The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom Review

Waiting Game

Unfortunately, while Settlers 7 practically oozes complexity once you immerse yourself in its entangled resource web it does have to be said that the game is just rather dull on the whole.

As we mentioned before, experienced players will be able to extract an awful amount of tension from Settlers 7’s structure – but we should probably clarify that it’s a tension which builds slowly and that the majority of Settlers 7 is a waiting game, rather than a doing game. It’s possible to spend minutes at a time with nothing to do but watch your plans unfold.

It’s a problem which arises from the fact that you don’t really have any available units in Settlers 7. You can mark down an area where you want a farm to be built, but you can’t actually tell anyone to go and work on it. Your minions will do that themselves, collecting goods from a storehouse and then setting to work. You can't easily set specific buildings to be a higher priority, though you can prioritise building types - military, research, production, etc.


On the one hand, this does eliminate a lot of micromanagement and it helps keep Settlers 7 close to what the Settlers games have always been about. On the other hand though, it means that the opening sections of each map end up either monotonous or empty; you either go through the same old routine or sitting there waiting for all your buildings to get completed.

It’s worth mentioning that Settlers 7 is littered with other features/problems too – though which viewpoint you take will depend on how jaded you are. Settlers 7 is fully integrated with Facebook, for example, so you can post progress to your Wall and liaise with pals there. Great for some, a tiresome pain for others.

Some of these additions are genuinely cool and noteworthy, such as the castle creator which lets you customise the centrepiece of your settlement. Others are less well received and reek of unabashed commercialism, like sticking Ubisoft’s online store on the main menu and using it to try and flog decorative items. It all feels a bit crass to be honest and it combines with the box-art issue to suggest that Ubi isn’t sure who exactly the game is intended for. Settlers 7 appears at once a casual and hardcore title and while the aim might have been for universal appeal the result is that it occasionally feels a bit confused.


Then there’s the DRM. It’s something I personally don’t like to comment on in game reviews because I think it’s more important to judge the actual experience of playing more than the circumstances and politics surrounding a title. With Ubisoft’s new system though it’s hard to draw a line; the always-online DRM is more likely than not to affect your game experience.

If your internet goes down while you’re playing then you’ll lose your save progress, even in singleplayer, until it reconnects; that’s a problem from any angle and it’s something you should be aware of. Settlers 7 is good, but it’s far from unique and it’s not necessarily good enough to warrant putting up with the DRM over unless you’re a Settlers fanatic.

And that’s really about where things end up for Settlers 7. It’s a good game overall and it has a lot going for it between the luxurious visuals and inventive use of resources to direct players, but it fails to rise to greatness thanks to a restrictive DRM system, a litter of minor niggles that grate the more you play and an indirect gameplay model that means it feels flat overall.

Score Guide