It’s Anno from me
I was excited to playThe Settlers: New Allies.
The answer, unfortunately, is a big bowl of strategy gruel.
The Settlers: New Allies is a dismal strategy affair, confused, anaemic, and achingly dull.
Now, to be clear, New Allies is not aiming to be a successor to Anno 1800.
First off, it’s a lovely-looking game.
New Allies' setting is a timeless tropical archipelago that bursts with colour and cheery vibes.
Then I saw the titular oasis, and thought “Damn, that’s a pretty good oasis.”
Building settlements among this gorgeous scenery is fun to begin with.
Resources you collect are manifested in the world.
Yet this detail only exists at a surface level.
Food, for example, is no longer a fundamental requirement for your Settlers.
Instead, they subsist purely on good vibes.
Food itself is an optional extra used to boost production rates of certain buildings.
The bigger problem, though, is that these dumbed-down production systems are attached to an even dumber RTS.
With your management responsibilities substantially reduced, most of your efforts are focused on building your army.
This is a laborious process.
But because every soldier is controlled individually, organising them into a coherent fighting force is extremely finicky.
Compared to, say,Company of Heroes 3, New Allies is incredibly basic as an RTS.
But therein lies the problem.
New Allies isn’t.
There are no additional layers to the production chains, and no depth to the economic simulation.
Pacing is a particular problem.
So much of your time in New Allies is spent waiting.
Waiting for your units to recruit.
Waiting for your engineers to expand your territory.
Waiting for your carriers to ferry resources from halfway across the map, because you might’t prioritise their tasks.
But there are issues with each of these elements as well.
you could almost see the actors holding the script in front of them as they read out their lines.
you could’t select your map, or the key in of objectives you want.
But I don’t want to end this review on a downer.
Every creative biffs it once in a while.
It’s an unfortunate part of the process.
