Posted August 25, 2009
Settlers 2 is one of the games that I've been hoping was going to come to GOG.com since the site launched. I found the demo years back and played it a lot, but was never able to find the full game in stores.
It is a real-time strategy game, only in the strictest sense of the words. Its focus is much different than most RTSes out there: you don't have any direct control over your units. You give build orders and create paths for the helpers to walk along. For the military units, your only command is a generic "attack enemy military structure" order---you can specify the strength of your attack, but the game resolves the combat with any nearby units.
The true focus of the game is building your economy to create and sustain a large enough army to survive and attack your opposing players. There are dozens of different resources, some of which are used to build buildings, some used as food or in the process of making food to feed your miners, some used to make tools and weapons, etc.. Keeping your entire resource hierarchy producing efficiently can be difficult, especially when you don't have enough space for what you would like to build.
The game is generally pretty slow-paced. The V key will double the speed, and I tend to use that for most of the game, except at the beginning and when attacking. Even so, the game can often feel slow to develop. The storyline isn't too well-developed, but that really isn't my first concern.
The art looks nice, though the sprites are a bit small in modern-day comparison. It's overall a pretty cartoony feel. I can't really blame them for that with the game being this old.
The main (Roman) campaign starts off pretty easy, but gets pretty hard after the first few missions. In general, the missions are pretty fun, though it is a challenging game. I haven't had the chance yet to try the world campaign.
All-in-all, this is a pretty unique, yet very fun strategy game. I'm sure that it will waste plenty more of my time in the future.
It is a real-time strategy game, only in the strictest sense of the words. Its focus is much different than most RTSes out there: you don't have any direct control over your units. You give build orders and create paths for the helpers to walk along. For the military units, your only command is a generic "attack enemy military structure" order---you can specify the strength of your attack, but the game resolves the combat with any nearby units.
The true focus of the game is building your economy to create and sustain a large enough army to survive and attack your opposing players. There are dozens of different resources, some of which are used to build buildings, some used as food or in the process of making food to feed your miners, some used to make tools and weapons, etc.. Keeping your entire resource hierarchy producing efficiently can be difficult, especially when you don't have enough space for what you would like to build.
The game is generally pretty slow-paced. The V key will double the speed, and I tend to use that for most of the game, except at the beginning and when attacking. Even so, the game can often feel slow to develop. The storyline isn't too well-developed, but that really isn't my first concern.
The art looks nice, though the sprites are a bit small in modern-day comparison. It's overall a pretty cartoony feel. I can't really blame them for that with the game being this old.
The main (Roman) campaign starts off pretty easy, but gets pretty hard after the first few missions. In general, the missions are pretty fun, though it is a challenging game. I haven't had the chance yet to try the world campaign.
All-in-all, this is a pretty unique, yet very fun strategy game. I'm sure that it will waste plenty more of my time in the future.