The Settlers: New Allies Review

Remember that long-lost game known as The Settlers? If you don’t, it may be because the last entry was 13 years ago, which is a surprisingly long time for such a successful series of games. But here we are in 2023, which seems to be a fantastic year for RTS titles coming to consoles. As a massive fan of the series, I was excited to get hands-on with The Settlers: New Allies which is developed by BLUE BYTE and published by Ubisoft. I recently reviewed Anno 1800 which was developed by the same team, so I was eager to see if the quality from the team shines through to this project. I was a little wary though, since the game was pulled from the Xbox Store all of a sudden close to its original launch date and was re-introduced with very little marketing recently.

It’s Been 13 Long Years

13 years is an exceptionally long time in gaming and this is the first time a Settlers game has landed on console. The game has been labelled as a reboot and has been a long time coming since it was officially announced at Gamescom way back in 2018 before the world turned sour. After a little research, there has been a bit of to and fro with the development of the game, even taking the entire project back to the drawing board for a redesign.

It was decided that the original concept had overcomplicated systems and they needed to be simplified and streamlined to be in line with the vision of the team. It’s certainly not a bad thing to admit that something isn’t quite right before it lands in the hands of players. I admire this outlook. The downside though was a lengthy delay in order to get the game to the satisfaction of the BLUE BYTE and Ubisoft teams.

What Is The Settlers: New Allies?

The Settlers: New Allies follows the same premise as most RTS games out there. Gather resources, build, generate population as well as attack and defend. You’ll be pleased to know that straight off the bat there is a separate area of the game handily titled “Tutorial” and you guessed it, head here to learn how to get to grips with the controls, building placement, generation armies and more. One impressive thing I instantly noticed was how intuitive the control scheme is with a controller. It is a common theme that this genre is better suited to mouse and keyboard but games have nailed a controller set up in the past. You only have to look at Halo Wars 2 and the recent Age Of Empires II Definitive Edition to see it can work. I’m happy to report that this game handles just as well as the games I’ve just mentioned.

Once you have mastered the tutorial and I do wholeheartedly recommend working through this because not only will you get an achievement, you’ll gain a huge understanding of what is to come. Firstly, what I really enjoyed was the city-building aspect and the resource gathering. It felt like you had to think about your layout and how the Settlers can best serve your community. Watching them work away building and clearing paths to another area is satisfying. You have to focus on the transportation of resources to have an effective city and whilst I found the methodology of it quite slow, it allows you to really absorb everything going on unlike rushing everything and zooming around the map like a Total War game.

Protect Your Turf

However, it isn’t all peaceful and chopping a few trees down. There will be objectives to tick off and you will have to get stuck into the heat of battle on several occasions during the Campaign and Skirmish modes. These tasks may force you to fend off enemies, gather and stockpile resources or build up the population. It can get to the stage where the approach of the game is quite repetitive. Combat appeared to fall a little flat for me because it felt like there wasn’t much to do here other than make sure you have more troops than the enemy team.

Throughout the campaign mode, I was consistently performing the same tasks and due to the lack of depth with a limited number of building options and different methods of combat, it gets a little stale quickly. There is a story delivered in cutscenes if you choose to persist with Campaign but if you’re more of a competitive player you can dive into online multiplayer.

Get Your Mates Involved

You’ll be pleased to know that there is cross-platform multiplayer and cross-generation multiplayer. Here you can team up with up to three players and even face AI opponents if you choose. The great part of this is that the longevity of the game really is down to how long you enjoy it. However, be wary that some matches can last a fair few hours if each player takes it seriously. Completing online matches will reward you with experience and you can later purchase cosmetics with in-game currency, some can be bought with real money also which is all down to choice if you want the option to pretty things up a bit.

Graphics & Audio

The Settlers: New Allies looks absolutely fantastic on the big screen and for the most part, runs buttery smooth on the Xbox Series X. The UI has been wonderfully designed to blend in with the experience and doesn’t hog the entire screen. Tasks are displayed on the left-hand side of the screen and I found everything to be clear and concise. It is refreshing to dip into an RTS that doesn’t eclipse a large percentage of the screen with so much to learn. The grid system during building is simple to follow and understand. Visually the environments are really impressive with the water looking super realistic. I’m a sucker when it comes to the aesthetics of water in any game, so they have nailed it here.

Audio is equally amazing with voices coming from the settlers during all types of atmosphere. You hear the aggression during combat scenarios and some witty comments whilst resource gathering. Superb sound effects complement the great work that the design team have put into the overall presentation.

How Does It Stack Up Against The Rest?

The Settlers: New Allies, unfortunately, misses the mark when it comes to depth and complexity if you stack it against other RTS games like Age Of Empires 2 and even their very own Anno 1880. As someone who pines for these experiences constantly, there is a lot of competition this year and I felt like this game caters to the casual audience perfectly.

It is a shame that it doesn’t stretch a little further in areas like combat, I would have loved to have seen more options here and some further research to speed the pacing of resource gathering a bit. That said, it is absolutely stunning to look at and engage. It did provide me with plenty of gameplay but I feel the team would benefit from introducing more to some lacking areas. Those who like to get knee-deep in RTS games will likely not find huge longevity here in comparison to the big hitters at the top of the pile. I really hope to see more substance for this one so that I can revisit it as it has tonnes of potential in its gorgeous foundations.