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The Settlers: Heritage of Kings is the fifth edition of the 11-year-old real-time strategy (RTS) game franchise developed by Blue Byte Software and published by Ubisoft.

The game, which combines RTS and simulation gameplay, offers single-player campaigns  in 20 medieval missions that challenge players to create their own realm by conquering seven kingdoms and retrieving the Orb of Power.

A player first must build up a settlement, including farms, houses and schools. In this interdependent community, a player must manage more than 70 types of intelligent inhabitants.

Serfs are used to build structures and harvest resources  such as wood, clay, iron, stone and sulfur. These resources are scattered throughout the land or generated by building mines over rich deposits.

The workers pay taxes, while helping harness the commodities needed to build a player's empire. As head of this settlement, the player satisfies the serfs' needs for food and shelter.

The settlement's army also has to be built to defend the player's territory and conquer other communities.

A player can barter various materials to acquire  abilities and options. Important technological breakthroughs are made by using inventors, scholars and alchemists.

With more money and resources, a player can expand the settlement and its army's capabilities to engage in combat. About 90 per cent of this game is about building.

In combat, the action is straightforward. When sending troops into combat, a player selects the units to fight, chooses the location of battle and sits back to watch. There is not much control  over the individual units in battle.

To add some dimension to these battles, a player has 'heroes' who can be controlled directly to lead the troops. These characters have special abilities. A character named Dario, for example, uses an eagle for reconnaissance work over uncharted territory. Erec provides a war cry to get the soldiers to fight harder.

The game has excellent graphics. The digital environment is highly detailed, such as the trees that sway and twist in the wind. There is also a wide variety of animals.

The dynamic weather and the passage of seasons have a direct impact on game play. Units travel more slowly on snow, while rivers freeze and serve as battlefields.

Still, the voices of characters are almost  identical. The foot soldiers, archers and the men assigned to the cannons all sound alike.

Multiplayer missions focus on research, including planning the battle strategy that could last a couple of hours.

This game would be perfect for a player who is new to the RTS game genre, but a bore to those who want to jump straight into the action.

The Settlers: Heritage of Kings

Specifications

Price:  $270

Pros: Easy to play. It offers pleasant  pseudo-medieval music to match the game's languid pace

Cons: Lacks variety in voices for characters, single-player mode is slow, and there is no skirmish mode



Never settle for less in your own realm