Settlers II: 10th Anniversary (PC, 2006)
Graphics-8 Sound-8 Control-7 Challenge-7? Story-6.5
Level Design-7 Frustration-8 Fun-7 Originality-6
Overall Score-7
+
3D with pretty good animation and lighting effects
Rotatable view (but not buildings)
Day/night cycle (can be turned off)
Tooltips
Units don't die from anything other than combat and not having an hq/storehouse/harbor somewhat nearby
Can zoom in and out (mouse wheel)
Ambient sfx (higher quality)
Skirmish/free play mode (can be used as training as well)
Save anywhere (ten slots, not namable but they automatically contain map and time info)
Info messages/letters (unintrusive, can be toggled on/off based on category here)
Story campaign (shipwrecked romans - a diary (now voiced) updates as you play and new objectives can be added during a mission)
Improved cutscenes (fleshed out narration and more fitting cartoony art style)
Auto-save option
Control worker priorities using various sliders (for example which buildings should get food first)
Adds a voiced tutorial (very basic though)
One more speed setting w/o cheats (3x - 4-5 would've been nice; press Enter and type TooFast for 5x+ speed)
You now salvage some resources from demolished buildings (still lose food in exhausted mines)
Hunters are more useful
No need to search for water anymore
Can now evacuate soldiers from specific military buildings
Easier to spot exhausted mines (sleep animation)
Somewhat improved pathfinding
Separate toggle for non-UI/ambient sfx (but not non-voices only)
3 factions (the same?)
Faster ships
Map editor
+/-
Semi-automated unit behavior (similar to Lemmings, no direct combat control)
Soldiers always fight one on one
Can't expand over bigger mountain areas
Scouts can't be attacked
Can disconnect manned military and forester buildings from road (can be used for more advanced planning of other builings)
Often used roads become paved (making transport faster; can't pave where you want to)
Larger campaign maps (seems to just pad the game out for the most part)
Online or network MP
Maps no longer loop
Can't place military buildings close to each other
All new soundtrack? (improved sound quality, )
Goods transportation could be faster if workers reacted as a good was being moved to the next flag instead of waiting until it's put there
Catapults are a bit overpowered (kills one soldier occupying the military building per shot until it's destroyed) - can empty the building before the hit though
Can't capture enemy HQs
So-so sense of progression in terms of tech (you have everything after the fourth scenario (which only added the shipyard and harbor to your previous tech))
Rotating with RMB snaps back to the previously set angle if you let go (can only rotate permanently in the cardinal directions using ins and home)
Can fast forward in cheat mode though (Alt+3-6)
Battles are larger scale since defending soldiers will attack other soldiers instead of waiting inside buildings and it seems easier to create a big army
Story isn't particularly true to history
? need to have an HQ/storehouse/harbor nearby when demolishing a military building or the soldier wanders off and disappears (workers and donkeys can also wander off if their building is destroyed) - the range is pretty long though (however a soldier can at times move in circles for a long time or decide to go to the other side of the city after reaching a storehouse instead of to the nearest border building/wherever you set the priorities to)
No global campaign
-
Still so-so control over expedition ships (cargo - determined by what you build in your city as a whole and set priorities, direction)
A bit annoying how geologists can move outside your borders and waste time putting signs there
Resource signs placed by geologists still disappear after a while (would've been fine if you could check the land info again manually)
No restart scenario option
Various interface issues (still can't simply click on a unit to check what they're doing at the moment), taking down a flag between two other flags still also removes the road between the other flags, still can't upgrade or downgrade military buildings, annoying limitations on what military building you can attack or where you can build at times (seems to have to do with distance and how many soldiers are in the building you want to attack from; terrain type changes depending on flags/roads/forests - can't terraform a piece of land with only small buildings allowed to make bigger ones possible over time - however you can start building something and then cancel after the builder flattens the ground), can't directly pick soldier distribution priority for single military buildings (only in general terms based on how close they are to the enemy border (military sub menu; can also call soldiers back to HQ and send them back out though it takes a while) - less annoying now that you can evacuate buildings but the soldiers won't directly go to the building you want, still can't make soldiers retreat, picking strong attackers doesn't always work right (weaker soldiers will often attack first and it's sometimes hard to tell from which building they'll come from as you're choosing attack so as to prevent it from happening), still can't pick the "empty from building" option on resources transported to non-HQ/storage buildings (military buildings, mines) and the resources are even lost after demolishing
Some trial & error (unit ranges, mines deplete not only their own tile but also neighbouring tiles), can't view specific building types in the map window, worker pathfinding still worsens as your city expands (more storehouses only seems to help a bit with this),
- No observation window (view a small window of a chosen area while playing)?
No vikings
Somewhat thicker roads?
Still can't change the direction of a building's entrance
Overly detailed ground (makes it harder to quickly spot some things and it seems like the one thing you can't toggle regarding gfx)
Can't zoom out quite as far as before
Foresters are less efficient (need more of them now)
Some hotkeys changed for no reason and some were removed?
Soldier deaths still aren't lined up with the last strike from the opponent (looks a bit unfinished)
Some mechanics could've been improved (sending more than one geologist or scout at a time, sending more workers to a construction site, pressing delete to remove flags or road, etc.)
