Customer Reviews

The Settlers: Rise of an Empire

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

If you've played Settlers 1 or Settlers 2, this would be very familiar for you.

1. Focused on building your econ & city planning.
2. Military is very small part, can only build swordsmen and archers. + some siege.
3. Graphics - it's good enough for game like this.
4. Music - very good actually, many different songs.
5. Multiple Generals for you to choose from, each with their own passive ability and special power. Actually makes a significant impact on the gameplay. This really increases the reply value.
6. Length - Haven't finish or gone very far yet. About mid game. Games like this there is plenty of replay value in it even after you finish the campaign.

Some issues:

1. Slow - there is no time adjusting or speed increase, so some parts does feel a bit slow. Nice to have a EGM or some magazine handy while playing.
2. Walling - Very difficult to wall correctly with the 3D terrain.
3. Very long saves, takes well over 1 minute for a save, at first thought my computer froze cause it took so long.
4. Military - Even though this is more of a sim game than RTS, the warfare could of been a little more deeper. Maybe an addition of Cavalry Unit or Kights to spice things up a bit.

Overall, it's an enjoyable game. Nothing major new, if you liked Settler 1 or 2, this one gives you more of it with minor improvements on the overall gameplay.

I have to say that to me this is a very similar game to Stronghold 2. I patched the game and then it auto-patched when I restarted it before I started playing out of the box. After hours of play, I've had one hard lock-up where I had to reboot. I save often so it didnt impact me. It seems to be much more stable now that the patches are out compared to other reviews here. I'm playing with the default video options which to me are just fine. The graphic artwork is absolutely fantastic. The water looks like realy fluid water and the animations is high quality.

This is a "make-your-people-happy" game. Dont get this game expecting to have the depth of military combat that Stronghold 2 does, but I'm quite happy I purchased it since I love the Medieval time period. This is another way to observe the mechanics of medieval society.

The only real combat strategy for your swordsmen and archers and siege engines (that's all you get), is to mass on the enemy and win by numbers. This game has MUCH potential.

My hope is an expansion with mounted cavalry (archers, swordsmen and lancemen) and add pikemen and crossbowmen to the footsoldiers... then add the ability to control your troops with formations, etc... along with a few new resources you could gather, like a fish/eel farm, cobbler's hut, and alchemist hut for starters, you could even add clockmaker's and toymaker's huts for kicks and what about a ship builder? You have docks that are built into some scenarios, so why not make a dock available to build? I don't like how you get a candlemaker, carpenter and blacksmith only after you have upped your knight to the highest level. Those professions were always some of the first and most vital needed up front.

I have to say though, ulitmately, after I hooked up my 5.1 surround options in game and upped the quality of sound, I was taken just a bit deeper into game play. Very nice.

Things to actually improve in game: 1. Military aspect is lacking greatly both in variety and control. This is the number one problem with this game in my oppinion. And they need the ability to build fires closeby so they can produce torches, instead of having to run all the way back to base to get more...building fires was easily done and it's frustrating that you can't.
2. if your fishing hut is built too close to the water, sometimes, only one fisherman can get to the fish at a time. If you upgrade the fishing hut you can have up to 3 fishermen working the same resource. Also, when it's winter and the water freezes over the fishermen can't fish. In real life they could actually cut a hole in the ice but I've found when the narrator announces, "A fisherman can't find any fish." it's usually spring time and the water is thawing out, so the timing is off on that. Long winters are a drag in the northern scenarios. 3. when you touch the edge of your screen to move around, it's a bit choppy so map movement needs some work.

I feel confident that patches and expansions will do justice to this game. It can only get better from here.

Alright. Let's see here.

This was hyped to me as "Like Stronghold 2, except with more focus on city life than combat."

That was a pretty fair comparison. In Settlers, your main object of any mission is to build up a city infrastructure and promote your knight to new ranks in order to gain access to better buildings.

