Review by odino

"Boring, but the good kind"

Settlers II was soooo popular when it came out. Everyone played it, and nobody thought anything was wrong with it all. Years later, I started playing and then I noticed one big flaw: you watch the game for hours and nothing has happened. In my opinion, strategy games do not require to be hectic. In fact I am not very happy with having to organize a lot in a short time, but this is the exact opposite you face here. It takes hours to build the settlement and shift items around the map and in the end you start doing the same thing over and over again. Fighting the enemy has no strategy element to it. You just need to collect gold and build your army, then take over sites. And one has very little control in the fights.
But I make it sound like it's all bad, it really isn't. There are lots of options for shifting tools and food around on priority. It's very complex for an "older" game. Maybe too complex for the average game, who might even have trouble in the campaigns against the AI. While the game has a few chapters of a tutorial style, it does throw you into the middle of the battle eventually and you either know how to play it properly, or you don't.

The sound is oook. The effects are very repetitive, and the midi music can get on your nerves.

Graphics-wise, nice SVGA was not so common in 1995 yet but a blistering high resolution isn't exactly what you want to play on either. You'll find yourself nose-to-screen otherwise. Still, the people are nicely animated, the buildings are pretty, the whole world is pretty with trees swaying, water splashing, ducks and other wildlife jumping around (unless you slay them hihi).

I consider this the best of Settlers. I tried them all and I was always let down in the end. I expect more of the military idea, or nothing at all. Other strategy sims like Impressions Games (or now Tilted Mill) have a much better resource system going and no idle people hanging around on the streets to deliver goods.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10 | Originally Posted: 04/27/06

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