Ubi Soft The Settlers IV

The focus on building and resource management rather than fighting makes The Settlers IV more like SimCity with a dash of regrettably necessary violence, and it's a formula with strong appeal.

Its three races - the Romans, Vikings and Mayans - all have three scenarios of gentle conquest to complete in their respective campaigns. Plus there's a campaign against the sinister Morbus and his Dark Tribe, who together aim to render Earth a far less green and pleasant place.

Military conquest plays a relatively small part of the game, partly because there is little variety in each race's armed forces. Resource management, on the other hand, is complex and involving, making it a real challenge to develop a thriving economy.

Miners, for example, require bread, meat and fish to work efficiently, but harvesting and processing these resources isn't always that simple. To produce bread, you need a baker, who in turn needs flour from a miller, who needs corn from a grain farm. More complex still, sheep and goat ranches also need grain, so you have to decide who gets what.

Then your workers need the right tools before they can begin work - the grain farmer must have a scythe, and the tool smith requires wood and iron to make a scythe, eventually taking the system full circle back to the miners. In short, if you mismanage one aspect of resources you can find yourself stumped.

Much of this will already be familiar to veteran players, so what extra does The Settlers IV offer? Apart from added depth to some elements of resource management, the answer lies in its appearance and interface.

Hardware settings for the graphics mean they stand up to close inspection, and the mouse wheel-controlled zoom permits rapid examination of the whole empire right down to the tiniest detail.

The clutter of terrain, wildlife and settlers, however, makes finding individual specialist units a frustrating task. Scrolling is still painfully achieved by holding down the right mouse button, so moving about the screen is slower than necessary. Right-clicking for other elements compounds the frustration.

A competitive mode allows players to compete against each other to achieve scenario goals, and a co-operative mode allows players to act together to accomplish tasks that cannot be completed alone. These elements will be the selling point for many existing Settlers fans.

CONTACT: Ubi Soft: 020 8944 9000
www.ubisoft.co.uk

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