It's a beautiful game to play. When you really get a city rolling, you'll be entertained merely by zooming in and watching your settlers go about their business. The cities themselves feel alive and are nicely detailed. You really will feel as if you're lording over a medieval settlement.

Resources are scattered around the maps, which are divided into regions. You can't build in a region unless you've claimed it by setting up an outpost. Through this system you can slowly expand the territory you control and gain new trade partners or plots of land. In some maps expansion is a necessity, just to gain the space you need for the farms to feed and clothe your settlers.

I should remark again on the prettiness of the game. The seasons cycle, the peasants talk in the streets and hold festivals when you promote your knight, and mutter when there's not enough food or they're cold.

It's definitely a fun simulation game to play, but there aren't many deep details to delve into. It's fairly superficial. This won't bother you much, though. You'll be having too much fun watching the settlers go about their lives.

Now a few negatives.

I mentioned before that the focus wasn't on combat. Well, I just mentioned it a second time--it really needs to be discussed. For starters, there is a grand total of two basic military units: swordsmen and archers. That's it. There are also spies, mercenaries, and siege equipment, but you'll almost never use them. It's pretty much those two lonesome unit types. You'll never build a large army, either. Four squads--two archers and two swordsmen--are enough to completely dominate most enemies in the campaign. There are a couple of occasions (mission-specific) where you will have to build a single battering ram and only use it once--then you can leave it to rot if you want.

The only other real negative is the difficulty.

Namely, there ISN'T any. Difficulty, that is.

You can beat this game blindfolded and with the speakers muted. It's really that easy. You'd almost have to try harder to lose the levels than to win. For most of them, it's just a matter of time before you achieve victory--in 75% of missions, there's nothing to challenge you. Nothing at all. No enemies will attack you. No natural disasters will damage your town. The very biggest threat in the entire game is wolves, who will occasionally attack a lone settler.

Despite the flaws, this is a very fun game. If you can find it with a cheap price tag, it's worth picking up. You will spend several hours building up cities and enjoy every moment of it.

Eventually, though, you'll eject the disk--because you will have built every building, promoted your knight to the top of the tree, and have not a single challenge to overcome.

The game is just damn fun. It starts off very easy (a little too easy) but towards the end it gets pretty dang hard. So far, I'm having an absolute blast with it and am almost done with the game. I'd love to see a custom map generator.

My only complaint is the sandbox games; some of the maps are just boring. However, since the campaign has been so much fun; I gave it a full 5 stars.

(and the guy that gave it 2 stars - played 15 minutes.. um, hello?

This Game comes with the "copy-protection" securom. securom is a destructive root kit which will corrupt many of the Games you have payed hard earned Money for. Although I think Rise of an Empire is a perfectly fine game, the fact that it is designed to become unplayable overtime makes it not worth your Money. This is my opinion.

I bought this game b/c i was getting bored w/ Sims 2 and all their expansions and i played Stronghold 2 and beat the game over and over again and the one thing i liked about Stronghold was the micromanagement, i'm not a big fan of building armies and going to attack people.

I gave this game a good score b/c it's fun to play, easy to learn, as you keep playing the different missions they get harder each time and for those of us who have lives and can't take hours on end to play a game this is a great substitute. Plus this game incorporates weather conditions so depending on which terrain you are on it's harder to play. (example: playing in the dessert is much harder than playing in a 4 season area).

This game isn't for someone who likes to build up armies and destroy civilizations, go play Stronghold 2 or Civilizations. This game is for people who like managing cities and dealing w/ economy and watching your settlers go about life.

The graphics in this game are amazing! BUT you must have a very fast CPU and graphic's card to really enjoy this game. I started playing this on my computer which i bought 2 years ago and it lagged a lot, i had to turn down all options and then it played but it still took a while. I played it on my husbands computer which we just bought during xmas and it flies!!!

