Settlers VI: Rise of an Empire

Robbie Grant remains unsettled by little people who really should be bigger.

Build farms. Harvest spice. Construct additional pylons. Whatever the setting, the basic gameplay for strategy games doesn’t tend to differ all that much to that which has been done before. So what does Blue Byte offer the gamer of today with Settlers VI?

Settlers VI is, as any Roman could easily attest, the sixth title in the much-vaunted “Settlers” series. While there are no pylons to be constructed, there are grain farms to be built, sheep to be shorn… and so on. Build buildings, feed, clothe and entertain the populace, and use your soldiers to obliterate your hapless enemy without mercy. It’s a good recipe by all accounts, but unfortunately something is still missing here.

Graphically, this game is quite stunning. Lush scenery, detailed buildings, and a dynamic climate that will see rivers freeze over in winter and melt in summer, and snow gradually form on trees and buildings. This game comes across as quite polished, and most everything that has been put in works and works well. Unfortunately however, not everything has been put in.

Settlers VI is a game with some very notable limitations. Limitations on unit numbers are very low, and your military unit types are limited to swordsmen and bowmen, with a small handful of siege weapon – which is fine in Settlers, a series that has not historically pushed the militaristic side of strategy gaming, but it still would have been nice to have some more strategic options.

Things are much worse on the resource / production side of things however. Where previous games required you to keep an eye on a complex interplay of different unit types and industries, we are now given a handful of linear production paths. Wild game gets made into sausage. Iron gets made into weapons. Trees get made into buildings. Gone are the intermediate slaughterhouses, smelters and sawmills from previous games, with the end result being that this game feels decidedly ‘dumbed-down’ and repetitive.

Couple this with a number of unintuitive gameplay mechanics, some dodgy pathing issues and a storyline that actually involves someone uttering the words ‘…we shall strike when he least expects it,’ and you’re left feeling that this is a game that could have been much more.

Despite its flaws, this is still a nice, slow-paced game that may just appeal to those who have typically not enjoyed strategy games, or who are just getting into them. Youngsters would no doubt find a bit of appeal in its simplicity – it’s not too complex nor too violent, but can be very satisfying in a Zen kind of way.