Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Thoughts on The Settlers series?

McPlusle

Savant
Joined
May 11, 2017
Messages
319
I'm really into city-building games but have never touched this series despite knowing about it for over a decade. Which ones do you think are worth playing? I own a couple of games that are often compared to Settlers (Banished and Knights & Merchants) but I've also yet to play those.
 

Jack Of Owls

Arcane
Joined
May 23, 2014
Messages
4,275
Location
Massachusettes
There was a remake of Settlers II with much prettier graphics than the old DOS/Amiga versions. Might wanna start there tho I've never played a Settlers game so I don't know.
 

Hoaxmetal

Arcane
Joined
Jul 19, 2009
Messages
9,157
Settlers II gets the most praise but I had more fun with 3/4. After that the series kept getting worse and by now I've lost track.
 

Gepeu

Savant
Patron
Joined
Oct 16, 2016
Messages
986
There was a remake of Settlers II with much prettier graphics than the old DOS/Amiga versions. Might wanna start there tho I've never played a Settlers game so I don't know.
The Anniversary ones are terrible. The interface and the 3D environment make the game a pain to navigate (God damned roads). They also lack them buttocks the original has.
 
Self-Ejected

theSavant

Self-Ejected
Joined
Oct 3, 2012
Messages
2,009
I'd recommend "Settlers 2 - Back to the roots" https://www.siedler25.org/ because it has more customization options and fixes some errors which I encountered in the original game (i.e. that transportation came to a halt if your empire was too large). I also think the AI is totally rewritten. It's a total conversion mod, and you need to have some game files from the original game.

I hated the Settlers 2 Anniversary remake though. Hated it so much, I wanted GOG to delete it from my library, and they could keep the money.

Played the demo of Settlers 4 and think it's "OK". Didn't buy the full game, because there was no way to have the Dark Tribe in skirmish games (I only play skirmish games in RTS games, because campaigns are the same).

Played a Demo of Settlers 5 once, which I didn't like at all. Don't know about Settlers 6, 7, 8, but it just got worse...
 

Gepeu

Savant
Patron
Joined
Oct 16, 2016
Messages
986
Settlers 6 are pretty fun and the campaign was entertaining enough to play it fully with the DLC missions. Completely different game, though. Settlers 7 are a complete miss, though.
 

JarlFrank

I like Thief THIS much
Patron
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Messages
33,052
Location
KA.DINGIR.RA.KI
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Settlers 2 is a great game, loved the shit out of it as a kid and played it for countless hours. Big focus on building well-working economy and an efficient road system. Seriously, make sure those roads are efficient!

Settlers 3 and 4 feel very similar to each other, I prefer 3 cause it adds hot Amazons in an expansion which are cooler than 4's Trojans :M

3 and 4 remove the placement of roads, you no longer have to build a network of logistics, you only place buildings to make sure the wares are produced properly. Military units are, in contrast to S2, now directly controlled like in an RTS. It's not a very good RTS though, you essentially just spam as many units as you can and steamroll the enemy. There's also magic which is pretty cool.
 
Joined
Feb 19, 2005
Messages
4,566
Strap Yourselves In Codex+ Now Streaming!
I mainly played Settlers 3 as a kid, it was fun with cute graphics but more of a (bad) economic RTS. All production chains ultimately led to weapons production. The campaign missions were always about fighting in the end but if you just wanted to play a free game and build your city without fighting, you would end up with full magazines of weapons and your economy would eventually choke on its production as the settlers themselves don’t consume anything.

Always preferred the Anno games to be honest.
 
Self-Ejected

theSavant

Self-Ejected
Joined
Oct 3, 2012
Messages
2,009
your economy would eventually choke on its production as the settlers themselves don’t consume anything

Yeah, agreed. The fact that the settlers themselves don't consume any food (except the ones in the mines), makes it very shallow. There is absolutely no survival aspect in here. In fact that's the biggest reason for me, why I can't play this game anymore.

I now recall that in Settlers 2 you had unlimited workers, while in Settlers 4 you had to build houses to get more workers. The way of Settlers 4 was more logical. But they really should have built in a feature that all settlers consume food regularly. Then the game would have been almost perfect.
Very unfortunate, because I liked the simplicity of Settlers much more than Anno (also Anno games were mostly based on capitalism while Settlers were not).
 