I have only found 2 downsides to this game. 1)No matter what computer i played this on the Save time was at least 1 min.
2) sometimes the missions either get stuck and you have restart them or i'm just not understanding the mission and right now there are no websites with walkthroughs or cheats at this moment.

I must say that I was surprised at how good this game is. I read a lot of reviews from different online sources before buying the game, most of them giving it a poor score. I think the reason is that most "hard core" RTS players are used to a different style of game. Enemy soldiers are not going to build up and rush you within the first five minutes of the game. If you're into the blitz style RTS, this game is not for you. The refreshing pace of this game allows you to focus on developing a stable economic, social, military, and diplomatic structure.

One situation a player might face is the decision to either to build a stone road, build a new wall, upgrade a fortress, or build up their castle. On one hand, building a better road will improve the speed that people travel on it, which in turn improves the flow of resources. Building a wall will force an enemy to attack with siege weapons, by preventing them from using torches to burn down what would normally be a wooden palisade. Upgrading a fortress will provide extra defense in the contested regions of the map. Upgrading the castle could meet one of the requirements to promote the rank of their knight. All of these choices require stone, which you will have a limited quantity of.

The slow pace of the game allows you to take your time in making decisions, and explore the details and personalities of the game. Each map has its own set of challenges to overcome, which keeps the player interested. Instead of figuring out the formula and repeating it tirelessly, you are forced to adapt to your environment and situation.

The game is not without flaws though. The AI is pretty dumb. If there's an archer group standing by a person getting mauled by a lion, they won't shoot the lion until it switches targets to them. For the most part, you have to control your military's every move. The military units can only destroy buildings with torches, which they carry only one of. This will force you to run back and forth with your army, to destroy the enemy castle. Another thing is that siege weapons only work on walls. You can't use a battering ram to destroy a building. The performance of the game is also lacking. In other games with similar geometry and texture quality, the FPS will be higher.

A farmer walks out during the warm season and collects his wheat, which he in turn takes back into town. There, a baker turns the wheat into bread, which will be bought and consumed by an iron minor. The iron minor brings iron ore into town which a blacksmith will pick up, and turn into swords, which will be used by your fighting men paid for by the taxes of everyone on this chain.

It's the social chains like this that make Settler RoE a unique game. And this is essentially what settlers is all about; building up these chains as best you can. The game has a good campaign as well; every mission is different while the basic principal remains the same: keep your people fed, clothed, clean, and happy. Basically, it's sort of like civilization, but focusing on one town.
As a bonus, once the campaign is over, you can play any number of "free-settlement" maps, were your goal is to build the best city possible, while others have a specific goal (How long can you hold out under a barons taxation before revolting?) . Also, a downloadable map-builder and bonus maps should create some interesting opportunities for replay ability.

However, it does tend to get a bit repetitive. This game aimed to rival a lot of other games... but came up short towards all of them, thus dropping it all over. After your thirtieth near-identical city, you'll be asking "What now?" Combat was also somewhat disappointing: Swordsmen or archers, and couple that with some siege equipment, those are you're only choices. That in conjunction with some technical errors put another nail into the coffin of Blue Byte, although not quite sealing it. Settlers RoE could have been better, but it feels more like an attempt to bring back the dead.

If you can find it for cheap, than this game is worth your money.

The game is great, but the copy protection is annoying. Ubisoft offers no web-based support for this game, but BlueByte forums.

1)Install game.
2)Install patches.
3)DVD is only for installation; Remove it.
4)Click the desktop icon for the game.
5)Choose the button that says "activation."
6)Enter your key, at the back of the manual book.
7)Download the text file from the website that opens.
8)Open it & copy everything.
9)Paste everything into the box that wants the rediculously long activation code.
10)Play without & disc, enjoy the fruis of your labor.

I CCB )combat city builders) recommend the Age of Ampires & the Anno series (aka 1503/1703 AD).

This game sucks. It's choppy, graphics are mediocre, story line is terrible, and the game play is abysmal. The idea is good, but that's about where it begins and ends.