The Settlers

Amiga, The Settlers (1993) game

When we first got an Amiga in the mid-Nineties, I had no interest in this game - it looked complicated and I didn't like playing simulations or anything that required learning difficult play mechanics or keyboard layouts. I didn't even like having to change gear in racing games and always chose automatic (still do!). This was the kind of game my Father played and I was only interested in fast, reaction gaming: racing, shooting, platforming. But as in everything, you get out what you put in, and when I finally had a go, it sucked me in, and though complex at first the game was so expertly designed and so beautiful to look at that it soon became a pleasure to get home from school and jump back into that world where I was in control. Many happy hours later and I got to the stage where it was too easy to beat any opposition so I'd play with the hardest setup: all my resources and growth rate at absolute minimum with three of the tougher computer players with maximum resources, intelligence and growth. That was truly a challenge. For most of my gaming existence 'The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening' on the humble Game Boy was my favourite game of all because it was such a hugely revolutionary experience coming from the Commodore 64 games - the first entire world to explore and puzzle through, an emotional connection to the inhabitants and the land. But eventually I realised that as good as it was (and the N64's opus 'Ocarina of Time' was close behind for magnitude of revolutionary playing experience), 'Settlers' would be my desert island game above anything else.

'Settlers' had the advantage of practically infinite variety in its randomly generated world, and only 'Age of Empires' (preferably II, naturally), could come close to this impression of unending gameplay. And the little pixel people in their green and pleasant land won out overall because it wasn't just about building an army to crush the opposition, it was a chance to build a village, a series of villages that created economic prosperity and gave the player hours of tinkering to find the best layout, road system and plans for expansion. Yes, it was designed to be played to the death, but equally if you wished you could play it without any opponents purely for the pleasure of town-building. But having those enemies made it a sweeter experience as you felt the pang of loss when part of your settlement was razed to the ground when the polite little knights sauntered onto your patch to take over a guard hut, watchtower or castle, with your own knights fighting for their lives and land, albeit always in the spirit of polite etiquette, one at a time, no rushing, calmly taking their turn at battle. What can be lost becomes more precious. At the same time there was the delicious thrill of foiling the enemy, taking a mountainside rich with iron ore and coal, or winning in the race to be the first to build on a particular patch of land, claiming it for your own and in consequence burning down the opposition's half-finished construction.

For its time it was such a complex program and incredibly it was designed to use whatever machine's power it was played on to the utmost. For being so detailed it also had the enjoyment of the occasional glitch, such as a road from the enemy's side being connected to your own, and especially fun was when you ended up with a 'defector,' an enemy knight that somehow ended up hopping into one of your own guard huts and defending it for you. Not all the glitches were good, and I was frustrated to find that sometimes if I hadn't saved a file and then burned down an unwanted guard hut of my own, that the game might crash, and I certainly did that on multiple occasions recently, losing an hour of play, then knuckling down to get right back to that point and forgetting to save, committing the same mistake again! Aargh! And as much as it gave you heartache to lose parts of your township you'd painstakingly built up, it would also be the height of frustration sometimes, so it wasn't all smooth sailing. But always the soothing sounds of the unhurried world of your little men banging away at the blacksmith's forge, smelting iron ore or gold, tapping away at rocky promontories or chop-chop-chopping down a tree, where even the branches were carefully disposed with, that calming, precise attention to detail was a pleasure to behold.

I suspect just playing the game could be good for the mind as much as being in a natural space and seeing green grass and trees makes you feel better. The graphical detail where every pixel mattered was beautiful and I would happily hang a screenshot on my wall and call it art. Sound and visuals were superbly judged and it shows just how great an idea and the execution of it was, that the sequel was nowhere near as enjoyable, having higher resolution graphics and more complication that took away from the simple joys inherent in the concept. I never played any other games in the series and I believe it still gets new releases, or certainly did in recent years, though it became an internet only game where you had to be permanently connected to play it. Nothing could ever improve on the perfect blend the original had (you could even play with or against a human player on split screen - it was like there was nothing they couldn't think of!), and that's why this will always be my number one game of all time.

It's thanks to 'Star Trek Conquest' that I went back to it as I really enjoyed the strategy of the Wii game and it made me want to play something a bit deeper than the more arcade approach they took there. 'Age of Empires' I've played regularly over the years, but 'Settlers' on the Amiga I hadn't for some time - it was DOSBox's fault as I was pleased to be able to play it on my MacBook and finally experience a size 8 world, the largest possible (my Amiga was limited to size 5, which was ample), but the graphics were slightly less appealing compared to the brightness and vibrancy of the Amiga version, and the world was so vast I didn't even come close to the enemy before I'd lost interest and didn't play it again. I'd been hoping to think of an Amiga game to play this year as I like to have a mix of machines, though most of the great games or tough ones I'd never been able to complete in the past I'd already played and reviewed, but amazingly I'd never got around to writing a proper review of 'Settlers' and I never regretted going back as it plunged me back into that feeling of wanting to get back on it whenever I could, which is the hallmark of a truly great game. I play 'UFO: Enemy Unknown,' the original X-COM game, regularly, so it's not like I don't get on the trusty Amiga, but when even my planned 'UFO' slots were being filled by 'Settlers' I knew this was as great a game as ever!

It's not just the beauty of the land, the rustic charm of the buildings, the little jokes (farmers grow crop circles), the spot-on sound effects, and, if you wish, the medieval music. It's the sheer depth of the gameplay - who could have guessed that graphs of timelines and productivity could be so interesting, but it was in the detail that the game was even more alive. In modern games there's so much recording of statistics, but back in 1993 the most you were likely to find in the average game was a high score table and a save game file, so it was quite revolutionary and it gave you precise control of many things, despite the fact that you were actually never in direct control of most Settlers - even the knights which you could target at a specific attack would wander their way over in their own time and manner. For some, not having direct access to all your little people might have made them feel disconnected, but that was part of the joy as you set them on their way, whether to build a building or plant a forest, whatever it was they'd do it in their own way and you could improve things remotely, such as building a new road or the layout of buildings in relation to each other. You could also sneakily get a little more direct in influencing things by, for example, planting flags where you didn't want trees to grow.

Sadly, my stretch with the game came to an ignominious end when I was making progress in a tough game that had lasted weeks on and off, and I was battling to kill off my only remaining rival, only for the game to freeze during saving, thus ruining the save file, thus meaning the game was over. Two things this reminds you: one, that using old technology is always a risky thing and isn't one hundred percent reliable, and two, always back up files in more than one location, disk, hard disk or wax cylinder - whatever you can do, because nothing's guaranteed! It was made more annoying by the fact that I had just about come to the end of my enjoyment after playing for a few months, and finishing off this particular game would have been an elegant sufficiency. Instead I was left frustrated and hot-tempered: not the best way to go into your next gaming experience. But lessons learned, lessons learned. A sour aftertaste cannot remove the heavenly delight of greatness experienced in returning to the Best Game Ever, if anything it only makes the sweetness sweeter because of its fragility, which brings us full circle to the wonder of 'Settlers' where the threat of losing your village makes the bond even stronger.

*****