The Settlers Gaming Series pt. 2

There is something about German ingenuity when it comes to the strategy games, two long lasting and very popular German gaming franchises are Anno and Settlers, and for me personally those are one of the best strategy series of all times. Settlers are now more than 24 years old when the first game was released back in 1993. Settlers games are all about small workers building and expanding your city and your goal as a ruler is to provide them with buildings and resources. Over the years the core concept hasn't changed much, it is all about building and relaxing. It is a very charming gaming series from Blue Byte worth checking out. In pt. 2 I will talk about modern games in the series.

The Settlers: Heritage of Kings

Fifth game in the series went through another facelift in 2005, this time game was played in full 3D, and as always that removes all the charm previous 2D games had. Sometimes great looking hand drawn 2D graphics sits the best with these kind of games. Developers, however, need to continue with the graphic improvements and trends to stay relative, it is a slippery slope, the graphics in this type of games. Everything else is essentially the same with settlement building and army recruitment with some improvements to speed up games. It was a downgrade from previous two games in my opinion.

The Settlers: Rise of an Empire

In 2007 the 6th game in the series was released and it continued with the path set by the previous games. Some new elements are introduced like weather change that would have a real effect on crops and resources. Knight units are also introduced and they offer various different abilities and can complete quests, there are 6 knights to chose from. Not enough to make the game great. 

The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom

Seventh installment from 2010 returned to more cartoon like art style and that made game feel like the Settlers game again, but not enough to make it a great Settlers game. There are three paths to victory in this game and you could win by going with economic, military or science victory. Each path of development has unique units and possibilities and players win by gathering victory points through any path they have chosen. But, as always in Settlers games, fine tuned economy and road system are the keys to victory.

The Settlers Online

We are living in a time of online browser games and it is not a big of surprise to see Settlers move and explore that genre of games. It is free to play with some buy options to speed building time and resource gathering. It's a slow pace game that can last for months, considering it is a browser game. It is not for everyone's tastes, but the game community is actually growing because game offers an excellent user experience and fine crafted eye pleasing 2D graphics. 

#gaming