If you can look past the DRM, this game is amazing!

[The Kilo]

Seriously, cartoonish graphics coupled with deep gameplay mechanics and micro-management make this a fantastic game. It's just plain fun and really sucks you in.

It's just a shame that Ubi went ape s*it with the DRM.

[Pokletu]

Yeah, I played the beta/demo. It IS great.

I WON'T be buying it, though, with TAGES in place.

I want it so bad, though; I keep checking to see if it's patched out yet!

[JonasHoeiberg]

Yes, it is an amazing game.

That is; when the servers aren't down, which they happen to be every other day.

[KickAzz]

Its a great game!
To bad that its just NOT playable when I want to play.

[stethnorun]

Really? This game is pretty sub-par even without the DRM issues. Compared to a game like Tropico 3, it's mediocre at best.

[JoC]

It's hard to "look past the DRM" if you haven't been able to play at all precisely because of the DRM.

Strongly recommend against this one.

[PhenomX]

It's hard to "look past the DRM" if you haven't been able to play at all precisely because of the DRM.

Strongly recommend against this one.

That sums up the debacle that is "always on DRM" and why UBI will never get another dime from me. Shame realy, I was looking forward very much to Splinter Cell but not now.

I also strongly recomend against any game containing this method of DRM.

[lordbloodrain]

I also think the game is good, played it yesterday at a friends house and really enjoyed it, i love the settlers series, but i wont buy a game i cant play offline because of stupid DRMs that hurt legal customers. Hackers already found a way to hack the DRM they dont care, but people that buy the game cant play, thats really bull♥♥♥♥, shame on you Ubisoft, i wont buy the game until you remove that DRM!!!

[Fodderman]

Meh. I find it boring. Nothing to do with the DRM problems. Micro-management? Hardly. It's just a 'set up the economy and it runs itself' game. Find fertile land, grow grain (all food starts there). Everything follows from 1 or 2 possible inputs. With the "geologist", even mines are infinite inputs to the economy. Yawn. And such a SLOW paced game.

[runnow]

I agree with the OP. I haven't played Tropico3 but even if that game is good so is this one. It brings a different game play style that has been well designed to allow more than one way to victory. If you have only played the demo you really haven't experienced what this game has to offer.

Yes DRM is garbage, but the number of people not buying games because of it really is not substantial enough to change anything. If you think that you holding out your money on them will teach them just remember that the number of copies normally stolen are in the thousands.

[lordbloodrain]

Yes DRM is garbage, but the number of people not buying games because of it really is not substantial enough to change anything. If you think that you holding out your money on them will teach them just remember that the number of copies normally stolen are in the thousands.

I think you are wrong, the future will show us which side will win, i think the gamers will win this battle if they stop buying ubisoft games, because of the DRM. Lots of Ubisoft customers are angry and probably wont buy any new game from Ubisoft, lots of people who did not yet buy the game, got warned and know they probably wont buy the game. At the end of the year Ubisofts sales will have dropped so badly, they will have no other choice then to remove their stupid DRM. Yes we can ;)

[Pokletu]

That's right.

The numbers are NOT insignificant. Ubisoft has shot itself in the foot. You can read EVERYWHERE that people aren't buying it; and most that HAVE bought it regret it, because they can't play.

Whether on principle(DRM gone too far) or practicality("I'll probably not get to play the game if I buy it, either"), the 'wallet votes are being cast.;)

[djuara]

If you can look pass the DRM, this game is amazing! But too bad the DRM doesn't allow you to look pass it.

http://www.crispygamer.com/gamereviews/2010-04-07/the-settlers-7-paths-to-a-kingdom-pc.aspx

Finally, I want to leave you with the image that sums up the entire experience I've had with this game. Those of you that have been paying attention, will notice that I've gone out of my way to post this picture as often as possible when discussing the topic and there is a reason for that. When trying to play and review this game, the one single screen I saw more than any other was this one. For those interested in buying, you must understand that this isn't a fluke or something wrong with my computer. You will see the screen yourselves and you will see it often; as often as I have posted it, maybe more so. So if you have grown tired of seeing it in my postings, think about how you will feel when your computer mockingly displays it most times you want to play.

[herren]

Thank god that I googled "Settlers VII DRM" before buying this game. Guess I have to wait for Civilization 5 now.

