"Settlers II: Veni, Vidi, Vici" is a Bluebyte real-time strategy game, widely considered the best in the Series. Due to that reason Bluebyte released "Settlers 2: The Next Generation (10th anniversary)" with improved graphics and new features in 2006. The premise of Settlers' story is naturally about settling and the primary objective is to conquer every cpu opponent while expanding your borders. You can either choose the campaign mode, some available scenarios, or play in split screen with a human opponent.
When you start out, you are provided with a small area. At that point numerous buildings become available. You can create a quarry to extract stone, a woodcutter's hut to take down trees, a sawmill to convert logs into planks (used in every construction site), a forester's hut to plant trees, coal, iron and gold mines in order to mine these particular precious materials, a farm to feed your population and many more.
Specific buildings, like barracks, watchtowers, guardhouses and fortresses, serve a single, yet grave purpose. They enable you to expand your kingdom. Then, you can start constructing in your new limits and so the story goes until you confront an enemy. You need to take down his military buildings, so it's your soldiers' turn. If they emerge victorious, you gain access to the enemy's territory. When they are all defeated, the scenarios are ended, while in campaign mode you just need to take over a certain area in order to continue to the next level.
The visual part of Settlers II is a real pleasure to one's eye. You soon become part of it. It is your settlement, your community and it seems only natural. The citizens' movement has a perfect flow plus it's fun to watch them perform their duties. As far as the gameplay is concerned, the game features a simple and effective formula, thus you easily get the hang of it.
Although Settlers II is not considered extremely challenging, it's a really promising title, a credit to city-building games and a strong influence on later games of the genre. Thumbs up, Bluebyte!