The Settlers II (10th Anniversary)

The Settlers II (10th Anniversary)
Developer(s)	Blue Byte
Publisher(s)	Ubisoft
Producer(s)	Thomas Friedmann
Designer(s)	Thomas Friedmann Thomas Häuser Thorsten Kneisel Lothar Schmitt
Programmer(s)	Peter Sprys Andreas Nitsche
Artist(s)	Thorsten Kneisel
Writer(s)	Yvonne Kneisel
Composer(s)	Aaron Marks
Series	The Settlers
Platform(s)	Windows
Release	DE: September 7, 2006[2] UK: September 12, 2006[1] NA: September 16, 2006[3]
Genre(s)	City-building, real-time strategy[4][5]
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

The Settlers II (10th Anniversary) (German: Die Siedler II: Die nächste Generation) is a 2006 city-building game with real-time strategy elements for Windows. Developed by Blue Byte and published by Ubisoft, it was released worldwide in September 2006. It is a remake of The Settlers II (1996). In March 2007, Blue Byte released a German-language expansion, Die Siedler II: Die nächste Generation - Wikinger (English: The Settlers II: The Next Generation - Vikings), featuring new single-player campaign missions, new maps for both single-player and multiplayer modes, a random map generator, and minor gameplay tweaks. In September 2008, they released Die Siedler: Aufbruch der Kulturen (English: The Settlers: Awakening of Cultures), a spiritual successor to Die nächste Generation. In 2013, the original 10th Anniversary game was released on GOG.com.

In the game's single-player campaign, the player controls a group of Romans who are shipwrecked on an uncharted island after fleeing Rome in the wake of a series of natural disasters and the mysterious disappearance of every Roman woman. Stranded and without hope of rescue, they must use a series of magical portals to try to find their way back to the Empire. During their travels, they come into conflict with Nubians and Chinese, learning that both races have also experienced the loss of their female population. Wikinger takes place centuries later, when the portals are commonly used by various races to facilitate trade with one another. However, when the Vikings' portal is sabotaged by a group of pirates led by a man known as "The Wolf", all other portals throughout the world cease to function. Initially operating independently of one another, but ultimately joining forces, the Romans, Nubians, Chinese and Vikings set out to learn why the portal was destroyed and defeat The Wolf.

Although featuring updated 3D graphics and sound effects, and a new storyline, the gameplay and game mechanics remain relatively unchanged from the original Settlers II. The overriding design principal for 10th Anniversary was to renovate the original rather than reinvent it, and as a result, the designers elected to make only minor changes to the core template. For example, the different races now have aesthetically differentiated buildings; military buildings can now be upgraded, and soldiers evacuated from each building at any time; when the player demolishes a building, they now get back half the construction costs; and a day/night cycle has been added. The game also features an online multiplayer mode, and a map editor, which allows players to both create new maps and import maps from the original.

The Settlers II (10th Anniversary) received relatively little attention in the gaming press outside Germany, with mixed reviews. Whilst the graphics and sound effects were generally praised, and the designers were lauded for retaining so much of the original game's mechanics, some critics felt it was too reverential to the original, and, as a result, seemed dated. Other criticisms included a lack of mission variety and repetitive gameplay, with several critics opining that it should have been a budget title rather than a full-price release.