A very polished builder with a twist. Looks more complex than it really is, the game is very easy to pick up but quite hard to 'get good' at. Sometimes frustrating due to the sheer randomness of the layouts, and sometimes because of something you did earlier. At times you feel as if you're playing against yourself as much as the game - it's quite an odd experience, but enjoyable. Replayability is good due to the sheer quantity of abilities available through progress, and it has a strong 'just one more turn' vibe. What lets it down is some of the UI not being toggleable (alt-connection view), and the potential connections not really making it obvious if one of them satisfies a demand. And the degree of randomness when starting a game has compelled me to restart more than once, as I was unable to find a stable configuration like the tutorial shows you. Is it worth it? I burned an entire Saturday on this without even realising it - I would say yes.
Settlers is from an era before such things as tutorials existed in any meaningful manner, so the game makes exactly zero attempt to explain new concepts as it's assumed that you've read the somewhat wordy printed manual. Bear in mind this was entirely normal for the time. Luckily the 1st mission is almost entirely sandbox in nature, and you can goof around almost with impunity. If you're used to the fast-paced action of modern games you're going to be disappointed. Think of this more like a macromanagement sim - you tell your dudes where you want various things, and how you want them linked up. Then it's just a matter of watching & waiting to see if everything works, or needs adjusting. Settlers is a very 'hands off' game. It has a ton of information buried in the vaguely opaque UI about stats, usage, resources etc. Most of it is not too interesting or useful, but there are also controls for prioritising various things. Being a very macro game, these controls take a while to have any effect as they filter through the system. The whole process of building a settlement and slowly balancing the various needs is quite enjoyable in a chill not needing too much effort kind of way. The missions don't offer much in the way of novelty after everything has been unlocked though, so if the macro gameplay isn't really your bag then the game might start to feel a bit stale after a while. Where the game stumbles a little is the 'combat'. It's handled a little like a fight in dubbed kung-fu film - everyone on both sides line up to take thier turns fighting 1-on-1, with the winner staying on, and the last man standing wins the battle for thier side. This process is very random, and it is possible for 1 guy to completely dunk the entire opposing team on his own. Which is v. frustrating if that's you. Also worth mentioning that on almost every map there is some time pressure in the form of resources that run out. Farms & trees are infinite. Everything else, not so much.
DW is getting on a bit now, and it shows. The UI is not great, and plenty of people will complain about how "bad" everything looks. But the game itself plays well if you have the patience for it. Most of the game is very slow burn, with only sporadic spikes of action. The game itself is played inside a galaxy of variable size, which can contain upwards of 1000 stars, each with asteroids, planets & moons all orbiting in realtime. Depending on settings & circumstance you may find yourself fighting for space in a packed area full of stars, or struggling to reach even the nearest system in a galactic void. There are several game settings which affect what kind of events you'll encounter. The races are static and cannot be customised without modding, but offer a wide variety of playstyles and goals. (Pure sandbox play is also available if desired.) Ships and bases can be designed to include any equipment you have access to, with only a modest requirement for role-specific items. Research is linear with branches. There are a few techs/items which are locked to certain races. Diplomacy is bare-bones. Espionage is maybe a bit too good. Spies can be an enourmous pain to deal with. There is an in-game editor which can be accessed at any time to change virtually anything you like. Or create scenarios you can save/share. Modding the game is fairly easy as the only thing that's inacessible without decompiling is the exe. Images are all standard png. Data is all csv saved as txt. Any music you like can be added to the game by dropping mp3s in the ..\DW\Sounds\Music folder. As an older game DW has some odd requirements: .net framework 4.0 (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17718) XNA framework 4.0 (https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=20914) Windows Media Player (included with Win10) Internet Explorer 11 (included with Win10) More info here: https://pastebin.com/hubsc3ZS Is it worth buying? Maybe not for the full asking price.