One more click to demolish buildings
No music track shuffler options
Worse animation when destroying enemy buildings
Can't use the main menu while the game is paused
Bugs:
-The mouse pointer doesn't follow the camera properly when holding the middle button to scroll
-Half a second game freeze when it auto-saves (can be turned off or made more seldom),
-Sometimes can't right click to close the window if you change your mind about destroying a piece of road
Level Design-7 Frustration-8 Fun-7 Originality-6
Overall Score-7
+
3D with pretty good animation and lighting effects
Rotatable view (but not buildings)
Day/night cycle (can be turned off)
Tooltips
Units don't die from anything other than combat and not having an hq/storehouse/harbor somewhat nearby
Can zoom in and out (mouse wheel)
Ambient sfx (higher quality)
Skirmish/free play mode (can be used as training as well)
Save anywhere (ten slots, not namable but they automatically contain map and time info)
Info messages/letters (unintrusive, can be toggled on/off based on category here)
Story campaign (shipwrecked romans - a diary (now voiced) updates as you play and new objectives can be added during a mission)
Improved cutscenes (fleshed out narration and more fitting cartoony art style)
Auto-save option
Control worker priorities using various sliders (for example which buildings should get food first)
Adds a voiced tutorial (very basic though)
One more speed setting w/o cheats (3x - 4-5 would've been nice; press Enter and type TooFast for 5x+ speed)
You now salvage some resources from demolished buildings (still lose food in exhausted mines)
Hunters are more useful
No need to search for water anymore
Can now evacuate soldiers from specific military buildings
Easier to spot exhausted mines (sleep animation)
Somewhat improved pathfinding
Separate toggle for non-UI/ambient sfx (but not non-voices only)
3 factions (the same?)
Faster ships
Map editor
+/-
Semi-automated unit behavior (similar to Lemmings, no direct combat control)
Soldiers always fight one on one
Can't expand over bigger mountain areas
Scouts can't be attacked
Can disconnect manned military and forester buildings from road (can be used for more advanced planning of other builings)
Often used roads become paved (making transport faster; can't pave where you want to)
Larger campaign maps (seems to just pad the game out for the most part)
Online or network MP
Maps no longer loop
Can't place military buildings close to each other
All new soundtrack? (improved sound quality, )
Goods transportation could be faster if workers reacted as a good was being moved to the next flag instead of waiting until it's put there
Catapults are a bit overpowered (kills one soldier occupying the military building per shot until it's destroyed) - can empty the building before the hit though
Can't capture enemy HQs
So-so sense of progression in terms of tech (you have everything after the fourth scenario (which only added the shipyard and harbor to your previous tech))
Rotating with RMB snaps back to the previously set angle if you let go (can only rotate permanently in the cardinal directions using ins and home)
Can fast forward in cheat mode though (Alt+3-6)
Battles are larger scale since defending soldiers will attack other soldiers instead of waiting inside buildings and it seems easier to create a big army
Story isn't particularly true to history
? need to have an HQ/storehouse/harbor nearby when demolishing a military building or the soldier wanders off and disappears (workers and donkeys can also wander off if their building is destroyed) - the range is pretty long though (however a soldier can at times move in circles for a long time or decide to go to the other side of the city after reaching a storehouse instead of to the nearest border building/wherever you set the priorities to)
No global campaign
-
Still so-so control over expedition ships (cargo - determined by what you build in your city as a whole and set priorities, direction)
A bit annoying how geologists can move outside your borders and waste time putting signs there
Resource signs placed by geologists still disappear after a while (would've been fine if you could check the land info again manually)
No restart scenario option
Various interface issues (still can't simply click on a unit to check what they're doing at the moment), taking down a flag between two other flags still also removes the road between the other flags, still can't upgrade or downgrade military buildings, annoying limitations on what military building you can attack or where you can build at times (seems to have to do with distance and how many soldiers are in the building you want to attack from; terrain type changes depending on flags/roads/forests - can't terraform a piece of land with only small buildings allowed to make bigger ones possible over time - however you can start building something and then cancel after the builder flattens the ground), can't directly pick soldier distribution priority for single military buildings (only in general terms based on how close they are to the enemy border (military sub menu; can also call soldiers back to HQ and send them back out though it takes a while) - less annoying now that you can evacuate buildings but the soldiers won't directly go to the building you want, still can't make soldiers retreat, picking strong attackers doesn't always work right (weaker soldiers will often attack first and it's sometimes hard to tell from which building they'll come from as you're choosing attack so as to prevent it from happening), still can't pick the "empty from building" option on resources transported to non-HQ/storage buildings (military buildings, mines) and the resources are even lost after demolishing
Some trial & error (unit ranges, mines deplete not only their own tile but also neighbouring tiles), can't view specific building types in the map window, worker pathfinding still worsens as your city expands (more storehouses only seems to help a bit with this),
- No observation window (view a small window of a chosen area while playing)?
No vikings
Somewhat thicker roads?
Still can't change the direction of a building's entrance
Overly detailed ground (makes it harder to quickly spot some things and it seems like the one thing you can't toggle regarding gfx)
Can't zoom out quite as far as before
Foresters are less efficient (need more of them now)
Some hotkeys changed for no reason and some were removed?
Soldier deaths still aren't lined up with the last strike from the opponent (looks a bit unfinished)
Some mechanics could've been improved (sending more than one geologist or scout at a time, sending more workers to a construction site, pressing delete to remove flags or road, etc.)
One more click to demolish buildings
No music track shuffler options
Worse animation when destroying enemy buildings
Can't use the main menu while the game is paused
Bugs:
-The mouse pointer doesn't follow the camera properly when holding the middle button to scroll
-Half a second game freeze when it auto-saves (can be turned off or made more seldom),
-Sometimes can't right click to close the window if you change your mind about destroying a piece of road