Review - Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom

This latest series in the long-running Settlers franchise brings with it the same charm and enjoyment as with all of its predecessors. You get little workers that follow your orders to the letter, and boy are they a tireless lot. They’ll be mining for minerals, shearing sheep, chopping up wood and even smelting iron for peanuts! Give them no job, and they cry out for work. Fancy that!

Needless to say, you too, oh, great ruler, will be as busy, and as content as these tiny little people! The only plague you’ll find in this game is the clunky on-again, and off-again online troubles, that is to do with the infamous Ubisoft online authentication, which we all know, messed up all their other games! Muster up some patience however, and you’ll find this little charmer of a game, a delight to play for hours and hours!

As a good first impression, complexity does not rear its ugly head, and you’ll find the flow of things in this game able to reel you in. You start with setting up a resource supply line, and keep that chain as efficient as possible, by placing structures and homes in the appropriate places. Keeping a balanced stream is important as resources tend to jam up, once you have too much, or too little of something. Expanding your Kingdom comes next, and you do that by taking over connected settlements via brute force, diplomacy, or bribery. The campaign mode teaches you the basics, and thankfully, it is not as complicated to follow, as some of the other kingdom simulation games we’ve seen so far.

To make it easier, the game does point out flaws in your economic system, by having floating icons on top of your structures. For example, producing gold coins requires you to have a mint, and materials like gold ore and coal, to manufacture. Have one of those resources missing and the appropriate icon will appear to let you know what you need to provide.

Don’t let the simplicity fool you however, mastery in this game will take some time. Balance is the key, and although expanding your kingdom quickly is always good, overbuilding, and overproduction, can lead to lots of complications and in turn even lead the underproduction of certain resources. Pay attention to what is needed. Some helpful tools you’ll be given are an abacus-looking table, that lets you keep track of the items you have in your storehouse, and zooming out of the map allows you to have an overview of available resources in nearby zones, and other helpful information nuggets.

Henceforth, what is a Kingdom without its army! Combat in this game is rather straightforward, but somewhat entertaining in its own way. You simply amass your troop count, send them into battle, and watch the outcome! In most cases, the army with the most troops wins! This is why chain of supply is important, slow down the resources, and you won’t have enough to build your army in the quickest possible time. Not to mention, there are towers you need to destroy before even getting to your opposition’s main forces. As the saying goes, two can play at this game, so don’t forget you can research fortifications and defensive towers as well, along with many other upgrades to help you in your thirst for conquest.

With all that said, start with the campaign mission. It’s the best way to learn the game’s mechanism and all the nooks and crannies it has to offer. The missions also begin with lovely pop-up storybook updates and peppered with impressive and colourful cutscenes.

Vibrant colors and goofy art design make The Settlers 7 leap right out of the screen (well at least on my screen it does).  The quirky animations make gameplay fun to watch as well! It never gets old watching your little army get ready for battle, and seeing them actually charge into the fray with huge and ridiculously exaggerated movements. Soundtrack in this game is nothing short of wonderful. The orchestral fare and the ambient sound effects play mellifluously throughout the whole game. To be honest, I found the Celtic-inspired vocal warbles rather entertaining, and fell right in place with the whole game.
 

Online play is smooth, and by nature of the game, matches would most probably last beyond an hour. Sad to say however, finding games online might turn out to be a pain. Then again, AI skirmishes provide a decent challenge, and while there isn’t a huge selection of maps, you can edit game modes in different ways, like changing victory conditions for instance.

The Settlers 7 came with some new features, and one of note would be the ability to tie in your in-game accomplishments to Facebook. Not only does it allow you to update your achievements, but lets you add friends as well! Now who said gamers aren’t social people! All in all, The Settlers 7 has something for everyone, whether you’re an experienced economist, or a simple commoner looking for some entertainment, the virtual little people you’ll be playing with, will charm you off the edge of your seat.