Alienman

Retro-Fascist
Patron
Joined
Sep 10, 2014
Messages
17,046
Location
Mars
Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex Year of the Donut Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Playing co-op on the Amiga was
love.png


theSavant What is wrong with the Settlers 2 Anniversary edition? Never played.
 
Self-Ejected

theSavant

Self-Ejected
Joined
Oct 3, 2012
Messages
2,009
I can't remember all points, but:
- Everything was so big and clunky. I mean... really big. So you've built 3 buildings and you had to scroll the map to find a spot for the next buildings.
- The constantly required scrolling and zooming in 3D space became tedious after a short time (as also pointed out by Gepeu)
- The map variations were a joke compared to the original one
- The biggest map only featured a maximum of 4 players. Because everything required so much space. In fact most of the maps were only made for 2 players. It can't get more boring than that. The original S2 allowed up to 7 players (even more on the BackToTheRoots conversion).
- The buildings themselves were ugly... much uglier than in the original S2. And if you couldn't enable max graphics settings (this shouldn't be a problem nowadays though), even the wheat field of the farms looked like brown shit. But even if you maxed out graphics, the whole environment looked like shit compared to the old one. Also I disliked the "cartoonish" and the "toy houses" look, while the original had a more realistic look.

I'm sure there is more, and while there were some minimal enhancements, they are neglectable and widely surpassed by the Settlers25-BackToTheRoots conversion.
 
Last edited:

Gepeu

Savant
Patron
Joined
Oct 16, 2016
Messages
986
The Settlers: Traditions Edition is a much more enjoyable spin on the Anniversary done by Funatics. Highly recommended. The busted road constructing and the overall interface/construction issues remain, but at least you're not replaying the same missions in a sub-par iteration of a classic. As far as I know, you can't get it digitally, though. Gotta hunt a retail copy.
 

exe

Augur
Joined
Sep 22, 2010
Messages
359
Is Settler 6 and 7 worth bothering with? Didn't even know there was a 7, they look the same.
 

Gepeu

Savant
Patron
Joined
Oct 16, 2016
Messages
986
They are not the same. Settlers 6 I really liked, look a few posts above. Settlers 7 on the other hand look and sound really nice, but the gameplay is extremely shollow and streamlined. Feels and plays more like a browser minigame, than a full release. They both can be acquired dirty cheap at many occasions, though. It has more than a few performance issues (the framerate is all over the place). You can always get them and see for yourself.

There's even the 8th installment, but they dropped the title (to Champions of Anteria). I didn't play it, but heard it's nice enough (not even a post-4th Settlers game, though).
 

Jack Of Owls

Arcane
Joined
May 23, 2014
Messages
4,275
Location
Massachusettes
Which begs the question: what's the best, most fun, most completely satisfying sim/kingdom-builder game you ever played, that has a strong campaign with a good beginning game, mid-game, and end game? It's the one genre I never really dabbled much in. I think the longest I ever played a city-builder type game was Castles on my old Amiga but even that struck me as too difficult. I'd be building up my castle defenses and then immediately attacked by other castles and it would all come a'crumblin' down. Frustrating to say the least. Oh, yeah. And Civilization on the Amiga. I actually finished that one but ended up ranked poorly in the end game. I just don't have a talent for these things. So what's a good, fun game for beginners? Preferably not too hard, not too soft, but juuuust right to cater to the delicate Goldilocks in me that needs to be gently weened into a conqueror of Kahns. Preferably something where you get to kill shit after building up a nice kingdom.
 

Deflowerer

Arcane
Joined
May 22, 2013
Messages
2,052
There's also the Cultures games, which I have no idea if are any good or what.
 

vonAchdorf

Arcane
Joined
Sep 20, 2014
Messages
13,465
Settlers 1 is the game of the series, I spent most time with. I kinda liked 3 too (skipped 2). The modern ones are meh.
 

warci

Educated
Joined
Mar 6, 2018
Messages
70
Why so little love for the amiga original? Literally wasted all of my precious youth on this and UFO enemy unknown.
Never played settlers2 as I didn't get a pc until 1999. Is it still worth checking out?
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom