Tasked with building and running your economy is no easy feat. While the original game was a landmark piece of gaming strategy history, this remake based on the original is far from perfect, buggy gameplay and game crashes make this a real letdown.
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GamesRelay Score
Below Average
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Name: The Settlers II: The 10th Anniversary
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For any strategy gamer who owned The Settlers II on PC, the series was a great game for its generation and set standards for some of today's top strategy titles.
The Settlers for the Nintendo DS is a remake of the classic Settlers II on PC. When Settlers II came out way back in 1996, it was released on the PC and Amiga, thankfully, this remake is a descendant of the PC version which includes the speed setting where as the Amiga version did not, basically allowing you to speed up time and progress the gameplay faster than normal. Unfortunately, where The Settlers II proved a success back in 1996, the DS remake is quite a let down. The game has been ported from the PC version which was released to commemorate the 10th Anniversary and is a terrible example of how a game should be ported. The Settlers II is full of bugs, not just bugs you find in most games but bugs that are game breaking, some can even stop you completing the game. Where a game would usually be patched on the PC, 360 or PS3, the DS has no such feature available, so you end up being stuck with a title which is not even half as enjoyable as the original mainly because it just does not work.
For those who have never heard or even played The Settlers series. The Settlers II is a complex economy strategy game which has you building your nation of settlers and keeping them happy. Resources for your settlers are key to progressing in the game, by placing flags on the map with roads leading to them, your settlers take resources along your laid out path. After a while, and especially for the new players to the series it can become incredibly complex incredibly quickly and trying to get your head round it all can put off even the most advanced players. But for those dedicated enough, the game can be rewarding though to a point with the DS remake. Making sure your economy is thriving by prioritising your resources is of great importance, but you also have to consider your military prospects, though these aren't as important as the mainstream economy.
The game doesn't come shipped with anything you could really call a manual. If it did, the manual would probably be the size of a DVD case and as you know, the DS case's are quite a bit smaller. Where it lacks in hard copy manuals you would think the developers would concentrate on an easy to learn and use tutorial system that easily progressed you into the game, for some reason any sort of tutorial is completely absent from the game. Why is bewildering, whether it was because there wasn't enough space on the cartridge or was simply overlooked is a great question.
Where the game becomes even more frustratingly difficult for newer users, is the clunky interface and imprecise button presses, they become very annoying wanting you to just give up before you even get going with the game. The Settlers isn't exactly a pick up and play type game either, many hours are required to get a good economy going, sorting out the problems faced with your settlers from blocked roads to finding the best place to put your buildings. The interface doesn't even register your screen touches sometimes which can make gameplay almost impossible, the worst part being, if like any other person who wants to check on their economy you decide to zoom out or look around, the scrolling speed can become sluggish and unresponsive and on top of that the game can even crash on you, usually when you have something good going and a lot of time invested. So if you are dedicated enough to go through with playing the game you must remember to save your game regularly, if you don't, your doomed to failure right from the get go. All these things combined make for an awful play experience, sometimes it's best to just put the game down and walk away out of sheer frustration and annoyance. How the game made it past the Q&A department at Blue Byte Software is beyond us, it's shockingly bad.
For fans of the original Settlers II you will be pleased to know that the graphics, sounds and music are taken straight from the original, it's great loading into the game after not playing for so long and remembering just how much fun you had playing The Settlers II, that is until you encounter your first game crashing bug in this DS remake.
If you're looking to get in on the game for the first time with the DS, it would be best just to either not bother, or get it on a different system. With horrible controls which sometimes don't even work, graphical slowdown and game crashing bugs it's such a shame to see a classic game ruined on a portable console which could have been a saving grace for further remakes. With more than likely poor sales and far below average review scores for the Nintendo DS remake, the future looks slim for further reiterations on today's portable handhelds. Our advice? Stay clear and save your money.
