The Settlers: New Allies

The Settlers: New Allies begins promisingly, with a lush new setting and satisfying construction. But its hallmark production systems sorely lack depth, while its RTS combat adds little of value.

Blue Byte is a developer with a track history of making successful titles, with a few franchises and very successful recent releases. This was the case from their first significant franchise, Battle Isle, to the later creation of The Settlers. Since its acquisition by Ubisoft in 2001, Ubisoft Düsseldorf has also created the Anno series and recent (excellent) titles like Anno 1800, with Anno very much replacing The Settlers over the past decade. After a thirteen-year hiatus, does The Settlers: New Allies bring the series back to its prime? That is the question.

‘I’ve heard good things from Ubisoft Dusseldorf, fomerly known as Blue Byte, from my WayTooManyGames colleagues, namely due to their excellence in making immersive city builders, like the Anno games. As in, games where you build cities. A builder. For cities. That’s it. I’m writing this obvious remark because someone may have missed the memo during the development of The Settlers: New Allies.

Ubisoft struggles to make RTS and city builder play nice together.

Overall, The Settlers: New Allies is a solid starting point to reboot the RTS franchise. While its campaign is dull enough to be ignored, the game’s bones are strong enough to support solidly entertaining online play. Despite its issues it has the potential to breathe new life into The Settlers as a franchise, which would be great for all RTS fans.

The Settlers: New Allies is a game with great presentation and poor execution, It’s $60, but I would struggle to recommend it at even half that price given how lacking in content it is. The gameplay is lagging heavily. Although tightly woven together, it doesn't really matter when there's so little to play with. It’s like being in a sandbox with no toys or tools.