Settlers: Fourth Edition

by Blue Byte

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004TSX8
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: August 1, 2001
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #25,321 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

The objective of The Settlers, Fourth Edition is to build up a colony with a thriving construction and mining industry, and plentiful food, tool, and weapon production. The player's skillful use of resources, combined with the irrepressible get-up-and-go spirit of the diverse settlers, form the foundation of a robust colony. Make the settlement more attractive and it could become a paradise--if you didn't have to deal with the neighboring races.

Players decide whether they want to lead the Romans, the Vikings, or the Mayans. The races differ not only in their appearance and their architecture, but also in a variety of smaller details. They raise different farm animals, produce different alcoholic beverages, and make and use different weapons. Their priests cast unique spells. All settlers are actually peace-loving folks, but there's always that annoying neighbor who occupies the land with those large deposits of gold or sends long-fingered brethren over to swipe your freshly harvested crops. This can cause the industrious settlers to engage in magnificent battles on land and at sea, battles where the outcome will depend less on the number of troops, but more on skillful tactics and well-organized strategy.

The Settlers, Fourth Edition has a completely updated appearance, with more detailed characters, animations, buildings, landscapes, and decorative elements. Other new features include an easier, faster interface, the choice of three races, expanded harbor navigation with better ship detail, and better strategic possibilities. The Settlers, Fourth Edition builds on the tried-and-true game principle of the preceding Settlers games, but is in essence a very new game. Fans will recognize "their" settlers, but will also discover a number of innovations and new details.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I would consider this game a fantastic play for the strategy player, September 14, 2005

By 

Adam J. Ruggieri "Xen Xander" (Florida) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Settlers: Fourth Edition (CD-ROM)

I hope my review will add something to anyone interested in this game, or who is interested in what others have to say about it.

(( At the end of my review is a way to install/play under XP ))

Let me write the review not to compare this to Settlers I, II, or III. This will simply be on how I see the game mechanics.

This game seems to play quite smoothly, and it's graphics, for the time it was made, are not that bad off. True by today's standards it won't win any awards, but it has a novel atmosphere that bodes well with the theme of the game.
When playing the harder of the two difficulties, you will be challenged each mission you play, though after you have lost a few times, you will understand how the opponent will come after you and how best to set up your starting colony. In this sense, the game is a bit onerous.
Adding to the differences are the three races with different style buildings and a few unique features to each which does make it favorable to like one over the other depending on what you enjoy most. Yet I do feel all in all, they are more or less the same.
If I were to rate the music, I would say that it's catchy and you could find yourself humming it in the mudane world, but after a few hours it can be repititious. To offset this, there is a nice in-game feature to allow you to play your own music while playing the game. This is quite good and I do wish more games would offer this.

Now, getting onto how the game operates.
There are some aspects that make this a "less then 10" game:
If you build your houses to create "free settlers" too close to other things, then the settlers you have not asigned will be in the way of a lot of things. There is, sadly, no way to move them around.

Sometimes 'carriers' will not grab the closest resource to them, but will travel to a further away location. I do not see how the logic of the game tells the 'carriers' where to get there items but I do wish it were better. Also in this, if you are a bit short on "carriers" and try to build something, it may take a very long time for it to get the resources it needs.

Combat is frustrating because you cannot tell your troops to retreat if they are close to an enemy. They will walk blindly into battle, even if hopelessly outmatched.

There are a few other minor things but I will not mention them, as they are just personal and not, how I see it, flaws.

Now, about how fun is this game?
Well as some state when they review "Homeworld", the missions are pretty much a one shot deal. Once you know how to win a mission and sucseed, there isn't much point in replaying it, unless you want to show someone how you did certian things.

The "free settler" mode is also good when wanting to try out things or just to see how large and susessful you can make a colony.

There "was" an online features for this game, but Blue Bytes doesn't seem to support the web server any longer. You can still LAN up, I believe. Blue Byte will still offer limmited support for this game which is also nice. (As of August 2005)

Now, I really enjoy this game dispite my little quirks with it. If feel it is a good play and should be in anyone's collection.

This last part of my review will be how to make this game work with XP. it does install and run under XP home, running a 1gig proccessor or less. My laptop has this hardware and the game works just fine on it. However, XP pro, with a faster processor... the game won't even start. I have found one way to make this work with higher end machines:

Install the game fully (as well as any add-on disks) and install the SIV_1516.exe patch. You can do a search for it.
Do a search for Windows Application Compatibility toolkit 3.0 and install this too (it's free). when you run it, do "new database" and "fix". Name "Settlers IV" Vendor "Blue Byte"
Use the program and find the s4_main.exe directory and "Operating System Modes", pick "none". Now after "next", in "compatibilty fixes", do EmulateslowCPU. Install this new file and close out the program. But you're not quite done. Next use the XP compatibilty wizard and select the settlers IV exe file and select "run with windows 98". Now you can run and play Settlers IV. *whew!!* I know it takes some time but it is well worth it!

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Should be called V3.5, April 21, 2001

By 

Sinan Taga - See all my reviews

This review is from: Settlers: Fourth Edition (CD-ROM)

Waitng for the US version, I found the UK copy in one shop and bought it. The graphics look improved as they say. The animations look a little better and the buildings seem to be designed from scratch. They are very colorful and they look good.

But the gameplay hasnt improved much compared to settlers 3. If you played the Settlers 3 then you will see that there are no major improvements in the game. It is more like a good expansion. The soldiers are a little difficult to control. For example you have to try very hard when retreating. The computer looks good so far. The software is a little buggy, it crashes often so be sure to save your game constantly. Also it seems there is a problem with the 3D support. When i turn on the 3D support. The game slows down and the mouse pointer slows down too. There are already a few patches on the site but the game still freezes.

But nevertheless the game is fun to play at least for a while. If you liked the S3 then probably youll like this one too but dont expect too much. If you havent played S3 then i certainly recommend it.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great game, bad testing., September 18, 2001

By 

Captn'Mac (Da Sea) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Settlers: Fourth Edition (CD-ROM)

Any time a strategy game comes out with as many complexities as Settlers IV, you have to applaud the imagination and thought that inspired the creation of such a game. However, when you can't play this game because of incessant crashing, needs for multiple patches, and a latent fear to play because you're not sure if the save function is working today, you put that game back on the shelf, and wait for the game producers to come out with a working game. Did I mention one of their patches needed a patch? That's a first for me, a patch to get the patch to work, think about that for a moment, and contemplate the frustration you'll feel, and the time you'll waste. Save your money.