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The Settlers: New Allies offers a fresh yet familiar take on the 30 year old seriesA 12 month delay has seen improvements across the board, and launch is just the beginning
A 12 month delay has seen improvements across the board, and launch is just the beginning
The road to launch has been a uniquely turbulent one forThe Settlers: New Allies. After an eight-year absence, the next entry in Ubisoft’s beloved city-building series wasfinally revealed in 2018, only to bedelayed indefinitely two years later. The game thenreemerged in a fresh new formin 2022, but a less than favourable reception from long-term fans to its closed beta saw the gamedelayed indefinitely once again.
The Settlers: New Allies - Developer’s UpdateWatch on YouTube
The Settlers: New Allies - Developer’s Update
It shows. The Settlers New Allies is in a more polished and focused state compared to the beta I played last year. Particular attention has been paid to the game’s economy. The research tree has been overhauled from the ground up. Returning buildings, such as the forester, add much-needed depth to settlement management. And the addition of bandits, placed strategically across multiplayer maps, prevents players from using rush tactics to end PvP games in mere minutes, an issue that plagued last year’s beta.
The result is a faster more streamlined version of The Settlers, one that is both grounded in the past and looking forward towards its future. This is shaping up to be largely the same settlement management game you remember, but modernised and refreshed.
Discovering sources of coal and iron are essential for gearing up your soldiers.
Combat is familiar to other real-time strategy games such as Age of Empires, and includes all of the unit management mechanics you’d expect from a game in that genre.
Across the three available missions I controlled two of the game’s factions: the Elari and the Jorn. Both were visually distinct (the Jorn are a Viking analogue, whereas the Elari’s buildings and clothing resemble those of western Europe) and also boasted unique abilities and traits that further set them apart. “The Jorn are more adept at certain machinery that leads them to battle faster,” Hagerdorn explains. “The Elari are much better at building houses and bakeries so that they can produce a faster population and higher population limits. And the Maru are very adept at their defences.”
Towers are a lifesaver against invading forces, especially in the campaign. Not pictured: me becoming increasingly more sweaty as groups of bandits relentlessly tried to burn my coal mines to the ground.
“It was very important for us to offer an experience that [allows] players to find their own difficulty within the game,” says Hagerdorn. “Hardcore mode was born out of the idea of ‘What if we offer them a handmade experience that increases the challenge drastically, but it is made for fun?’. It was just so cool to see what opportunities lie behind changing one of the rules or adding one little bit of extra pressure.” Whereas other games in the genre equate an increase in difficulty with making enemy AI faster and stronger, hardcore mode pushes a player’s knowledge of the game instead. Thankfully missions can be played as many times as you like, and support both save states and the ability to tackle them with friends. “Most of [hardcore mode] is about challenging your own decisions," explains Hagerdorn. “It’s finding out how could I have done this better? It’s not about how I got beat, it’s how could I have prevented this from happening? How could I do better next time? And then something clicks within you and you have the solution and you go again, or you load your save game, and you go ‘I got it this time. I’m going to do this, this this.’ It all works out and you feel much better about yourself.”
Hardcore mode was enormous fun. Here’s me trying - and failing - to burn down an enemy warehouse with only three units and 26 seconds left on the clock.
For what it’s worth, as a long-time fan myself, I really enjoyed what I played of New Allies. In its pre-release form, this is a slick and modern take on the classic Settlers formula, and hardcore mode is an exciting addition I can see myself losing a lot of time within. It seems, at this stage at least, to strike a pleasant balance between relaxing city-builder and fast-paced RTS. It’s a unique take, and one I’m keen to explore further once the game launches in a few weeks.
There’s a feeling of kismet around the multiple delays that have afflicted New Allies. Now set to launch in 2023, this year marks the 30th anniversary of The Settlers original debut. It’s an important year for the series, and as a long-time fan of all things Settlers, it’s a point of pride for Hagerdorn to find himself working on the game’s latest entry at this milestone in its long history. “There is something quite unique about the settlers that really left a mark throughout strategy games,” he tells me. “It has always been a topic that people came back to wanting to see more of, and we’re happy to be here in order to offer that once again. Capturing that spirit and bringing it to modern times is a great satisfaction”.
A group of Ubisoft employees under the name ABetterUbisoft arestill campaigningfor the company to do more in the wake of summer 2020’sallegations and revelationsof widespread harassment and discrimination. Over 1000 current and former Ubisoft employees signed an open letter demanding reform. Over200 days later, the group still say “None of our demands have been met and management refuse to engage.”
