The Settlers Review

The iPhone has been in need of fresh style and innovation when it comes to an RTS game for the platform. There have been a few attempts at an RTS game for the iPhone and iPod Touch and not all of them have delivered a real in depth feel of a true RTS. What a lot of them were lacking were the deep details and challenges that would involve the use or need for a strategy, after all an RTS game is all about strategy and if the game is not delivering a challenging scenario or mission whats is the point? Well I finally got my hands on the freshly released The Settlers for game app favorite Gameloft. Read on to see how this game stood up to the review.

The Game

You find yourself in control of a small tribe of settlers. Romans, Vikings, Mayans or the Dark Tribe are all competing or cooperating to reach a variety of goals. These goals include occupying land, ensuring the supply of raw materials, or simply trying to create the most beautiful and wealthy settlement. There is more than one path which can lead your people to success – you can engage in trade, forge alliances, or lead your army into battle against the other tribes in hopes to take what is theirs.

Gameplay

Once you launch the game you start off by selecting your preferred tribe. Roman, Viking, Mayans, or the Dark Tribe are amongst your selectable groups. All with their own traits. I chose to go with the Romans. Once you select your group, you are then brought to a mission select screen which has to be completed in order. These mission are your very detailed and in depth tutorials on how the game works. The first mission is easy and they gradually get tougher.

I was very surprised at just how much detail and depth there is in this game – Gameloft really delivered the goods with this RTS. The learning curve is actually quite large because of just how much stuff is packed into this game, but not at all difficult to learn or understand. You will spend a good deal of time learning what does what. There are a whole lot of buildings to learn about and you will really need to know what it is each one is capable of as well as be aware of what resources are around your settlement  in order to be an effective and efficient player.

• Gather resources and build you towns and markets. Your decisions and skill in managing and protecting your settlement will determine its fate.
• The strength of your units depends on how effectively you have built up your settlement and paid attention to the economic relationships within it.
• Three nations to govern: Conquer new territories, defeat rival armies, and establish an empire with your warriors that encompasses lands and continents.
• A huge number of parameters to manage: Dozens of building’s types, settlements, soldiers, and raw materials.

Controls

Probably the cleanest and easiest control setup I have seen and surprisingly efficient on such a deep and complex game. Everything you will ever need to do is done by touch. If you want to select more than one item use two fingers to drag a box around the target area and it will select all in that box. All the menus you need to navigate are pop up activated when touched and are easy to understand. If you ever find yourself forgetting which building or troop type it is you are wanting to select simply just press and hold over the icon and a tag will appear informing you what it is – click on the icon and it will give you even more information about what it’s function is in the game.

As complex as this game is – the controls are very fluid and smooth and give you great command over the field, but like I mentioned early be prepared to learn a whole lot especially if you are new to the RTS scene. There is tons to learn about the game mechanics – but once you get an understanding of how it all works it will be well worth your time and you will be addicted to this game and others like it.

Graphics

If your a fan of RTS games on the PC and you’ve played them or at least seen them before – you will be amazed at how well it transferred onto the iPhone and iPod Touch. The graphics are beautiful and vibrant, with great details right down to the livestock and floating butterflies that roam around your landscape. The textures on the buildings are amazing and the different types of people from warriors to priests all have their own distinctive looks. The animations for battle and magic are done very well, it is almost as if your streaming the game from your PC itself and not playing an app, that’s how well done it is.

Sound

The sound is done in great taste. The ambient background music is a great accent to the setting. From the sounds of workers building or battles between warriors and archers raging, The Settlers touches on every detail with a fine toothed comb.

Verdict

The Settlers has finally done the iDevice justice in the genre of RTS gaming for the platform. It is just a solid all around game and is a definite bar setter of what games on the iPhone should resemble before bringing them to the app store, for RTS gaming and just iPhone gaming in general. I definitely recommend this game and strongly feel it is worth every penny. The casual gamer may be a bit intimedated at first when playing this game and get overwhelmed but if time is dedicated to learn the casual gamer may find a new love and addiction for the RTS genre. The seasoned RTS game will have no problems transition to the iPhone and will be very pleased with this game.

Gameplay: 4.5/5
Controls: 5/5
Graphics: 5/5
Sound: 4/5
Overall: 4.8/5

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-Steve