueByte forums.

1)Install game.
2)Install patches.
3)DVD is only for installation; Remove it.
4)Click the desktop icon for the game.
5)Choose the button that says "activation."
6)Enter your key, at the back of the manual book.
7)Download the text file from the website that opens.
8)Open it & copy everything.
9)Paste everything into the box that wants the rediculously long activation code.
10)Play without & disc, enjoy the fruis of your labor.

I CCB )combat city builders) recommend the Age of Ampires & the Anno series (aka 1503/1703 AD).

A Must have if you love all things Medieval

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: November 05, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I have to say that to me this is a very similar game to Stronghold 2. I patched the game and then it auto-patched when I restarted it before I started playing out of the box. After hours of play, I've had one hard lock-up where I had to reboot. I save often so it didnt impact me. It seems to be much more stable now that the patches are out compared to other reviews here. I'm playing with the default video options which to me are just fine. The graphic artwork is absolutely fantastic. The water looks like realy fluid water and the animations is high quality.

This is a "make-your-people-happy" game. Dont get this game expecting to have the depth of military combat that Stronghold 2 does, but I'm quite happy I purchased it since I love the Medieval time period. This is another way to observe the mechanics of medieval society.

The only real combat strategy for your swordsmen and archers and siege engines (that's all you get), is to mass on the enemy and win by numbers. This game has MUCH potential.

My hope is an expansion with mounted cavalry (archers, swordsmen and lancemen) and add pikemen and crossbowmen to the footsoldiers... then add the ability to control your troops with formations, etc... along with a few new resources you could gather, like a fish/eel farm, cobbler's hut, and alchemist hut for starters, you could even add clockmaker's and toymaker's huts for kicks and what about a ship builder? You have docks that are built into some scenarios, so why not make a dock available to build? I don't like how you get a candlemaker, carpenter and blacksmith only after you have upped your knight to the highest level. Those professions were always some of the first and most vital needed up front.

I have to say though, ulitmately, after I hooked up my 5.1 surround options in game and upped the quality of sound, I was taken just a bit deeper into game play. Very nice.

Things to actually improve in game: 1. Military aspect is lacking greatly both in variety and control. This is the number one problem with this game in my oppinion. And they need the ability to build fires closeby so they can produce torches, instead of having to run all the way back to base to get more...building fires was easily done and it's frustrating that you can't.
2. if your fishing hut is built too close to the water, sometimes, only one fisherman can get to the fish at a time. If you upgrade the fishing hut you can have up to 3 fishermen working the same resource. Also, when it's winter and the water freezes over the fishermen can't fish. In real life they could actually cut a hole in the ice but I've found when the narrator announces, "A fisherman can't find any fish." it's usually spring time and the water is thawing out, so the timing is off on that. Long winters are a drag in the northern scenarios. 3. when you touch the edge of your screen to move around, it's a bit choppy so map movement needs some work.

I feel confident that patches and expansions will do justice to this game. It can only get better from here.

good game if you have a good computer

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: February 07, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game b/c i was getting bored w/ Sims 2 and all their expansions and i played Stronghold 2 and beat the game over and over again and the one thing i liked about Stronghold was the micromanagement, i'm not a big fan of building armies and going to attack people.

I gave this game a good score b/c it's fun to play, easy to learn, as you keep playing the different missions they get harder each time and for those of us who have lives and can't take hours on end to play a game this is a great substitute. Plus this game incorporates weather conditions so depending on which terrain you are on it's harder to play. (example: playing in the dessert is much harder than playing in a 4 season area).

This game isn't for someone who likes to build up armies and destroy civilizations, go play Stronghold 2 or Civilizations. This game is for people who like managing cities and dealing w/ economy and watching your settlers go about life.

The graphics in this game are amazing! BUT you must have a very fast CPU and graphic's card to really enjoy this game. I started playing this on my computer which i bought 2 years ago and it lagged a lot, i had to turn down all options and then it played but it still took a while. I played it on my husbands computer which we just bought during xmas and it flies!!!

I have only found 2 downsides to this game. 1)No matter what computer i played this on the Save time was at least 1 min.
2) sometimes the missions either get stuck and you have restart them or i'm just not understanding the mission and right now there are no websites with walkthroughs or cheats at this moment.

Good Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 24, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I thought this was a very well-made game by ubisoft. The amount of detail in all the aspects were really quite cool. One should get it and try it oneself. Enjoy.

Strong city-building sim, but lacks anything resembling a challenge.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: June 09, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Alright. Let's see here.

This was hyped to me as "Like Stronghold 2, except with more focus on city life than combat."

That was a pretty fair comparison. In Settlers, your main object of any mission is to build up a city infrastructure and promote your knight to new ranks in order to gain access to better buildings.

