The developers conceded that the series has been somewhat of a mixed bag through out its lifetime. Each of the games in the series has had its strengths and each its weaknesses. However, the developers have felt that there has not been enough of a standard across the series. Their aim with this game is to take all the best elements from the previous game and try to deliver them in the one package – in order to realise the true essence of Settlers.
A pretty built up area here.
As mentioned above, the Settlers has always been a building strategy game. That is, there is an emphasis on building your city and maintaining its existence. One of the additions to Rise of an Empire has to do with viewing your city. As PC processing power has increased, it has allowed developers to create much more detailed landscapes. Rise of an Empire is no exception, as in fact, it may become the rule. While the game is played from the traditional isometric perspective, players will be able to zoom in closer than ever before. You can almost play the game from a third person perspective as you explore your city.
While there will be times where you need to battle, the game revolves around building and maintaining. The game has a single player campaign that spans sixteen missions. Basically, you’re starting your city from scratch and you are essentially the king. While in its infancy, your city is small and the inhabitants are more likely to want food supplies reinforced. As your city gets larger and more stable, aspects such as entertainment come into consideration.
Around this, the game will require you to maintain working relationships as well. This means managing relationships with your allies, relationships with your people and economy, as well as the relationship between each of the six heroes that you’re endowed with throughout the game. Aside from the campaign, there will be the options to partake in fifteen different preset scenarios and skirmishes.
Probably some building to do here.
The game includes some multiplayer modes as well, and they are of the competitive kind. They seem to be best played when there are four players on the one map. It leaves the players with the option to go it alone or to ally with another player in order to get ahead of the rest. Players can then choose to work on their economies or city standings or to intervene with the other. For example, taking control of a precious resource and “monopolizing” it so that the other players don’t get to it.
There was one aspect of the game that was rather impressive. Graphically, the game looked rather sharp and astute. The attention to the minor details was quite amazing, as we were given a demonstration as to how a pond was behaving so naturally. It’s something that needs to be seen up close in order to fully comprehend. Not only that, but the game was vividly coloured and was very vibrant. Finally, it managed to keeps its own artistic style, hopefully to segregate itself from the rest of the strategy games out there.
Whether or not The Settlers: Rise of an Empire manages to achieve its objective of being the definitive Settlers experience will be found out in time. City builders do have their following but their slow pace has tended to favour a niche audience. For now, the game is at least shaping up to be a very good looking one.
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