The Settlers Online at bestonlinerpggames.com

The graphics in The Settlers Online: Castle Empire is in 3D and they look very realistic. My only problem about the games presentation is that the viewpoint is too far away from the action. For example, when workers are walking around constructing buildings, they look like little ants instead. I wasnt even sure if they were humans or not but they were. The buildings in the game look detailed, although the human characters are far too small in my opinion and it would have been they were a little bigger. Even when I tried to zoom in on the action, I still felt the character models were still too small for my liking.

Much like other MMORTS video games, the main aim of the game is simple. You will start off in a desolate island where you will have to establish your own city. The tutorial is simple enough to follow and the game makes a good effort to explain to the player every intricate detail you need to know in order to make your city thrive. The clean interface is user friendly and theres also a helpful chat box located at the bottom of the screen so beginners can chat to other gamers to ask for any help they may need.

The Settlers Online: Castle Empires type of gameplay might not be to everyones taste though. Several of the first tasks you have to do are to construct many buildings. As with lots of other RTS video games, buildings are never completed instantly and you will need to wait for a significant amount of time before you can even start thinking about constructing the next building. It can be a very slow process and Im sure not every gamer will be interested in seeing building being constructed all of the time despite how realistic and detailed the animation is in The Settlers Online: Castle Empire. To fully appreciate what this game offers, expect to play the game through several days because you wont be levelling up in a matter of a few hours thats for sure...

Once you are able to get your city up and running, only then you are ready to battle. Battle sequences are unfortunately not animated and all you are greeted with is a separate screen showing the soldiers faces battling it out in a simulated duel. The graphics in The Settlers Online: Castle Empire are very impressive and it would have been cool to see the soldiers fight in out properly. Although this is a free to play RTS video game and most of them dont feature exciting cinematic battles...

One thing that The Settlers Online: Castle Empire includes that most other free to play MMORTS games dont is that it includes a full soundtrack and sound effects. The music suits the overall atmosphere of the game, although I thought it was too short. The same track loops over and over that Im sure most people will be sick of hearing it in a matter of minutes. The soldiers themselves dont say much, but its interesting to hear whatever gibberish they are speaking when they decide to open their mouths.

Because this is still in beta phase, technical issues are to be expected while playing The Settlers Online: Castle Forges right now. I tried to log in and play the game several times and there servers were down. Obviously this should be an issue to be fixed once Ubisoft finally decides to officially release the game in the near future. I must that when the game is up and running smoothly, the game loads much faster than I was expecting it to. This doesnt feature long loading times as another free to play video game called Jagged Alliance Online thats for sure.

All in all, The Settlers Online: Castle Forges is a fun little MMORTS game that fans of the likes of Age of Empires are likely to enjoy. It may not be innovative and RTS fans are likely not to encounter anything new while playing this game, but it can be a fun strategy game to play if you have the time and patience to commit to it several days a week. Its a free to play video game after all, so theres no harm in at least trying the game out.