The Settlers® 2: Gold Edition

Managed to complete 4th mission in 10 hours.

I love this game. Its old but still hours of fun.

Upon first booting up The Settlers 2: Gold Edition, I wasn't bothered about the menu graphics, but admittedly, it took me a while to adjust to the in-game graphics and to the interface. However, once I had adjusted to it and everything worked in terms of building your settlement/city, I saw what makes this game a classic. So let's get it out of the way first that the graphics will not woo you if you're used to playing all of the latest games on your PC at high settings, but this game is old so it's to be expected. In addition, the gameplay is what matters most in strategy titles. With that said though, the interface needs to be laid out well. You see, I'm the sort of gamer that prefers to learn the game themselves without resorting to reading the manual. There's also no tutorial option. But if you stick with it for several minutes, you should be able to work the kinks out. That's really the only complaint I can level at the presentation, in addition to the tooltips not being as informative as they could have perhaps been. And let's be honest here, I wager the main reason we play old, classical games is for their addictive qualities alongside the fact that most aren't easy. So, what I mentioned here should be no problem for the target audience. Now then, the first glimpses of what makes this a classical game is when you first click on your headquarters. You'll find that there's a lot of different icons and they all respond to a different resource/item that you have to collect. It is the simulation of an economy and watching the people in your settlement go about their business that simply makes this game for me and I imagine it's the same for other players. These days, there's like four or five resources only to collect in games, whereas there's like over twenty (haven't counted the number) in this game. In turn, the complexity of the economy doesn't just apply to the number of resources that need to be collected either. Instead, it also applies to how the resources are acquired and also, how they're transferred from one place to another. For example, flour produced at a mill can be taken to a bakery to be turned into bread and other types of food can be made and fed to pigs. There's also three buildings dedicated to gathering wood and they are the sawmill, forester and woodcutter. Each has a vital role to play in the procurement of wood. The making of weapons is also complex as is the process to make gold. In addition to all of this, you need to make sure all of the buildings are placed correctly and that roads are built in a way that allows the people to deliver the goods from one building to the next efficiently. Now then, take all of the complexity of what was mentioned above and imagine watching all the people of your town going about the various tasks, all the while rendered in what could be termed 'cute graphics'. It's pretty fun just watching your town start from nothing and eventually become a bustling hub of activity. As with all games though, there are some parts of the game that might be deemed as faults by some players or rather, gameplay aspects that will turn other players away. The faults are the slow, plodding nature of the gameplay in which you watch your townspeople move about gathering resources and performing various tasks, alongside ferrying resources to and from buildings as they're processed. Some gamers might not find enjoyment in watching virtual people doing chores and might crave fast paced gameplay. The other fault with the game is the combat, so don't expect the combat to be too great. But if you can live with the faults, then you should find a gem of a game.

One of the best

played it when i was younger and i keep coming back to play it to this day ! i love how chill it is to play ! I also love the pixel art and the animation !