![]() There are two tiers of road, dirt and stone (you want stone). God forbid a kink forms in your supply chain. Your roads reach out like tendrils, avariciously grabbing at any resources you can find, because your village is HUNGRY, and even in optimal conditions, production takes time. This is where engineers come in, they’re the vanguard of your settlement, claiming land, building structures, and surveying mining areas. You need roads to connect every resource to the warehouse. I described the campaign as “wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle” but the multiplayer is more “wide as a puddle deep as a puddle.” On its surface, the gameplay seems fine - the warehouse is the cornerstone of your settlement, and as its name would suggest, it’s where all of the goods are stored. The gameplay simply isn’t deep enough to make playing through the bizarre campaign worth it. It’s like watching a fever dream unfold in real-time. The bandit queen immediately starts waging war on innocent settlers. The guild master refuses to arrest her because he “respects diplomacy” despite the fact that she threatened the cartographer. Another odd situation arose when the cartographer and the guild master were talking, and out of nowhere, the bandit queen entered for the first time, and talked as if they’d spoken before. I had to send one of my settlers to their death for that “reveal” to progress the mission. There was another time when there’s supposed to be a little mystery as to how a building got sacked, but I had already explored enough of the map to know it was bandits, but the game still “revealed” it was bandits. They speak as if they’re outnumbered and surrounded, but it only sends a trickle of enemies at you, and there are plenty of troops left to defend with, but you leave anyway. For example, while in a rush, fleeing to the dock at the beginning of the game, there’s a point of contention about abandoning the remaining civilians so the rest can escape. It genuinely seems like it was written by an AI, and there’s a certain dissonance between what I’m seeing while playing and what happens in the cutscenes. The lines in cutscenes can be rather janky, and the plot can feel nonsensical. You have to fight your way onto the docks with the city’s guild master and the cartographer, the two characters who represent the Elari in cutscenes. It’s genuinely brutal to hear the slow, stark music at the beginning of the game and watch as your lands are pillaged. Your only choice is to flee your land and begin again as refugees. The campaign can be described as “wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle.” In the campaign, you play as the Envoys for the Elari, a peaceful agricultural people who are getting absolutely bodied by their own military in a coup. New Allies sucked me in with its masterfully charming aesthetics, but soon enough, I realized that its beauty is only skin deep. It’s quite sad, the game is brimming with life, but none of that vibrancy translates to the gameplay. This game is just so quaint, I could feel my blood pressure going down just playing this game. The audio is also excellent in this game the creaking of the boats in the harbor, the gentle ebb and flow of the waves, it’s all really relaxing. The splendor of your village is accompanied by pleasant and calming background music, perfect for observing your settlers toiling away or reveling. For example, I heard a girl in a wheat field exclaim “be careful with that scythe” as another settler chopped away wheat around her. A lot of their voice lines are relevant to the area they’re in. Your settlement is bright and vibrant, with constant chatter amongst your settlers. You can even zoom in on the houses and get a glimpse inside the doorways. Maybe a flower-covered pergola will form, or a long, artisanal archway. When you put houses next to each other, they connect in interesting ways. From glistening waterfalls and oceans, to well-crafted structures brimming with character, this game will treat your eyes to a feast of fine detail. The imagery in this game is absolutely breathtaking. However, there is one aspect that stands out before anything else when you play, the visuals. The Settlers: New Allies is a combination of RTS and city builder that delivers neither in any particularly special way. Building up your base in a meaningful way while expanding and enhancing your army seems inherently rewarding. ![]() The idea of combining the two genres has always been exciting to me. Structures in RTS games on the other hand typically provide a more strategic advantage, whether that be production or defense. Typically, city builders offer you a plethora of structures to perfect and manage your city. RTS games and city builders have always had similarities, the micromanagement, and the building being a few.
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