In addition to terrain features such as different types of trees and ruins, there are lots of entertaining animations to watch while building your empire. The gameplay takes place on an overhead view of the land, with resolutions up to 1024x768. The graphics in Settlers II are fantastic. Usually there is very little reason to continue expanding the economic development of your country once you've started attacking - most of your resources will need to be allotted for creating more soldiers and weapons and cannot be spared. Taking control of the enemy forts and barracks does not help expand your empire's infrastructure - any other buildings the enemy had in the area are automatically destroyed, rather than occupied by your forces. Conquest is a fairly large part of the game, but successfully attacking the enemy requires mostly luck - you have very little control over what troops are sent, and the actual battles take place between just one unit from each side. The combat system in particular is poorly done.

Settlers II has other failings that keep it from living up to its full potential. Sorting out what resources are being allocated to production facilities can get pretty confusing a well-run empire will require a great deal of patience and advanced planning. The meat then goes to the miners, who provide coal and ore to the smelters and smiths, which is used to create weapons for the soldiers in the barracks. The interdependencies can become very complex - farmers grow wheat, which must go to the pig breeder, whose pigs are sent to the butcher for slaughter. The raw materials provided by the laborers are used to develop more complex items that the settlers need, such as tools, weaponry and food. But constructing an infrastructure that will support an empire is more than just positioning buildings - they must be placed so that the economy can function.

Starting with a command post and a limited stock of supplies and people, you must build farms, smelters, mills, shipyards and barracks, then connect them with roadways to transport goods and men. The gameplay is best described as SimCity with combat. Settlers II is an enjoyable strategy game that mixes a little economics, some simple combat, and a lot of cute animations.

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