The Settlers has been butchered, it has become a monster. This game is riddled with MTX, poor gameplay, no Australian server support (it keeps desyncing and you cannot recover as there is no online saving). The people they have working at this studio have absolutely ZERO respect for The Settlers games. ZERO. Instead you have what has become a weak amalgam of a city builder meets an RTS game. It does NOTHING different for the genres. Its just the absolute minimum of both put together and called Settlers.

The only positive things I have to say are that the graphics are quiet nice and working very smoothly for me, I know this isnt everyones experience, but I have the hardware for it. The worlds feel so bland and empty however, vert lazily made. Zero feeling of ambience for the environment, its just kinda there. The campaign so far (because online coop is absolutely atrocious) is what I have spent my time playing, and I must say its a good campaign so far. Im only on Act 1 but they seem to have put alot of work into it. And I do appreciate it for what it is.

In saying all that, this game is no city builder with complex economical prodution lines. It is the bare minimum that The Settlers could be, and for that reason I would no recommend you spend more than $15 USD on it. And 100% do not pay for the MTX rubbish.

Having skipped buying it on release due to the long list of negative reviews, I gave it a shot months later. I can't tell you what has been improved as I didn't experience the initial wave but this was very enjoyable game, by both my wife and I.

After that disaster of a Homeworld 3 release, picking up the new Settlers on sale was wonderful. If my hours are any indicator, it was worth it.

- The campaign was good (except that red-coat guy, needs to find his cojones)
- Graphics are good
- Dabbling in skirmishes, its a bit bland but we'll see
- A few bugs with lock/crashes, especially on the save selection screen.
- You can generally control the flow if you're wanting to focus on building more by just delay clicking on the next council cut scene.

All in all, it was a welcome fun 80-hours of solid gaming after the 15-hour Homeworld 3 disappointment.

long way to go.