Power and glory
The Settlers series is one which has enjoyed much success over the years, with uncountable entries an add-ons over the years, all the way up to The Settlers 7. This earlier game still stands up well today and comes packaged with some extra content to make it the best way to enjoy it. This one maintains the real-time strategy approach of the franchise and charges players with conquering the game world with their little tribe of characters. As usual with similar RTS games, from Warcraft to Command and Conquer, you have to supply your armies with resources, weapons and buildings and here you have three civilizations to choose from, Romans, Egyptians and Japanese. Each one has their own unique characteristics and provide players with distinct challenges. There are also plenty of individual units and weapons to experiment with, including some exclusive to this edition such as catapults, while naval aspects have also been improved upon. The add-on content includes a Mission disk with ten extra single-player missions and ten multi-player, along with a mission editor, as well as as the Quest of the Amazons disk which adds a new race and two campaigns. If you've never played a Settlers game before, this is actually a good place to start. The visuals have been overhauled for this edition, making it highly attractive, while the gameplay is a good representative of the series and provides plenty of challenge. Even for veterans of the series, this is a good bet, thanks to the included extras, so if you fancy dipping your toes into a new strategy game, this is a great way to do it.
