Settle yourself down, you could be playing for a while! (The Settlers: Rise Of An Empire (PC))

Member Name: masonsmum

Product:	The Settlers: Rise Of An Empire (PC)
Date:	14/10/09 (41 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Really variable game play, great graphics, realistic features

Disadvantages: Can get too much for your pc if game play is very long.

I am right into strategy games just like this, so when I saw The Settlers: Rise of an Empire on sale at my local morrisons, for a whole fiver, I had to buy it. It proclaimed itself to have the best graphics seen in a strategy game to date...perfect to try out on my brand new laptop.

~ About ~

As this game contains fighting, from killing bears and wolves to bandits and other cities, its rated age 12+. Even without the violence, I would have a hard job imagining an under 12 being able to get to grips with this extremely detailed strategy game.

~ Game Play ~

The concept of this game is to build big prosperous cities in medevil times and have your knight, whom you choose at the start of your game, promoted right up to arch duke. There are different game plays that have a variety of other goals and tasks for variety, but the former is the gist of the game.

At the start of the game, you are asked to make up your profile then choose whether to play the campaign or free play mode. It also has multiplayer options. In the free play mode, you can either choose a game with tasks to work towards, or totally free play with no tasks but the promotion to meet.

The landscapes on offer when generating a game to play vary in difficulty with mild climates being the easiest, cold climates being intermediate and hot climates being hard work. There is a such a variety of choice in setting up your game, its hard to imagine anyone actually managing to complete every single possible combination that this game presents. Once you have chosen your game play, you then have a choice of knights to pick one from. Each knight has his or hers own special advantages and will add yet another dimension to your game play. If you choose to play through the campaign game, you will be presented with various different tasks and challenges to work through rather than choose your own.

~ Features ~

To compliment its extensive variety of choice for game play, The Settlers: Rise of an Empire has many great features to further enhance your enjoyment. It has seasonal and weather changes, all which affect your game and give it a realistic feel. Your settlers that live within your town can get married with the help of a festival or two, increasing their working efficiency. Buildings can be upgraded to use less resources and give a higher output.

The graphics of this game really are to a very high quality. This makes the game highly appealing to keep playing, certainly more realistic. You are able to zoom right in on your settlers, giving you a closer look at what is going on around your city. Finally this game also includes an option to be able to play online, as long as you have the internet of course.

~ Specs ~

Required OS: Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows XP
Other Requirements: DVD-ROM, DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card, DirectX 9.0c compatible graphics card, 64MB video memory

~ Personal Opinion ~

This is one addictive game! I have lost many hours of my life that I will never get back to this game, but I don't regret it for a second. With such a variety of game play, I never lost interest and found the strategic planning that you need to employ in order to get anywhere with this game, actually on my level for once and not more suitable for a three year old. I loved all its little extra features from the knights little advantages to the settlers marrying and so working harder. The graphics were so clear and realistic, it really kept me interested. I found it real value for money, such a lot of game play for just five pounds.

There was a negative however. I found if I had been playing for a long time, I mean hours here, the game would suddenly lose its graphics quality and eventually stop working. I am going to assume it was my laptop that had the issue, not the game, but whichever it was, it never put me off playing, so that tells you something about the quality of this game.

~ Stockists ~

Check out your local morrisons, they are still selling this game! Online you can purchase it for around £7.00 from ebay or amazon. Play.com are also selling this game for around a fiver, be wise and shop around you should be able to get it for a very reasonable price.

Summary: A game not to be missed, if you like strategic ones. The best I have played to date.