Blue Byte is a developer with a track history of making successful titles, with a few franchises and very successful recent releases. This was the case from their first significant franchise, Battle Isle, to the later creation of The Settlers. Since its acquisition by Ubisoft in 2001, Ubisoft Düsseldorf has also created the Anno series and recent (excellent) titles like Anno 1800, with Anno very much replacing The Settlers over the past decade. After a thirteen-year hiatus, does The Settlers: New Allies bring the series back to its prime? That is the question.
The answer is no. Right, review complete; let's make a nice cup of Yorkshire Gold. What's that? Are you asking for more? I suppose I must, but I feel I'm putting more effort into giving you excitement than The Settlers: New Allies put into giving me some. That is the core problem with this new instalment of the long-dormant franchise; it's dull. It feels like it's still waking up, or more accurately, it feels like the corpse has received a few shocks to spurt out some extra movement. Maybe the name change from Blue Byte in 2019 helped to phase out personality and excitement?
Maybe I'm being too cruel here. There are some nice things to say about The Settlers: New Allies, and I will say those nice things right now. First and foremost, this is a beautiful game. It's not gorgeous in that it's hyper-realistic or hyper-detailed; it's more in a fantastic art direction sense. Not that it isn't detailed, but there's an excellent move towards vibrant colours, which makes the buildings and the environments pop, particularly with the game's setting, which is almost idyllic.
Building these settlements is also pretty fun. While it's not as detailed as Anno, particularly in managing your settlement, it works. Everything is present and moved by your people and visible as it's transported. From growing wheat then sent to the mill - or elsewhere - to watching the lumberjacks cut trees down and transporting the wood, ready for slicing at the sawmill. The odd thing is how, except for building materials, it's pretty much pointless. You don't need at least one-third of the structures because this is one of the odd city-builders that decide people don't need food.
That isn't to say food doesn't exist. As mentioned, you'll grow wheat, bake bread, fish, and more. What do these resources do? They can speed up other resource-gathering (or development) structures. Do you need to? No, you don't. You don't need water, which is baffling. Finally, your people are just permanently happy. The Settlers has never been a series that takes city building or strategy to a deep level, but this is too shallow. Dip your toe in this puddle, and you've reached the bottom. Still, at least there's the real-time strategy aspect to make up for the poor city building.
That would be the case in a perfect world, but this world is cruel and unforgiving. No, the real-time strategy aspect is just as thin on the ground. You wouldn't normally expect a game in this series to be deep on combat, but with the city-building being cut back to somehow even less than the basics, you would have hoped something would pick up the slack. Very quickly, you'll have nothing else to build, everything will run itself, so you only need to recruit units.
I wish I could say the unit variety offers something to the game, but this isn't the case either. Yes, there are a few different unit types, and you can get a little synergy for combat by mixing the variety of units in your army. However, this isn't necessary; it will only speed up your inevitable victory. It pains me to say, but this is so simple that there's no point even thinking about what you will do. Flanking? Ambushing? Don't bother; there's no benefit in being more tactical than The Settlers: New Allies can comprehend. Mass up your units, point them at the enemy, and win.
What also doesn't help matters is the campaign. I rarely mention this, but the acting and script are just terrible. The whole plot about the evils of colonialism doesn't work with the game's pristine, colourful and almost cartoon-like look. This is particularly true as Ubisoft Düsseldorf has decided to take this and base the whole story around it, with a script that may as well be on Cartoon Network, with exaggerated animations that may as well be on there too.
This review of The Settlers: New Allies is short because there's not much to say about what is a shallow game. It will throw a compelling scenario at you occasionally, but it's held back by shallow gameplay, bookended by shallow cutscenes. At least it looks good - and to be fair, it plays well; I ran into no bugs while playing - but this isn't enough to save the game, the series, or this review.
Copy provided by the publisher.
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