The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom

 PC
  • Publisher: Ubisoft
  • Release Date: Mar 23, 2010
User Score
5.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 236 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 97 out of 236
  2. Mixed: 39 out of 236
  3. Negative: 100 out of 236
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  1. kajkoikokosz
    Jan 23, 2018
    3
    Compared to previous games economy is not only silly and illogical but is also too simple. Campaign story not only not interesting but painful to hear/read. Game mechanics like generals and controlling territories are done horribly bad.
  2. SheffieldSteel
    Sep 21, 2010
    3
    As a long time Settlers fan I bought this game with high hopes. While nicely polished and offering a fair amount of customisability, it lackis the depth and lasting appeal of earlier games in the series. And thanks to the ridiculous DRM scheme, I have been unable to play it on the weekends on several occasions..
  3. Doug
    Mar 29, 2010
    0
    Thanks for the heads-up. I pay my taxes and buy my games, but I draw the line here. I've seen about every type of DRM in the last 20 years, and this is a step too far, even though I have a perfectly stable connection and it probably wouldn't affect me. Sorry Ubi, it's a matter of principle.
  4. genconkid
    Oct 17, 2010
    0
    This outlandish DRM by Ubisoft is unacceptable , this will be in bargain buckets faster than you can blink .. and even then it will be too much. as someone else said who cares about the game when it has this appalling DRM attached to it ... wake up and smell the coffee Ubisoft gamers wont put up with it these days ,plus its just making piracy worse .. idiots ....
  5. purringcat
    Jun 18, 2013
    4
    Bought this game years ago and really enjoyed it. Then Ubisoft added UPlay and I couldn't login and play. Their support refused to help in any way and despite having the original CD, I can no longer play the game. I will never buy another game from them unless they eliminate UPlay.
  6. Sirik_Matak
    Apr 11, 2016
    4
    In opposition to the majority I will say that I like the overall art direction and stupid, bumbling characters that don't know what they're doing. They're really Settlers 3-4 alike and I take the look of Settlers 7 over two previous ones.
    But sadly the looks aren't everything. DRM aside. The game is resource hungry and tends to overheat my GPU for no reason and very often I suffered    In opposition to the majority I will say that I like the overall art direction and stupid, bumbling characters that don't know what they're doing. They're really Settlers 3-4 alike and I take the look of Settlers 7 over two previous ones.
    But sadly the looks aren't everything. DRM aside. The game is resource hungry and tends to overheat my GPU for no reason and very often I suffered serious FPS drops (from 60+ to 5). And the good overall art direction for the most of time is barely visible outside of cut-scenes. Most of the time you play on the smallest zoom, which is FAR away from the ground. So far, that every single building looks exactly the same and every single settler looks the same. The developer was aware of that and implemented small goods icons above the settlers, so you can see what exactly is happening in your settlement. Also, the initial charm of Settlers 7's looks is ruined by animation. They have too much frames and every movement seems like put into x2 speed (on x1). The issue is extremely glaring on soldiers' animations. The world is also too sterile. Remember wildlife, dogs, cats and chicken in Settlers 6, settlers wandering around the town, etc? You will find none of that in Settlers 7. Say goodbye to different architecture (already limited in Settlers 6) - everything is the same in Paths to a Kingdom.
    But the above is just a nitpicking, really. The real problem lies in the gameplay. It's awfully stale and ultimately boring. It's even more simplistic than Settlers 1. There are production chains, but they don't come out of 2 levels. Settlers don't have any needs other than food (which is partially optional). And the worst of all - the building itself is extremely limited. You can't rebuild the main routes (as you are able in Settlers 6), every structure needs a road which placement is extremely limited, you can't even build walls. Their placement is predetermined. I bet you hated control zones in the previous Settlers game. Well, it's worse in Settlers 7. The outposts are prebuilt and you can only order your armies to attack/retreat. They're limited to roads (it's even bigger limitation than Settlers 2!). All maps are boring and even quest zones don't change anything. It's all about send quantity X of resource Y or kill some bandits. Settlers 7 have technology trees, but every single technology = % bonuses for your soldiers and structures.
    I guess the sandbox where you can put together your headquaters is nice...
    Other than that, you're better off with the original 2-4 Settlers and even Settlers 6. It's better than the 5th game, but that's not saying much.    … Expand
  7. wolverdick
    Mar 15, 2011
    2
    Dumb Story, weak strategy, horrible DRM. This game is nothing like the Settlers series that came before it and has destroyed the franchise in my opinion. Whatever you may have loved about the Settlers, is all gone. Whats left is a cartoony impersonation without any real strategy. If it weren't for some quality work on the graphics side, I would give this game a zero.
  8. ShadowMeta
    Oct 3, 2014
    1
    This game is unlike early Settler incarnations. Its very linear with an extremely childish plot, storyline and interface. There is very little room for strategy and its bubblegum plot and graphics makes me want to vomit.
    The DRM is far from foolproof but don't download it even for free. In fact if you've bought it; don't install it or even open the box! Keep this as far away from your PC    This game is unlike early Settler incarnations. Its very linear with an extremely childish plot, storyline and interface. There is very little room for strategy and its bubblegum plot and graphics makes me want to vomit.
    The DRM is far from foolproof but don't download it even for free. In fact if you've bought it; don't install it or even open the box! Keep this as far away from your PC as you can! What were Ubisoft thinking of!?
    This is one of the most irritating and appalling games I've ever come across.    … Expand
  9. Sparowe
    Apr 25, 2011
    2
    I don't understand the rationale some reviewers have against other reviewers downrating the game because of its horrendous DRM. Believe it or not, the DRM is a HUGE gameplay issue. As a person who travels, I am restricted to playing this single player game to only times where I can access wifi. You will be locked out from playing this single-player game in the following scenarios:

