Settlers 2 - Blue Byte
                  (God-game for PC CD-ROM)

                      Reviewed by Sue

Jean Childs and I both got hooked on the original Settlers, Jean
especially who wrote the Tom Settler article in Issue 33.  When
Settlers 2 came out, Jean bought it straight away, then nagged me
at regular intervals (hehe) until I did too. I must admit that she
was right when she told me how brilliant it was.  They have made
just enough changes, enhancing the game, and making it more
enjoyable than its predecessor without overcomplicating it. If
you've played the original you'll be able to start playing
Settlers 2 immediately. Even those of you who are playing this as
your first experience of the series will find it very easy to get
to grips with.

If you haven't heard of Settlers at all - where HAVE you been?  -
here is a brief run-down of the plot. You have to guide this
little band of men (no women in Settler-land, strangely enough)
through a hostile land, constructing all the different buildings
they need for their survival, growing crops, mining for coal and
ore, then meeting and defeating enemy tribes in order to extend
the borders of their land further. The basic idea is the same in
both games, but in Settlers 2, there is a campaign mode where you
play the part of the Romans and guide them through a series of
scenarios, each dealing with a particular problem. Once you solve
a scenario, you have to find the gateway (a carved arch) which
takes you to the next scenario. No codes to input or ways to skip
a level here, you have to play them all in sequence or not bother.
Really it's a form of tutorial to introduce you to the changes in
the follow-up, once you've got the hang of the basics.

The main section of the game, which I haven't personally touched
yet since the campaign mode is taking me weeks to complete, is the
freeform mode where you can select the game world, its size and
type, number of opponents, game objective, types of alliances (if
any) and so forth. Lots of scope there for hours and hours of fun
as you test out the different options. I'll save that past of the
game for the next millennium once I've finished the campaign mode.

So, what's new in Settlers 2? The graphics are better, much
clearer than in 1, with more animation and several routines for
the little Settlers to carry out (eg skipping, reading a
newspaper) when waiting for instructions from you. I'll never
forget the first time one waved at me.  Even after playing for
over a month, I still see new things - only yesterday I caught a
Settler idly blowing bubbles with his bubblegum. On busy routes,
the human porters can be augmented by horsepower ... or,
donkey-power, rather. Yes, as well as farms and pig farms, you can
build donkeybreeders. The donkeys will be automatically added to
the busiest routes. They have little panniers for whatever they
are carrying; another thing that made me chuckle was seeing a
donkey with a pig looking out of his pannier as he carried him
from A to B.

No longer is play restricted to one large lump of land. Settlers 2
has introduced ships to get your little geezers from one island to
another. This adds two more buildings - a shipyard (rowboats are
built here too, for short crossings) and a harbour.  Expeditions
can be mounted to send your ships off into the wide blue yonder.
Sailing is pretty much automated with only particular points where
the ships can land and restricted directions in which they can
sail (shown by compass-type arrows). Once you give the order, the
on-board stone and planks will be used to build a new harbour and
the ships, if not caught up in an expedition, will continue to
carry whatever equipment and specialised workers are needed from
harbour to harbour.

Another new building is the storehouse. Like the harbour it works
similarly to your headquarters, but items can be left at key 
points in your expanding country, rather than having to be toted 
from one end to the other when needed, saving valuable time.

As well as bread, fish and ham joints, your Settlers can now dine
on other game thanks to a new Settler, the hunter. This
bloodthirsty character stalks bunnies, deer and sheep through the
trees, bringing them down with his trusty bow and arrow.  Actually
it's all done in the best possible taste, to quote the late, great
Kenny Ev.

What else is new? Granite can be mined as well as hacked from
rocky pinnacles. Scouts can be sent to flags, like geologists
(yippee!) to wander past your country's boundaries and show what
lies over the next hill or whatever. Lookout Towers are buildings
which serve a similar function.

Warfare hasn't been forgotten with the addition of several new
buildings which can hold more soldiers (a fortress holds up to 9
and a guardhouse up to 6) plus catapults which fire stone blocks
at enemy buildings. Fighting is more interesting and dead soldiers
leave dinky little skeletons on the ground for a while.

There are four races to play; as I mentioned before, you play the
Romans in the campaign games, and they use traditional buildings.
Other races and their building styles are Oriental, Viking and
African. To further add interest, there are different settings. So
far in the campaigns (I'm on the 7th scenario) I've seen the usual
grassland background but scenario 6 was a wasteland with lava
lakes and parched ground. Most inhospitable.

I could go on and on about how brilliant this game is but I'll
leave it there so there are still lots of things for you to
discover if you decide to play it. Settlers was great ... Settlers
2 is, erm, greater. Get it and you, too, can waste hours of your
life playing God.











 

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