The Settlers: Rise of and Empire is a very traditional and simple strategic game.

The players who already know the Settlers series will find many typical features. In this series the economical aspect is at least as important as the military one. The production process is a bit more complex than the usual gather-->build system of games like Age of Empires.

The game offers some hours of good fun thanks to a simple storyline and a decent number of maps with story-driven quests.

The downside though is that after the completion of the campaign the game become rather dull.

This would be my pick between Settlers 5, 6, and 7. Settlers 5 offers more control, but has a clunky UI. Settlers 7 limits control over military units to attack and defend, and resource production is less fun.

If you find the Anno games are too slow and the production chains too endless and complex, this could be for you. Gameplay is far more about construction, resource gathering and production than war, but it's a good un!

Nice graphics, good gameplay. A very enjoyable RTS - the one thing I would've like improved is a further zoom out on the map - I enjoy being able to get a broader overview, but it's just preference.

I remember with great love playing Settlers II in my younger days. Then the third installation was released, and the "flag"-system was history. Just like that, Settlers had lost its charm. And here we are, three games later. It's not a bad game, it's easy to learn and it looks great. Everything is functioning like it should be. But the CHARM that once was Settlers are long gone, I'm afraid...

It's a pretty solid game. It's easy to forget about the mission and just spend tons of time gathering resources and building up your settlement. The learning curve isn't too steep; it takes some time to get used to everything but then it gets easy to control. A lot of fun with a lot to do and a lot to keep track of.

There are a total of six knights in the game, each with unique names and abilities. You earn them as you progress through campaign missions and then get the chance to choose one of them as your main representative in upcoming assignments. It's an interesting system that lends a fair bit of personality to how campaigns play out. Still, too many knights are burdened with nearly useless powers, such as entertaining settlers with singing and boosting the amount of cash that winds up on the collection plate after sermons in the cathedral. With such options as Lord Marcus, who can recruit swordsmen and bowmen on the cheap, or Lord Hakim, who can turn enemy battalions into friends

This is a very nice scenery game!

Very easy game play makes it more fun and enjoyable, It's a good starter platform for the more advanced platforms like Sid M's turn game's.

There is some blood shed that Adult's with Younger players may need to be aware off...

..Over all this is a great History packed game.!

Have fun!!

I am very sad.

The Settlers 1, 2, 3, 4 was great strategies. And what I liked was the "fairy-tale" style.

this game is a standard bad real time game without any spice.

Skip it, it won't give you anything

I found this game to be a competent city-builder that is both fun and relaxing to play - even as you advance and make your settlement grow. It's not very complicated, at least not if you're familiar with the genre, but I don't think that's a bad thing. If anything it's a nice change of pace - it enables you to enjoy the game without having to worry too much about all the little details. The graphics are very good and it's quite impressive to be able to see the seasons come and go... or to simply zoom the camera in and take a closer look at the world and the people that lives in it. I can definitely recommend this to anyone who wishes to build and maintain their own city while having a stress-free time doing so!

I bought this for my 9 year old son as a first step into strategy titles, having played the original Settlers back in the day. Nice gentle learning curve, but it could give you a bit more feedback sometimes about what needs to be done or why something isn't quite working in the way you were hoping.

If you like the Settlers genre then this is one to buy too! Great game. Is fun to go around searching for things then work your way to get them. Gets more difficult as you go on of course. Starts off kind of slow and easy in the beginning. There is a little room for improvement. Would still recommend this game to anyone that enjoys playing city sims or AoE type games.

Hi everyone,

I have some crucial points about the good and bad stuff about this game.

We'll start with the bad:

- For me, the campaign game started to get a little bit old after mission 8. It's basically the same trough whole the game. You build your city (base), promote your knights, complete the instructions you where given in the beginning of the mission and basically that's it. Maybe this feature is like in all others RTS. But me, I'm more a fan of the total war series concept. Where you have sort of an open-world game play.

That said, I have to admit... I liked the game very much. The good:

- Graphics are great. Buildings, people,... all is nicely detailed.

- The game is a nice variation for all the CONQUER-like games, because it has it's main focus on city building not so on army building/fighting (altough, armies are present and a very important feature in the game)

- I think the game is suited for all ages

- The knight promotion system is a nice feature and some of the knights actually give an important benefit.

This said, if I had to score this game... I would give it a 7 in total. Fans of RTS and city building games could even enjoy this title more then I did.

Greets