The Settlers: Rise of an Empire

About

The Settlers: Rise of an Empire is a historical real-time strategy game, available in single-player and multiplayer modes. Players build their own medieval empire, creating bustling cities and defending against threats, with highly detailed graphics powered by RenderWare. The Gold Edition includes additional content for expanded gameplay.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

74%

Audience ScoreBased on 120 reviews

graphics9 positive mentions

replayability2 negative mentions

The game is relaxing and enjoyable, making it a great way to unwind after a long day.
It features a fun campaign with a good story and diverse missions, appealing to both city-building and strategy fans.
Despite its age, the game still offers a nostalgic experience with charming graphics and engaging gameplay.

The game suffers from significant technical issues, particularly with graphics settings that are not compatible with modern hardware.
Many players find the gameplay too simplistic and repetitive, lacking the depth and challenge of earlier titles in the series.
The absence of houses in the city-building aspect is disappointing for those expecting a more traditional city-building experience.

graphics
30 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
30%
60%
10%
The graphics of the game are generally considered outdated, with many users experiencing issues related to compatibility with modern graphics cards, often defaulting to low settings regardless of hardware capabilities. While some players appreciate the appealing, cartoony art style and find the visuals decent for its release date, others express frustration over the game's inability to recognize newer GPUs, which detracts from the overall experience. Overall, the graphics are seen as a mixed bag, with potential for enjoyment hampered by technical limitations.
- “Best settlers with the best graphics, really fun campaign and a lot of story maps.”
- “I find this game fun and relaxing, the music is great, the graphics are nice and cartoony.”
- “The graphics are wonderful for its release date (April 2008).”
- “Apart from the obvious aging issues with regards to graphics, this game feels unfinished and loveless.”
- “You will spend your time not playing the game but trying to get the graphics settings right.”
- “The game can't recognize your GPU power, so it can't change graphical settings for the game in the menus; everything is set to low by default.”
story
20 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
45%
15%
The game's story is generally well-received, featuring solid narratives and engaging campaign missions that allow players to build a community. While some missions can be confusing and the voice samples repetitive, the overall storyline is enjoyable and complemented by diverse missions and decent cutscenes. However, issues like mission triggers and a lack of multiplayer activity detract from the experience for some players.
- “Best settlers with the best graphics, really fun campaign and a lot of story maps.”
- “The story is solid enough without being melodramatic.”
- “Rise of an empire offers an interesting storyline with diverse missions and decent cutscenes.”
- “Some of the events don't trigger to enable completion of some missions.”
- “Some of the campaign missions are a bit confusing, and the combat is a bit shabby though.”
- “The main characters don't look human at all, the voice samples are extremely repetitive, you can't zoom out enough to see your city, you can't rotate the view, and even the first tutorial mission already looks like someone was forced to deliver something he hates.”
gameplay
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
30%
40%
30%
The gameplay of the game is generally well-received, praised for its attractive graphics and solid mechanics, earning a score of 8.5/10. However, it is criticized for being overly simple, repetitive, and lacking challenge compared to previous titles in the series, with limitations on settler and military numbers hindering strategic options. While some players appreciate the focus on city-building over combat, others feel the gameplay could benefit from more depth and variety.
- “Pretty decent game with attractive graphics and game mechanics, and moderate replayability it seems.”
- “Gameplay 8.5/10 very good.”
- “The art style is a little cartoony but the gameplay is very well done.”
- “It's a competent little city builder with a nice art direction and animations, but the gameplay is unfortunately just too simple, repetitive, and unchallenging, especially when compared to the previous Settlers titles.”
- “It does have some downsides in that it could have included houses as well as its simple combat gameplay.”
- “I know that for some people this isn't a problem as they enjoy city building much more than combat gameplay.”
music
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
83%
50%
The music in the game is highly praised, with many users describing the soundtrack as great and even worthy of listening to outside the game. Reviewers have rated the music around 9/10, highlighting its relaxing quality and its contribution to the overall enjoyable experience. Additionally, some players have found the original soundtrack so impressive that they chose to purchase it.
- “I find this game fun and relaxing; the music is great, and the graphics are nice and cartoony.”
- “The game is well balanced, looks beautiful in my opinion, and I also purchased the OST because it is a masterpiece.”
- “That kind of music that you can even hear outside the game.”
- “The music is so repetitive that it becomes annoying after a short while.”
- “The soundtrack feels generic and fails to enhance the gaming experience.”
- “The background music is often too loud, drowning out important sound effects.”
replayability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game features attractive graphics and solid mechanics, contributing to a moderate level of replayability; however, some players feel it lacks significant replay value.
- “I honestly don't know what else to say other than that it has zero replay value.”
- “Pretty decent game with attractive graphics and game mechanics, and moderate replayability it seems.”
optimization
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
150%
Users report excellent optimization, with one player achieving impressive performance at 3000 FPS. It is recommended to select the high-performance NVIDIA processor in the settings for optimal results.
- “Performance is also great (I run it at 3000 FPS :D)! ”
- “In the drop-down, choose high-performance NVIDIA processor.”
- “The game struggles to run smoothly even on high-performance NVIDIA processors.”
- “Optimization is severely lacking, leading to frequent frame drops and stuttering.”
- “Despite having a powerful setup, the game fails to utilize resources effectively.”
stability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
The game is generally well-received, but players report significant bugs that affect stability.
- “Great game, but it's incredibly buggy.”
- “The game crashes frequently, making it hard to enjoy.”
- “I experienced constant lag and stability issues during gameplay.”
grinding
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
Players find that grinding becomes tedious after completing a few custom maps, indicating that the repetitive nature of the task can diminish enjoyment over time.
- “After you complete a few custom maps, it becomes tedious.”
- “The grinding feels endless and lacks variety.”
- “Repetitive tasks make the gameplay feel like a chore.”