It's a beautiful game to play. When you really get a city rolling, you'll be entertained merely by zooming in and watching your settlers go about their business. The cities themselves feel alive and are nicely detailed. You really will feel as if you're lording over a medieval settlement.

Resources are scattered around the maps, which are divided into regions. You can't build in a region unless you've claimed it by setting up an outpost. Through this system you can slowly expand the territory you control and gain new trade partners or plots of land. In some maps expansion is a necessity, just to gain the space you need for the farms to feed and clothe your settlers.

I should remark again on the prettiness of the game. The seasons cycle, the peasants talk in the streets and hold festivals when you promote your knight, and mutter when there's not enough food or they're cold.

It's definitely a fun simulation game to play, but there aren't many deep details to delve into. It's fairly superficial. This won't bother you much, though. You'll be having too much fun watching the settlers go about their lives.

Now a few negatives.

I mentioned before that the focus wasn't on combat. Well, I just mentioned it a second time--it really needs to be discussed. For starters, there is a grand total of two basic military units: swordsmen and archers. That's it. There are also spies, mercenaries, and siege equipment, but you'll almost never use them. It's pretty much those two lonesome unit types. You'll never build a large army, either. Four squads--two archers and two swordsmen--are enough to completely dominate most enemies in the campaign. There are a couple of occasions (mission-specific) where you will have to build a single battering ram and only use it once--then you can leave it to rot if you want.

The only other real negative is the difficulty.

Namely, there ISN'T any. Difficulty, that is.

You can beat this game blindfolded and with the speakers muted. It's really that easy. You'd almost have to try harder to lose the levels than to win. For most of them, it's just a matter of time before you achieve victory--in 75% of missions, there's nothing to challenge you. Nothing at all. No enemies will attack you. No natural disasters will damage your town. The very biggest threat in the entire game is wolves, who will occasionally attack a lone settler.

Despite the flaws, this is a very fun game. If you can find it with a cheap price tag, it's worth picking up. You will spend several hours building up cities and enjoy every moment of it.

Eventually, though, you'll eject the disk--because you will have built every building, promoted your knight to the top of the tree, and have not a single challenge to overcome.

I'm going to settle this right now...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 17, 2008
Author: Amazon User

A farmer walks out during the warm season and collects his wheat, which he in turn takes back into town. There, a baker turns the wheat into bread, which will be bought and consumed by an iron minor. The iron minor brings iron ore into town which a blacksmith will pick up, and turn into swords, which will be used by your fighting men paid for by the taxes of everyone on this chain.

It's the social chains like this that make Settler RoE a unique game. And this is essentially what settlers is all about; building up these chains as best you can. The game has a good campaign as well; every mission is different while the basic principal remains the same: keep your people fed, clothed, clean, and happy. Basically, it's sort of like civilization, but focusing on one town.
As a bonus, once the campaign is over, you can play any number of "free-settlement" maps, were your goal is to build the best city possible, while others have a specific goal (How long can you hold out under a barons taxation before revolting?) . Also, a downloadable map-builder and bonus maps should create some interesting opportunities for replay ability.

However, it does tend to get a bit repetitive. This game aimed to rival a lot of other games... but came up short towards all of them, thus dropping it all over. After your thirtieth near-identical city, you'll be asking "What now?" Combat was also somewhat disappointing: Swordsmen or archers, and couple that with some siege equipment, those are you're only choices. That in conjunction with some technical errors put another nail into the coffin of Blue Byte, although not quite sealing it. Settlers RoE could have been better, but it feels more like an attempt to bring back the dead.

If you can find it for cheap, than this game is worth your money.

Mind-numbing lack of depth and too much handholding

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 15 / 43
Date: October 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I have never played any of the other Settlers games, and this one piqued my interest when I first heard about it. I've been flirting with the idea of picking it up for the past several weeks, and I finally did.

I am extremely disappointed.

First of all - I thought the demo's tutorial was a one-time thing. No - your very first mission in the real game requires you to complete the same tutorial with no option to skip it. After this - you figure the tutorials are over... WRONG!

Your hand is held constantly through each mission, and they basically walk you through exactly what to do. There is no challenge to this. What is worse - you begin each mission in the same position... having to rebuild the same exact buildings... having to watch your gold/stone/wood/food crawl up to the same exact level... having to do the same exact upgrades... and then - just as you hit the fun part and your settlement starts rolling along...

New mission. Repeat everything again.

Though it looks pretty at first, and you might not mind building up a settlement the first time - having to do it over and over and over and over with no variety and crappy voice actors hand holding you through every step and forcing you to click through their dialogue is not fun.

This game has potential... but ultimately it is completely lacking in complexity and most importantly fun. I uninstalled it after 15 minutes and it is going on the shelf to collect dust now. When it says "Ages 10+" on the box - just read: Age 10 or below.

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