The Settlers: Rise of an Empire

"It's not for want of trying though. There's clearly been an attempt to reconnect with what made the series so special, though this well-meaning scramble for credibility is undermined by some awkward design decisions and programming gaffes. When a game has to download a 100Mb patch to fix some pretty major issues so soon after going on sale, and yet still can't guarantee that all the menu selections will actually work first time, we're clearly not talking about a game that has benefited from state of the art coding techniques. Taken alongside the unplayable bug-riddled DS version, Blue Byte seems more than a little out of its depth trying to keep its flagship series in line with the demands of modern gaming."

The latest addition to the Settlers series is a blend of the fresh and the familiar.

Despite being the best game in the series because of some lovely visuals and good gameplay enhancements, The Settlers: Rise of an Empire still manages to screw enough things up to be aggravating. The game is decent to be sure and borders on being a truly good game, but a lack of trade and diplomatic functionality are absolutely frustrating on top of a very basic combat design that isn’t good enough for the amount of combat forced upon players. The huge problem, of course, is the save and crash bugs that can keep you from finishing some of the long missions. If you’re willing to deal with the bugs and like charming town building games like this one, it’s definitely worth a try. We at least recommend giving the demo a look.