[7GAMES REVIEW ------------- by M.S.C.

    @4SETTLERS BUDGET REVIEW
@3
P-r-o-p-a-g-a-n-d-a.    

Settlers is a very good game. Go and buy it. 

E-n-d--of--p-r-o-p-a-g-a-n-d-a.

    To be serious, Settlers is a very good game,  @5 You can even go
                                                 fishing, which is a
@3and you should go and buy it because it's so     @5plus point for all     
                                                 @5anglers out there...
@3good.                                               
  @3                                                
    It's basically a variation of the God game      
                                                       
Mega-lo-mania, and it's a bit like SimCity but 

a lot more medieval. 

You start off in a randomly generated world full 
                    #6 More>>>
@3of trees and stone 

(wood and stone are your basic building materials), with a sprinkling of 

mountains for good measure. These mountains contain the key to the more 

complex part of the game. 

 ---- The Economy ----  

    Yes, the downfall of many a `Major' political party has been included

in this game, and has been used to great effect. You too can fail the

country, but you can't put the taxes up (but you can promise not to).

    The idea of the game can be one of many. You can try to fill the

entire map screen with your teeming peasant town, or you can do it again,

but with up to 3 opponents trying to do the same. You can of course

fight them, using knights. But to properly use them, you need #6More>>>
@3
knight huts or towers. 

To build these you need wood and stone. To get wood and

stone you need to build woodcutters and Stone Chippers. To build these you

need planks. To make planks you need a sawmill. And what about weapons?

You need an iron foundry and a blacksmiths. To make iron you need Iron ore.

To get iron ore you need a mine. To build a mine you need wood. This goes

around and around and around in an ever increasing circle. And of course,

the knights won't fight well unless they have gold. To make gold you need

a goldsmith and a gold mine. To build these you need wood and stone, and

the miners won't mine unless they have food. You need farms and mills

and pig farms and butchers and bakers. To build these you need Wood and 

stone. So, have you got the message that it's complicated? Good. #6More>>>

 @3 What?? I haven't mentioned is the 2 player option. YES ! you too can

experience the humiliation that Molgrat feels when I soundly BATTER him

even though I have nothing to begin with, and he has everything. 

So usually, we use the option of playing the game on the same side. One 

person, say, controlling the industry, and the other controlling the 

military. The computer opponents can be as thick as Molgrat or as clever

as an 150Mhz 68060 processor combined with my brain (It's worth the 

pain). This is a useful function and combined with the levels of stocks

that each person has, you can always beat the computer, although it will

hurt it.

    As I said before, the economy can collapse at any second. For

example, your mines might run out of materials, giving you a small#6More>>>

amount of time to find new ones before your stocks run out. You might not 

find some new mines, so your stocks run out, your iron foundries stop 

producing iron, your goldsmiths stop producing gold, your blacksmiths 

stop making weapons, and the computer walks in and beats up all of your

knights. And then you lose Ha HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA AHA

HA HA HA HA HA HA HAH AH A (sorry, got carried away)

This is a game that benefits from a memory upgrade, but you don't 

really need an accelerator

Graphix     : 89% - cause your dudey fellas are good.

Sound       : 95% - Amazing, you never get tired of it.

Lastability : 93% - Very good indeed, I've had it for just over a year
                    and I still come back to it.

Playability : 95%                                               #6More>>>
@3
Overall     : 97% - 'Cause I like it.
                    A firm A.F favourite.


(what? no drug induced fantasy bit at the end? No "all the above is a lie?
what's the matter Mark???!?-Ed.)