    Your    I don't understand the rationale some reviewers have against other reviewers downrating the game because of its horrendous DRM. Believe it or not, the DRM is a HUGE gameplay issue. As a person who travels, I am restricted to playing this single player game to only times where I can access wifi. You will be locked out from playing this single-player game in the following scenarios:

    Your ISP has a temporary hiccup that lasts longer than the amount of time the DRM takes to timeout.
    While traveling without access to wifi.
    Ubisoft servers hiccup, crash or are down for maintenance.
    Router hiccups.
    Physical accidents, such as somebody accidentally pulling the physical network cable.

    This hinders gameplay to the point where I feel I am being punished for not torrenting the cracked version with the DRM removed. If you can't find the correlation between this overzealous DRM and gameplay, I think you should take a step back and look at the situation objectively.    … Expand
  10. hypertension
    Oct 10, 2011
    4
    For most of the Settlers series these games gave you the freedom and the time to build whatever you wanted but the annoying new "take and hold" victory points system causes you to build rush an economy to win which in turn shortens the game. Also maps feel a lot more restrictive as they are made up of small sectors with all fortifications ready built and army unit choice is limited. ThereFor most of the Settlers series these games gave you the freedom and the time to build whatever you wanted but the annoying new "take and hold" victory points system causes you to build rush an economy to win which in turn shortens the game. Also maps feel a lot more restrictive as they are made up of small sectors with all fortifications ready built and army unit choice is limited. There are still a couple of bugs around one of which meant rolling back graphics drivers to prevent crashing and while I barely experienced any DRM issues the fact remains that it relies too much on both a stable server and a stable connection.… Expand
  11. not_good
    Nov 23, 2010
    4
    This has the dumbest story and characters I have seen in a long time. You play some silver spoon princess looking to attack some land her daddy gave her an order to or some crap. The dialog was physically painful for me to have to listen to. Not really because of the acting, but because of how generic the story was. And the DRM. Well what more can be said?

    All in all, it's kind of fun,    This has the dumbest story and characters I have seen in a long time. You play some silver spoon princess looking to attack some land her daddy gave her an order to or some crap. The dialog was physically painful for me to have to listen to. Not really because of the acting, but because of how generic the story was. And the DRM. Well what more can be said?

    All in all, it's kind of fun, but I would stick with the old Sierra games and save the headaches. The story is laughable (unintentional camp), and the DRM just kills the other redeeming features. It just isn't worth it guys.    … Expand
  12. Neo_Corricon
    Mar 15, 2011
    0
    Thank you everyone for the heads up on the DRM. I was appalled at spore for limiting you to 5 installs, but this goes one step further in ridiculous attempts to prevent piracy. Software publishers need to learn from companies like Stardock with their success on Sins of a Solar Empire.
  13. GameReviews3388
    Apr 18, 2013
    4
    I bought this game at a time in my life where I was starved for strategy builders and had no clue how many there actually are if you do some digging.

    Essentially, it's a good enough game. It has its supply chains, an extremely basic combat (Don't buy this if that's what you're after), and even technologies for you to advance your town. All of this in and of itself makes for exactly what    I bought this game at a time in my life where I was starved for strategy builders and had no clue how many there actually are if you do some digging.

    Essentially, it's a good enough game. It has its supply chains, an extremely basic combat (Don't buy this if that's what you're after), and even technologies for you to advance your town. All of this in and of itself makes for exactly what I wanted.

