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| Humble beginnings | Paths are freeform and optional |
The journey for those little guys has been a long one since their 2D origins to a now full blown 3D world. The first thing to strike anyone with a decent enough PC is the beauty of the game, a lot of attention has been put into the structures, environments and of course the settlers themselves. Everything is far more realistic in appearance while it still manages to carry that settlers’ charm.
I’m glad to see that with Rise of an Empire the series has gone back to more 'peaceful' roots and hasn’t got stuck with just war on its mind. True you’ll be able to raise an army to defend and conquer others but there’s not some oppressive need to. You’re quite capable of building up an impressive city through trade with your neighbours. It’s become more about the fun of simulation than just the strategy of winning.
Much of the fundamentals of play have changed from ye olden times, paths are no longer a critical component but help ease the burden of travel. So efficiency of production isn’t decided by a dirt track or cobbled street though, now it’s all about knowing when its time to upgrade your buildings. You spend a little wood each time but when you do another settler carries their gear from the storehouse to his new home. There they’ll get to work by either building their business or refurbishing it, each building (excluding special structures) can be increased to a maximum of level three.
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| Outposts claim neighbouring lands and rights to their resources | The Settlers live little lives of their own, they love to gossip |
Structures become very efficient at level three, they have more workers so they can collect more resources to use and output more themselves. They also consume less in food, clothing etc and one of the workers can go off collecting their needed shopping while the others carry on. The highest levels also store up more and then transport their goods to the storehouse by cart, unless they have their goods on display to be sold.
The needs will be your primary concern in Rise of an Empire; if the settlers start to find their needs aren’t being met they could go on strike. Having mass industry-wide walk-outs isn’t exactly the ideal situation if you intend to keep your lands safe from envious or greedy eyes. You need to balance the right amount of primary industries to secondary as the former will be depending on the latter too. Your hunters collect deer carcasses, they take those to the storehouse where the butchers collect them and take them to their shops. They produce the edible meat based goodness that feeds themselves and the hunters. Usually you can get away with two level three butchers that siphon off one level three hunter. You should always been on the look out for more resources though.
Before you even get to craft your medieval utopia, if such a thing could exist, you get to choose your leader whom your settlers will be looking to. The choice is yours though sadly the demo only lets you taste one of them and teases you with the sight of another. These can have an effect on your strategy as each has their own special abilities to be used. The main important thing about these community icons though are their titles. They crave promotions in your service and with good reason, the higher their title of nobility the more options are open to your settlers.
Certain buildings like the barracks or broom-making shop are only available when they reach a specific title. To get to these promotions you have to fulfil certain quotas of goods usually or have upgraded certain buildings to a certain level. Each one increases in challenge as you adjust to adding new industries and shops about your town. Access to your barracks and archery should be a primary goal. I’m happy that Blue Byte has taken the military aspect back to basics; you get to choose only from swordsmen, archers and two siege weapons, catapult and tower. With resources like iron becoming scarce eventually, keeping the unit choice simple was a good idea.
New territories on the map can be claimed by your leader, when they enter a neutral area you can choose to erect an outpost which when constructed will increase your dominion. You can then happily tap into the resources about the zone and setup any defences you might require. Though they’re not always safe so keep an eye out for pesky critters like wolves or bears, they can scare away settlers. Bandits too, the cheeky beggars will first 'expect' tribute from you which will trigger a timer letting you, if you want, send them some tribute. This will keep them sweet for a while and let you hire some as mercenaries, of course you could always put them to the sword but don’t expect an easy fight.
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| Promotions carrying greater perks each time | Expand and sculpt your own living, breathing medieval city |
The demo while enlightening is painfully short and I couldn’t help but play it again and again. It’s got me hooked to know more and I can’t wait to try out the full deal – especially free play mode. If you haven’t already then go forth and download The Settlers: Rise of an Empire demo, it’s a perfect sampling of the settlers’ antics to come this late September.
Top Game Moment: It’s great to see your little town grow and grow into a thriving medieval city, you can sit back and watch the little guys go about their day.
