The genre of economic strategies is loved by many. One of its founders is the game The Settlers II. This is a classic example of how to create games. Even after decades, they continue to play it and are rightly considered one of the best parts in the entire history of the series.
How it all began
Back in 1996, the second part of the game The Settlers II: veni, vidi, vici was released. It is dedicated to the long and arduous journey home of the Roman expedition, which fell into a shipwreck. Once on a desert island, they will have to find a series of "Gates" to get to the house. Along the way, you will have to enslave the unfriendly Indians, deal with the cunning Chinese, overcome the harsh Vikings, and finally cut a path through the fellow Romans who do not want to let you go home.
The gameplay is quite versatile. On the one hand, it’s enough to dig up gold and “pump” soldiers to win, on the other hand, the resources are not endless. Iron and stone tend to end quickly, which means you will not be able to advance on the map or build new soldiers.
Another player's favorite feature is long production chains. For example, meat: before sausage is made from "pigs" in a slaughterhouse, it still needs to grow. And for this, you will need grain and water, which still need to be grown and mined accordingly. This game, in fact, served as the ancestor of such monsters of the gaming industry as Stronghold and The Guild.
But all good things come to an end. Computer technology and graphics have evolved, power has grown, and The Settlers II is simply outdated. They continued to play only ardent fans and fanatics of the series. Then there were 3-5 parts, which, frankly, pleased only new players, while the series lost its popularity with the “old school”.
New life
And in 2006, on the 10th anniversary of the game, Blue Byte decided to release a remake of the old game. The project was called "The Settlers II: 10th anniversary". Of course, the expectations were not entirely true.
Despite the fact that the game acquired a modern gloss, three-dimensional models and high-quality soundtrack, it did not bring anything new. Unless now, during the missions, we will need to find out where all the women went ... An interesting question, given that people continue to appear "in warehouses" from nowhere. Yes, and the Vikings removed. Such blasphemy would be very few people would like.
On the whole, a return to a system where properly laid roads are half the success of the settlement brought a breath of fresh air among the quite commonplace parts 3 and 4.
Continuation
The new part was so successful that after a while the update "The Settlers II: 10th anniversary. Vikings" was announced. And here the people could breathe a sigh of relief. Not only did it return the forgotten Viking race to the game, it also added a new campaign of 9 missions. In addition, a redesigned script editor allows you to create maps for the most sophisticated tastes.
In such a long way, we returned to the very beginnings. The game has gained its former brightness and popularity. Of course, there are also disadvantages. Players note the reduced complexity of artificial intelligence. The campaign is very quick and easy. You don’t have to, like in the original series, sit for hours at a mission and think about how to beat a whole army consisting of “generals” with a hundred ordinary soldiers.
Dead end
The final part of this remake entitled "The Settlers II: Awakening of cultures" was released on August 28, 2008. The "Origin of Civilizations" was, in a way, an attempt to combine a remake of the second part and the third. Here you will find roads loved by all players, and temples where sacrifices can be made.
The number of types of troops has been increased, the characteristics of each individual soldier have been added. On the one hand, this brings diversity to the military component of the game, but on the other hand, it is not clear why this is necessary in the classical economic strategy.
The racial component, like the campaign, has undergone significant changes. Now you have the opportunity to play for the Scots, Bavarians and Egyptians. What caused such a choice of civilizations is difficult to understand. If initially we were offered a choice between different cultures, now there are fewer of them, and the difference between them has decreased even more.
What can be said about The Settlers II in the end? A successful remake and addition to it managed to revive the series and attract a young audience to this old toy. However, the developers went further and frankly rolled the second part into the swamp, which contained all the other games in the series, such as the third and fourth parts.