Easily one of the best strategy games ever made. Maybe it's just me showing my age, but I like games that let me take my turn, enjoy the gameplay as a casual pace, and just kick back and relax. Don't get me wrong, I do like action games too. But there's a time and place for everything, and Settlers is one of the few games where you can constantly make progress, micromanage your little town and feel like you're always doing someting useful, but at the same time, you don't have to do anything at all. You there, chop those trees. You, get some fish. You, look for minerals. Then you, the player, can just sit there looking at the screen for an hour if you want to. Even combat is simple, yet fun. Build army, walk up to the enemy and smash them to tiny pieces. Then simply rebuild your little army quickly, set them to protect the land you just conquered, and feel safe. So combat is there when you want it, but it's never there when you *don't* want it. Just the way it should be. Maybe it makes the game too easy, but again, there's time and place for everything, and this is the time and place to relax and have a cup of tea. NOTE: The review should focus on the game only, and I agree 100%. That said, I am having a tough time starting this game on Win10. Not sure what it is, and compability mode isn't helping. This is just a friendly notice, and does not affect the score or review at all. Just sucks to buy a game you can't play. If you're interested in retro-games and buy a lot of games on GOG.com, I recommend getting an older computer, or even a laptop. Old games on new computers will always be tricky.
Back when this game was out, I was already sick of Star Wars. Sure the franchise was great, but why on earth did we always have to be the good guys, and usually follow the movies? Then this game came out. Holy sh... This time we are a pilot of the Empire, in a story that does not follow the movies too closely. Or at all. Instead, the story is something about a new batch of TIE-ships being developed, so you have to protect them. Sounds boring? It's not. First of all, the X-Wing wimps have shields. The TIE Fighters don't. That means one hit can kill you. But why would you get hit? Unlike the Alliance, you're flying with two wingmen, and focuses on speed and manouverability over get-hit-a-lot. Later in the game, you get to fly slow TIE Bombers and blow up capital ships, TIE Interceptors and so on, and even the brand new TIE Defenders you get to defend a lot in the early games. Each ship feels like a big improvement over the others, so you feel some actual progression here, rather than moving from an A-Wing to X-Wing to Y-Bother. NOTE: I played this a lot with a flghtstick back in the days, and I don't recommend trying to play with just a mouse and keyboard. A gamepad might (hopefully) work, but I haven't tried it.
