The Settlers II: Gold Edition

1997

Audio: German, English, French

real time strategy (rts)
simulator
strategy
historical
single player
multiplayer
split screen

The story

The goal of this game is to build a prosperous and well-organized city and to gain control of the enemy cities. This might initially seem simple to do, but in reality, it is much more complex. Settlers II is much more complex and with better graphics than the original Settlers game. The Gold Edition features the original game and the Mission CD expansion.

What it’s like

Bright, hand-drawn isometric landscapes in saturated greens and sun-warmed browns, with tiny animated settlers trudging along paths between woodcutters' huts, quarries and fields, so that every corner of the map looks busy and lived-in. The sound is a gentle loop of pastoral strings and pipes that drops out into the clatter of hammers, bleating livestock and distant horns when an attack is near. Pacing is unhurried and cumulative: long stretches of quiet planning, watching a little economy click into rhythm, then sudden flurries when a border skirmish breaks out. The mood is calm, industrious and faintly contemplative, with stakes that feel like a patient builder's pride rather than panic. It suits a rainy weekend afternoon, a slow evening with a cup of tea, or a long stretch of thinking through a puzzle at your own pace. Violence is cartoonish and small in scale: soldiers clash with little puffs of dust and fall without blood or gore, and there is no sexual content. It is for players who enjoy systems and logistics, who like to watch order emerge from a messy map, and who want strategy without tension that grinds.

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