10. The Settlers II. 20 Best Classic PC Strategy Games

Such a village is a pretty complicated chain of dependencies.

The second part of The Settlers was a huge commercial success and, for many, the best installment of the series. Settlers II is also a development of a proven concept and a set of safe solutions featuring colorful visuals.

However, this is by no means a bad thing, as the creators have not cut any corners when developing the game. On the contrary – the elements of the game that proved successful in part one, were refined and packed into a really impressive graphics for their time, and the devs added a lot of new content, which expanded the player's capabilities without turning the gameplay formula upside down.

The game received new buildings, production chains, four playable factions (Romans, Vikings, Africans, and Japanese), and an extensive solo campaign. Settlers II remained an economic game that did a wonderful job simulating the economy of a small community. Interfering with this economy was a bit like an operation or rather an experiment on a living organism that responds dynamically to our actions. It was an incredibly engaging system and – importantly – one that retained its logical character. After all, in order to have able-bodied soldiers, one had to set up a brewery and make its products available to them.

Unfortunately, beginning with the third part of The Settlers (the game itself still being considered to be great by many) began the slow decline of the series, which was losing its character from installment to installment. On the other hand, its legacy remains alive and can be seen virtually throughout the entire economic games segment.