The average Settlers 7 session plays out something like this:
You start out with a few rudimentary buildings, a big plot of land, and a stockpile of resources. You build a woodcutter’s hut as you’ll need timber in order to get on with building the big stuff. Of course, on top of your wood cutter, you will need a sawmill to even out all those nasty tree trunks into something you can actually make stuff out of.
Your people aren’t going to work without food though – cheeky devils. Good thing there is a river with some fish just a doddle away from your town centre. You build a fishing hut. But those fish won’t last forever. Luckily you have some fertile land, so you build a farm house with some grain fields. Of course you will also need a mill in order to grind your grain to flour. Finally, flour is not edible, so you will need a bakery or two.
You can watch as your minions sow their crops and harvest their grain, before carrying their produce off to a storehouse. The mill worker will then run off to the storehouse to fetch the grain, before taking it back to his mill, turning it into flour. The baker will then do the same when the flour is ready at the storehouse. This means that planning the distances between various buildings and storehouses is important for optimising your economy.
At about this point, you may notice that your population has reached a peak, and you need to build more houses in order for more people to move into your town and get working in your new buildings. Houses, like all buildings cost resources such as wood. Again you can watch as your builders carry the required resources from the warehouse to the building site before beginning construction.
Then you spot some stone deposits nearby, so you setup a quarry. After all, you can’t build a church, or upgrade your fortifications with wood alone.
See some deer in a clearing? A hunter’s lodge in combination with a butcher will have you producing meat in no time, but at some point you will run out of deer to hunt, and you will need a sustainable meat source; pig farms. In order to breed pigs though, you need to feed them grain. Pigs eat a lot, and you don’t want to hurt your wheat production, so you should probably set up another grain field.
At this point, you may notice that your once open and promising lebensraum is looking decidedly cramped with your new churning economy. Good thing there are only a couple of bandit foot soldiers occupying that vacant land next door. For some cured meat and gold coins you can hire a few mercenaries from your tavern, but watch out, they’ll need a place to sleep, so keep an eye on your housing situation. Alternatively you can take the land peacefully using monks, or bribe the bandits with gold. Taking land by force is often the most cost effective (and fun) route though.
You count the baddies next door, and hire the same number of men plus a few, from the tavern. You send them marching along the path that neatly connects your starting point to the new sector, before your soldiers engage in an unusual display of gentlemanly combat. Players have very little control over combat, and it comes down to who has the most men. Soldiers deploy in neat lines before firing/charging at each other, until one army either retreats, or is decimated.
Having beaten off the defending army, you take occupation of the new land, and immediately set up new farms, which in turn require more housing. You also notice your new land has an iron mine. Just as well because your starter supply of tools is running out; every production building you construct requires a tool to get started, even the tool maker. You set up an iron mine, although raw iron is not going to do the trick. You build an Iron smelter, but he’s going to need some coal. A coking plant will create coal, but it’s going to consume lots of wood so you better build some more wood cutters. Finally you can build a tool maker.
And on it continues, until you’re making weapons, wagon wheels, gold coins, beer, jewellery, horses and more. Players research new technologies, trade, build great armies and unlock new unit types.
Unlike many other civilisation management games, the focus of The Settlers 7 is constant expansion. Various resources are located in different lots of land, and you will need to fight for them, and defend them. The map is made up of choke points, and each sector of land has a few limited entry points. This makes the combat very linear and basic, which is a good thing for Settlers 7.
The outcome of a combat situation will be determined by how many soldiers, and what kind of soldiers you have. These include pikemen, musketeers, cavaliers and cannons. The more powerful your economy, the more/better soldiers you can afford. Making sure you have a steady stream of key minerals and resources, and being able to produce goods efficiently from them is the key to success.
The gameplay is well balanced and highly addictive. While not quite as massive in scope or complex as the likes of Anno 1404, the focus in Settlers 7 is on constant expansion and mobility.
There is a story driven campaign that is fairly well presented, but ultimately too childish to be taken seriously, which is a bit confusing, because beneath the cartoony exterior, The Settlers 7 is a very serious game. I ignored it altogether, and focused on the gameplay itself.
The campaign does serve as a great training ground, and The Settlers 7 has a fairly serious learning curve. Each mission introduces you to a new element of the game, and by the 7th map, you pretty much have a handle on the basics. The campaign is very long, and gets very challenging later on, which is great. Expect great value for money on this title. There is also an awesome multiplayer component, which has you facing off against human opponents online. There is even a global leader board which you can use to track your progress.
If you have a high-end gaming PC, then you are in for a serious treat. With anti-aliasing enabled and settings on high, the Settlers 7 is simply gorgeous. Vivid colours, and fantastic bloom effects make for a game that is a joy to behold. Be sure to manually enable vertical sync from your GPU control station, as screen tearing is common otherwise. Zoom in close and watch your workers going about their business in magnificent detail. Zoom right out and view the world map as a whole where you can make broader tactical decisions.
The sound is also top notch, with a soothing musical score complimented by some great environment detailing. Expect to hear brooks babbling, birds chirping, and the sound of your minions’ axes hacking into trees – ah, the sweet song of progress. Pretty much every building and worker type has a unique look and sound when it is doing its thing.
Problem areas
The Settlers 7 is a well presented, highly enjoyable and engaging title, but it has its flaws. Firstly, the pacing is a bit slow, and there is no way to increase the game speed. Secondly, it can be frustratingly unforgiving at times, and it is easy to spend an hour playing, only to realise that you should have performed action-X 40 minutes ago, and are now a bit screwed. This is to a large degree solved with experience, and on the flip-side to its tendency to frustrate, it does make the game more rewarding.
These minor gameplay flaws are excusable. What is not, is the DRM that Ubisoft has hardwired into this game. You are expected to be online and logged into your Ubisoft account at all times while playing. If your connection drops, the game will pause until it is reconnected.
Even worse; once or twice during my 2 weeks with the game, I was not able to connect to the Ubisoft servers, and therefore unable to play.
I can understand Ubisoft’s desire to curb piracy, but this DRM is making the legitimate product less appealing. In fairness, I can count all the times that the DRM has actually raised its ugly head on one hand. Still, it will happen to you from time to time if you buy this game.
Conclusion
Apart from its intrusive DRM, and minor gameplay issues, The Settlers 7 is a highly enjoyable game that any fan of the genre will enjoy.
Steer clear if you have a shaky internet connection though.
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