The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom

Did You Know?

• The Deluxe Gold Edition included a copy of The Settlers III.
• The Rise of the Rebellion DLC tells a prequel story about Dracorian and his sister Rovyn.

Gameplay

The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom is a city-building game with real-time strategy elements, controlled via a point and click interface. On each map, the player must accomplish predetermined goals by building a settlement with a functioning economy, engaging in economic micromanagement, constructing and upgrading buildings, researching technologies, establishing trade routes, and gathering resources. The game features a more complex economic model than the previous two titles, Heritage of Kings and Rise of an Empire, with less focus on combat and more on micromanagement, daisy-chain economic processes, technology trees, trade requirements, and increasing the settlement's prestige. For the first time in the series, players can develop their settlement based on one or more of three options: military, technology, or trade. The game offers three modes: Single-player Campaign, Single-player Skirmish, and Multiplayer. In Campaign mode, the player completes missions to achieve a set number of Victory Points or complete assignments from the Mission Board. The original release had twelve campaign missions, with DLC adding two stand-alone missions and a new five-mission campaign. Early campaign maps serve as an extended tutorial, and an in-game Mentor option allows players to seek help from others.

Plot

Set in an early-Renaissance milieu, the game takes place in the kingdom of Tandria, where the most valued possession is the People's Crown, given only to benevolent monarchs. Because many rulers proved cruel, the Crown was locked away until a worthy monarch appears. The game begins as Princess Zoé answers a summons from her father, King Konradin of Kuron. He tells her that King Balderus of Tandria has been ousted by a coup led by Lord Wolvering and his knight Dracorian. Konradin tasks Zoé with expelling them, promising her a kingdom if she succeeds. After she departs, he laughs to himself, musing about desire blinding her. Zoé travels to Mohnfelden and meets Bors, an old friend of Konradin's, who advises military aggression despite Zoé's preference for diplomacy. When they encounter Dracorian, he mocks Zoé, warning her not to trust her father. After defeating and capturing Dracorian, he insists he is fighting a noble war for the Tandrian people. Zoé then confronts and captures his sister Rovyn, who makes the same claim. Ignoring them, Zoé and Bors march to the capital Konstedt, where Zoé arrests Wolvering.

Development

On September 7, 2009, Blue Byte advertised for players to help develop an unannounced project, asking for PC strategy experts to work on game mechanics and difficulty balancing. On September 22, Ubisoft officially announced the game. In October, Blue Byte revealed that Bruce Shelley, co-designer of Railroad Tycoon and Civilization and lead designer on the first three Age of Empires games, had been hired as a design consultant to make the game more appealing to North America and correct problems with Heritage of Kings and Rise of an Empire. Shelley advised ensuring the player always had something to do, noting that in Settlers 6 he often waited around bored. He also suggested a simpler HUD, citing StarCraft as an example. Blue Byte examined Heritage of Kings and Rise of an Empire to see what went wrong. Heritage of Kings had emphasized combat over micromanagement, drawing fan criticism. Rise of an Empire reduced combat but simplified the economic model, also drawing criticism. Series producer Benedikt Grindel admitted that with Settlers 5 and 6, they lost many loyal fans. The designers based the game on The Settlers II, foregrounding road networks and complex daisy-chain economic processes while emphasizing economic micromanagement, technology trees, and trade requirements. They introduced a dynamic Victory Points system and allowed players to choose among military, technology, or trade development paths. Shortly after release, a fault in Ubisoft's always-on DRM prevented thousands from playing over Easter weekend.

Reception

Paths to a Kingdom received generally favourable reviews, with a Metacritic aggregate score of 79 out of 100 based on thirty-three reviews. Game Informer's Adam Biessener scored it 8.5 out of 10, praising the variety of map types and victory conditions, and calling Victory Points a great system. His main criticism was a lack of feedback in large settlements, making it difficult to track production chain problems. He also called the single-player storyline execrable and acknowledged the DRM problems. PC Games' Christian Schlütter scored it 84%, praising the AI, mission design, and graphics, calling the characters credible and conflicted. He concluded it was the best Settlers game in a long time but expressed concerns about DRM hampering sales. Eurogamer's Quintin Smith scored it 8 out of 10, calling it ungodly compelling. He praised the gameplay but noted that in large settlements, subtle flaws could halt the economy, citing water shortages. GameSpot's Kevin VanOrd scored it 7.5 out of 10, praising the graphics and game mechanics as the series' most charming to date. He found it less challenging than Anno 1404 and criticized the absence of hotkeys for Special Buildings and the laughably simple single-player campaign, but concluded it offers something for everyone.