The Settlers: Rise of an Empire

Title
Developer
Publisher
Genre
ESRB Rating
Demo Release Date
Full Release Date
Platforms
Official Website
Demo Download Size
Review Date

The Settlers: Rise of an Empire
Blue Byte Software
Ubisoft
Real Time Strategy
E10+
23rd August 2007
25th September 2007 Buy Now
PC (Reviewed)
http://thesettlers.uk.ubi.com
1.33GB
4th June 2008

What did I think before playing?
I'm a fan of the Settlers board games and have played the fan made PC version, Sea3d, but I'm not entirely sure what this game is going to be like.

What is included?
A tutorial level and a single player skirmish map.

What did I think afterwards?
As it turns out, this is a simplistic RTS game. Simplistic to the point where it is actually more of a city building game than an RTS, (more Sim City than Command & Conquer.) The opening pre-rendered cinematic sets you up to believe this game is about you building a bustling town with real inhabitants that go about their daily lives. Surprisingly, that is really what it feels like when you get into the game. As you start laying down buildings and farming for resources you see the towns people rushing around, all doing their thing.
I started out with the tutorial level which does teach the basics in that you ave to build certain types of buildings to gather certain resources. You need wood and stone to build with, but interestingly need to hunt animals for fur and meat. You need tailors to turn the fur into clothes and butchers to make sausage for the people to eat. The goal is to level your knight, (the character that can be sent to uncover new areas and order command posts to be built,) by meeting set criteria around the size of your village/town/city. After being taken through that process step by step by your knight in the tutorial, (which took 20mins,) I tried the regular skirmish map. The objective was the same, but a higher goal. There were also many more options available for me to try which is a little overwhelming until you start exploring and working out which resources are useful and therefore which buildings to construct. This level was taking much longer to complete and I had no opportunity to save, so I had to quit part way through. The graphics are detailed & lush and the sound is as you would expect, (I didn't notice much other than the speech of the characters giving you instructions during the tutorial.) The demo ends with a typical splash screen.

Would I buy the full game?
Probably not. This was an interesting game and I can see the appeal, but it was a little too simplistic to be an RTS, (although not being an avid RTS player I can find that most RTS games can be overly complex, so this was nice,) and too slow to progress through to keep my attention, (I missed the fast forward button from Sim City.)

Demo Pros
Well stylized, even down to the installer being skinned in ye-olde parchment. Good tutorial. Provides more than an hours play time.

Demo Cons
As a demo, this does a good job. Multiplayer would be nice to try though.

Demo Rating 8 / 10

Thoughts after playing the full game?
If I play the full game I will put comments here about whether I feel the demo was representative of the final product and if I am happy with the purchase.

Sales Figures
If I can find sales information about a game after it has been released I'll add that here. It may be useful to track demos to sales performance.