[PhiR]

The game itself isn't that good. I've played the serie since settlers 1 on amiga and I wasn't impressed. Still I love this kind of games so I would've bought it but for the DRM...

[Afotai]

If you can look pass the DRM, this game is amazing! But too bad the DRM doesn't allow you to look pass it.

http://www.crispygamer.com/gamereviews/2010-04-07/the-settlers-7-paths-to-a-kingdom-pc.aspx

Such claims are like "True beauty is inner beauty" while referring to a obese american chick with an iq less than 70.

No matter how good the product works, if there's just one simple thing like this DRM issue, people won't even consider it.

[Decay]

Such claims are like "True beauty is inner beauty" while referring to a obese american chick with an iq less than 70.

No matter how good the product works, if there's just one simple thing like this DRM issue, people won't even consider it.

My point exactly.

It's just like some Eurotrash girl who doesn't use deoderant and has never been to a dentist. Not her fault her father's a drunk however, I still wont buy it.

[LarzJG]

Yikes, to compare this to Tropico 3 is a huge disservice. Tropico runs the same way every time you play it. Do the same things over and over for success, with little change in your resources or the map you play on. After the third map, I stopped playing.

This game is diverse and deeper than you think. Online play is absolutely fantastic, some of the games can last 1-1½ hours before a winner is found, and there are plenty of options for comebacks unless you're playing a really hardcore player.

[Dethstar]

It would have to be the game of the century to compensate for the DRM. Personally with the internet I use at my home in the UK or Macedonia its just not worth the grief. Good old British Telecom. Network average of 5 disconnects every 12-24 hours and thats considered good functionality and not even enough to warrant fault checking. But they are better than most.

[Dethstar]

Such claims are like "True beauty is inner beauty" while referring to a obese american chick with an iq less than 70.

No matter how good the product works, if there's just one simple thing like this DRM issue, people won't even consider it.

Yep I second that for the reasons in my previous post

[Graylord]

"If you can look past the DRM"
You mean if you can actually GET past the DRM.
I bought a product that virtually doesn't exist. Thanks Ubisoft.

[djuara]

Reason why you don't want to buy games with this DRM.

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/6061083365/m/3721052058

Hi guys. I know that you have had a pretty unhappy weekend as there are some issues with Settlers 7.

Without getting into the technical details, we’re having some difficulties with the servers that do matchmaking in multi mode and keep track of things like profiles, campaign progression and stats in both solo and multi modes.

And as you have experienced, when these servers are having difficulties, it means that you cannot get into the game. We know that this is causing frustration and our tech teams have been on this problem over the long holiday weekend.

They’ve been able to make some progress and it seems like things are a lot better today but we know that it’s not yet perfect.

The teams are still working on those issues and trying to get solution in place – we’ll keep you posted of their progress.

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/5181026566/m/3371058458

Ubisoft online game servers are currently down which affects both multiplayer titles and those that including our Online Services Platform. Our technicians are currently working hard to have things up and running as soon as possible.

[lordbloodrain]

Dont buy any Ubisoft game until the remove this stupid DRM!

[Dethstar]

Really? This game is pretty sub-par even without the DRM issues. Compared to a game like Tropico 3, it's mediocre at best.

Wouldnt buy it because of the DRM but got a look at this last week. I was also mega unimpressed with the gameplay. Didnt see any real depth and thought it was dumbed down so far it looked like a game to entertain primary school age kids. Clearly not one for me but to be fair my mate actually bought it for his son who is primary school age so fair enough lol.

On the other hand, it crashes all the time on his xbox and he finds it hard to play for more than 15/20 minutes even when he gets past the start up and login screen. Which can take him 2 or 3 tries.

Hehe how the hell can you even screw up an xbox release!?? Maybe this sort of thing happen as much on the xbox as it does with the PC now. Havent touched my own xbox for a long time and have no plans to resurrect it now so I honestly dont know.

Glad in a way that its not just us PC gamers that are suffering from poor quality releases these days.

[Dethstar]

Seriously, cartoonish graphics coupled with deep gameplay mechanics and micro-management make this a fantastic game. It's just plain fun and really sucks you in.

It's just a shame that Ubi went ape s*it with the DRM.

What are you looking through to look past the DRM? The Hubble space telescope?