The Settlers: Rise Of An Empire In Detail

The game formerly known as The Settlers VI is to be called The Settlers: Rise Of An Empire from now on, as Ubisoft announced this week. Along with narrowing down the release date to September 2007, the publisher also revealed quite a few gameplay details for Blue Byte's upcoming strategy game, which they still claim to be "the best The Settlers game of all time" (though it's rather hard to imagine something better than Settlers II, after all the iterations that followed until now).

Before we dig in, we'd just like to point out a couple of new screenshots that were added to the game's local gallery, showing both a zoomed-out and a down-to-earth view of a busy little medieval settlement. If you want to see it grow into a larger fort, head over to YouTube or get the new full-res trailer straight from Ubi's servers.

Those of you who are not yet familiar with the series' general concept can read about it in our The Settlers: Rise Of An Empire gamespace. And finally, if you're all set, here are some actual gameplay details for this sixth chapter:

- A very special Settlers atmosphere in a lively medieval game world!

- The primary objective of the game is to create large, lively medieval towns.

- The settlers interact with each other in a completely natural way and have wants and needs of their own.

- Female settlers appear for the first time in the series: Men and women fall in love with each other and marry.

- The lively, detailed game world is rich in animal and plant life.

- The settlers' busy life is presented in lovingly rendered animations that show what is going on in a transparent way.

- The world is divided into four climatic zones with changes of season and weather which influence expansion and resource gathering.

- The best Settlers game of all time, featuring the best from previous games and lots of gameplay innovations!

- The game's instant accessibility and gentle learning curve ensure long-lasting fun; even in advanced game missions, new features are introduced.

- All interventions by the player are reflected in the behaviour of his subjects and made transparent through the animations in the game world.

- Starting with a small settlement, the player builds up flourishing towns, maintains trade relations, and claims land and villages. This requires diplomatic skills.

- Mining, gathering resources, and food production result from wise planning and the various occupations of the settlers.

- Goods transport is optimized through skilful road planning.

- Upgrading buildings step-by-step improves the effectiveness of the economy and towns.

- By hiring travelling entertainers and organizing fairs, the player acts as a matchmaker by enabling male and female settlers to get to know each other.

- The player can build walls to protect his towns from enemy attacks. In military actions, the player must prove that he has built up his empire in such a way that it can defend itself effectively.

- Missions featuring noble knights with various skills accompany the player through the epic storyline penned by Jeff Grubb.

- Included in the game: dynamic single player campaign, freeplay mode with a multitude of maps, numerous multiplayer options via LAN and Internet, and a map editor.

Female settlers for the first time? Heh, didn't even realize this was such a misogynistic series up to now.

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)