We've only had our hands on it a couple of days, but we want to let you know what we've found out so far playing The Settlers IV. The bread and butter of Blue Byte Software, The Settlers has carved out a niche in the competitive RTS market by offering a slower-paced, more economic-based RTS with a cartoonish flair, placing itself somewhere between the economic-model games of Impressions Studios' city building series and a traditional military/resource-based RTS. Something about those little guys shoveling, farming, mining and carrying on their little lives has attracted a whole lot of gamers, both in the US and throughout the world. The series seems to be getting better at every iteration, Settlers III being the best so far, so we've been looking forward to The Settlers IV.
Anyone familiar with the series will recognize the gameplay, and in that regard much of S4 is the same. The player's first goal will be building up a functional economy. Much of the technology tree is similar to S3 -- woodcutters chop, foresters plant trees, sawmills make lumber, etc. There is still a military aspect in the game, though now the military gets stronger by the "value" of the settlement, putting a greater emphasis on building over raw production of materials and units. There are even "eyecatcher" objects that can be built to increase the appeal of the settlement, something entirely new to the series.
There are two new player races this time, and a much more prevalent Dark Tribe that players will confront in the single-player game. The Romans reappear, but this time they'll compete with the Mayans and the Vikings. Each race has one unique military unit: The Romans have a medic that heals other warriors; the Mayans have Blowgun warriors, which don't do damage, but can paralyze enemy warriors to leave them open for attack; the Vikings have an axe-wielding warrior who does a great deal of melee damage but isn't great at watching his back. War machines have been added as well; Romans have catapults, Vikings have a large hammer that creates an explosion and Mayans can use gunpowder of a sort.
The graphics are pretty similar to S3, though a zoom function has been added and the game will make use of a 3D card. The zoom function will mostly be used to pull back and gain a better perspective of the map; zooming in for detail isn't likely to be used much, as it limits the visual field and the characters can look pixilated. The environment looks more alive than ever: Animations have been added all over the place -- trees bend with the breeze, animals roam the countryside, rivers flow.
There are three gameplay modes right out of the box this time: single-player mission-based, which consists of three missions for each race and 12 missions in direct conflict with "The Dark Tribe;" single-player free mode, which allows the player to pick the map, opponents, game type and a whole host of other options to add a ton of replayability to the game; and multiplayer, which now offers both cooperative and adversarial play through LAN and Blue Byte online.
The magic element that people love about The Settlers seems very much intact in what we've seen so far. We'll know more in a few weeks, once we've really gotten into the meat of the game. The Settlers IV is scheduled to be released in the next few months.
Want to use this article? Click here for options!
