Heritage of Kings: The Settlers

Heritage of Kings is a real time strategy game from Blue Byte Software. It is the fifth installment in The Settlers series.
 PC

Overview

The Settlers: Heritage of Kings is a real time strategy game that was released in 2005 for the PC and published by Ubisoft. It was developed by Blue Byte Software and is the fifth game in The Settlers Series. The game breaks from the pattern of previous Settlers games by simplifying and modernising some of the core gameplay features of the series.

Plot

The game starts in Thalgrund and follows the story of a young boy named Dario. He is suddenly attacked by minions of the evil Mordred. After fending off the attack, he learns from his dying mother that he is the true heir and ruler of the land. He sets out to locate his last living relative, Helias, accompanied by Eric, his childhood friend. On their Journey they encounter numerous enemies including ferocious barbarians of Folklung and Norfolk, dark hordes, and the rival nations of Barmecia and Cleycourt. Finally, Dario marches on Evelance where Mordred resides and an epic battle ensues. With the battle won, Dario assumes his rightful place on the throne, and liberates the kingdom from the evil Mordred.

Gameplay

The objective of the game is to create a thriving settlement, while amassing an army to defeat rival nations.

Resources

There are six resources in the game. Your goal is to collect as many resources as possible, while limiting your enemy's ability to do so.

Thalers: Gained by having workers occupying buildings in your city. Soldiers are paid wages from your pool of Thalers.

Clay: Clay can be found in Orange Shafts or little clumps. It's important for building, though it's value tends to decrease towards the endgame.

Wood: Wood can be collected once you have researched Construction from the College. Wood remains important throughout each level.

Stone: Stone can be collected from Quarries or clumps, and is used in the construction of buildings. It's demand will increase as the game progresses.

Iron: Iron is used for upgrades and creating military units. This is the most important resource in any combat heavy mission.

Sulphur: Sulphur is the least valuable of your resources. It has some use through upgrades, but is mainly used for Weather research and building artillery.

Expansions

Heritage of Kings had two expansion packs released. Heritage of Kings - Expansion Disc, and Heritage of Kings - Legends Expansion Disc. These expanded the core gameplay by adding bridge building, additional single and multi-player maps, and four new campaigns following on from the story of the main game. The expansions also introduced three new playable characters; Drake, Yuki and Kala.

System requirements

Minimum

  • Supported OS: A 100% Windows 2000/XP/Vista-compatible computer system
  • Processor: Pentium III or AMD Athlon 1 GHz
  • Memory: 256 MB
  • Graphics: 32 MB DirectX 9.0c-compliant graphics card
  • DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c
  • Sound: DirectX 9.0c-compliant card
  • Hard Drive: 1.5 GB free hard disk space
  • Multiplayer: Broadband Internet connection with 64 kbps Kbps upstream or faster

Recommended

  • Supported OS: A 100% Windows 2000/XP/Vista-compatible computer system
  • Processor: 2.4 GHz Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon
  • Memory: 512 MB
  • Graphics: 64 MB DirectX 9.0c-compliant graphics card
  • DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c
  • Sound: DirectX 9.0c-compliant card
  • Hard Drive: 1.5 GB free hard disk space
  • Multiplayer: Broadband Internet connection with 128 kbps Kbps upstream or faster