    I played the entire game through to completion and abandoned it forever. Here's why: for some reason, I can't picture anybody finding a workaround for this, the games last HOURS of your time. Even basic campaigns. If the mission is to simply eliminate somebody, you have to first get X then Y to build X then N and G to manufacture Y and then T and Z to build G. When you do finally memorize the seemingly endless supply chain just to build the end products, it still takes hours of your time to set it all up. (I should add, this is at maximum speed. There's no issue about me playing it at low speed. The first thing I did in this game is find how to speed it up.)

    If you're playing through this and want easy wins, the way to do it is through the trade system. Make sure you secure your spots on the map for easy profit and commodities you yourself don't want to spend the time setting up.

    I'm giving this a 6 if you're seriously into these games, which I am. If you don't have titanic levels of patience for the mere act of playing through a mission and don't have the time to learn all the supply chains, this game can easily be listed as a 1/10.

    I'm not done with the Settlers franchise. One of the very earlier ones seems to have a lot of people's interest and that's what I'll be buying.    … Expand
  14. iduncan91
    Jan 26, 2015
    0
    DRM is a threat to us all. It is our right to use these disks as we see fit. Get rid of DRM! Rate this game and others like it a zero to show that we will not stand for DRM.
  15. Agarwel
    Jan 27, 2013
    4
    Great. This game reminded me, why I left the PC gaming in the first place. After I fully downloaded it from the Steam and hit the "Play" button it took the game just 45 minutes before in downloaded, installed, updated, activated and synchronized all that Ubisoft DRM nonsense that does not bring anything usefull, just limits you where you can play (forgot about playing offline - theyGreat. This game reminded me, why I left the PC gaming in the first place. After I fully downloaded it from the Steam and hit the "Play" button it took the game just 45 minutes before in downloaded, installed, updated, activated and synchronized all that Ubisoft DRM nonsense that does not bring anything usefull, just limits you where you can play (forgot about playing offline - they probably never heard about gaming notebooks)… Expand
  16. Zippybungle
    Apr 27, 2013
    0
    I've been playing the settles for a long time. 1,2,3 and 4 and then lost interest a bit. I downloaded a cracked torrent of this and I'm glad I did.

    The graphics were hugely improved, the story hit just about every cliche as fast as Lara Croft empties a magazine and the gameplay sucked. The UI/UX was non intuitive and the whole thing was dumbed down to try and make it more attractive.    I've been playing the settles for a long time. 1,2,3 and 4 and then lost interest a bit. I downloaded a cracked torrent of this and I'm glad I did.

    The graphics were hugely improved, the story hit just about every cliche as fast as Lara Croft empties a magazine and the gameplay sucked. The UI/UX was non intuitive and the whole thing was dumbed down to try and make it more attractive. Massive fail.

    I could possibly tolerate DRM if the game was absolutely amazing but with this pile of s**te I'm glad I didn't waste my money and got improved playability for it. Not that I played much. 30 minutes and it ended up in the trashcan to hell.

    Good riddance

    Good quality games are worth paying for Good publishers inspire loyalty by fans and reap the rewards. I pay for great games. Stuff like this I decompose back into bytes    … Expand
  17. OzoneGrif
    Jul 30, 2013
    3
    This game is awfully linear and limited. Your resources are not expendable when they are used, you are done. The logistic is broken, everything being centered on the warehouse. The industrial chains are extremly limited. And I encountered so many gameplay random problems I think the creators knew they were doing a bad game. We are far from the previous Settlers games
  18. gracjanski
    May 1, 2023
    4
    The start is horrible: The campaign is poor with childish and political correct language. This setting destroyed my motivation to continue to play. No I dont want to play as a female. The dialogues are childish and the gameplay looks very simple, if you compare it to the older settlers. And when you read about the DRM attack of Ubisoft years ago I have more sympathy, that this game is a flop.
  19. aecsuter
    Aug 29, 2022
    4
    How lazy this game is... Not much to do in matches. Maybe the focus is really on you building and maintaining a city, with logistics and all. But then you need to remove the victory points among other things. Not my favorite genre, but this one I hated.

Awards & Rankings

49
#49 Best PC Game of 2010
51
#51 Most Discussed PC Game of 2010
24
#24 Most Shared PC Game of 2010

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
79

Generally favorable reviews - based on 33 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 28 out of 33
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 33
  3. Negative: 0 out of 33
  1. Game Informer
    85
    I’m hoping that people get into it, because I plan on keeping this one in my regular rotation for some time.
    Read full review
  2. 3DJuegos
    85
    Settlers 7 is a fantastic experience that brings out the best in economic sim and RTS games.
    Read full review
  3. Gamers.at
    88
    The Settlers 7 looks easy but is despite of the looks really complex. Especially the multiplayer part is not only fun to play but really hard to master with three different ways of winning. Strategy and simulation fans will love it!
    Read full review
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