28-Dec-2004 The Settlers games always seemed to occupy their own little corner of the strategy world - one in which characters who looked like fat toddlers that'd been rushed through puberty reigned supreme. But from the looks of The Settlers: Heritage Of Kings (the fifth title in the series), said characters have clearly been on the Atkins diet, as they've shucked off their chubby cartoonish forms and are about to enter a new era of Medieval carnage.
"The previous Settlers games were quite hard for people to get into, as they were quite complex with a steep learning curve," explains the game's producer Benedikt Grindel. "You had a lot to do, juggling both the needs of the settlers and the resources, so this time we've tried to make things easier by focusing more on the settlers themselves and their place in the world."
Visually, Settlers: HOK is a complete departure from the rest of the series and it really does look all the better for it. Gone are the irritatingly colourful and cartoonish 2D graphics (which often looked like they'd been put together at the Ray Charles School of Design), and in their place is a new 3D medieval world, somewhat reminiscent of Stronghold 2. Benedikt, who's understandably kinder about the previous games than I, puts it a little more gently. "People who saw the previous Settlers games thought they looked like kids' games played by adults. Because of this, we've tried to make the series grow up a bit and look like the game it really is."
Holding Out For A Hero One of the ways in which Blue Byte has tried to refocus the gameplay is by introducing heroes. In a similar way to Age Of Mythology, these are the characters which drive the game's singleplayer storyline. However, unlike that game, these heroes actually come with their own benefits and unique skills.
Dario is the main guy, son of the old king and your typical Prince Charming-type, who was raised in secrecy in a small village after the kingdom was split up by wars. Now it's his job to unite the seven fragments of the old empire under the banner of his awesome blonde nobleness. But out to thwart him, and there's always a thwarter on the loose, is the Black Knight (who looks suspiciously like Dario in a big helmet) and his ruthless and fiendish cohorts.
Bigger Is Better Luckily, Dario will meet a few comrades of his own along the way. These include Pilgrim, a burly adventurer with an axe, who's an expert in explosives and proves very handy when you want to blow shit up. Not to mention Ari, the busty she-warrior and mistress of the longbow. Other heroes have their own unique abilities like being able to construct certain special units, heal troops and go undercover. Dario himself has a very useful hawk that he can send out to scout out hidden territory.
However, Benedikt is keen to emphasise that the game is still about attention to detail and building big settlements. Key to this process are the serfs, who do all the drudge work like constructing buildings and collecting wood and stone. Once they've built a building, you automatically get workers seeking employment in your settlement. In exchange for their hard labour, you have to show that you're a beneficent Lord and make sure they've got somewhere nearby to get a hot meal and have a kip. If you don't provide this, they let you know pretty quickly and although you can't actively control them, you can click on every one of the settlers and find out what they need from you.
Kick Back And Relax Each little building has its own upgrades and little animations which lend a lot of life to your settlement, not to mention the fact the environment is full of deer, wolves and rabbits who gambol around as if they're auditioning for a Disney movie. It's nice to just sit back and watch your stone-masons tapping away at the stone blocks, little logs trundling through the sawmill and the general hustle and bustle of medieval business as usual.
The Settlers: Heritage Of Kings marks a very interesting move away from the traditional Settlers style, which admittedly was rather convoluted for a lot of players (and let's face it, very Germanic). Accessibility is the watchword here, which shouldn't be confused with dumbing down, because Blue Byte has retained the attention to detail and gameplay depth that the series has enjoyed all along. This should keep the old fans of the series happy and hopefully make a few new ones. We'll be settling down with the finished version in the next couple of months, so look out for a full review soon.
The Settlers: Heritage Of Kings includes a weather system that doesn't just enhance the look of the game, but weaves into the gameplay as well. Although the weather changes won't be automatically predictable, you will get warnings about approaching weather fronts, especially if you research meteorology. You get rain and fog which makes it hard for your troops to fire straight and generally reduces your visibility, but where the weather really comes in handy is when you need to cross a big expanse of water. All you have to do is wait until it gets cold (you usually get warnings about this), then the water will freeze and enable your troops to walk across. At the highest levels of the alchemy research tree, you can also control the weather using weather towers. This means that if you see your enemy hot-footing it over the ice, you can call up the sun and send him to a watery grave.
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