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The Settlers II is a loved game of The Settlers series! For this reason it has seen continued interest by fans over the years involving a port to a game console, a modernization, and remakes. The original game has a charm due to it’s 2D pixel art graphics while newer games provide enriched experience with new features and 3D graphics.
The very original game is a 90’s DOS game. In case you’re not familiar with DOS it was a text interface based operating system, and it was the platform for PC games until Microsoft Windows in the late 90’s provided a popular Direct X API that made it easier to make games for a wide variety of hardware.
For this reason the original game does not run natively on any modern platform and needs emulation or creating a remake. This page summarizes the various options for playing the game.
- The Settlers II: Gold Edition
- Return to the Roots
- The Settlers II: Veni, Vidi, Vici - History Edition
- The Settlers II (10th Anniversary)
- The Settlers (Nintendo DS)
- So which one to pick?
The Settlers II: Gold Edition
The very original experience is available for a low price over at GOG.com! The game is provided with an installer and is playable on modern systems thanks to DOSBox emulator which is conveniently setup so that you can simply start the game and play.
You could also get the original game CD and set DOSBox up yourself, however this might not be worth your effort considering how cheap the game often is being at 2,49 €. Highly recommended!
Note! The core focus of this site you are visiting on is to provide resources for the original game, and for Return to the Roots.
Return to the Roots
RttR is an open source fan remake of The Settlers II game engine. This means it does not make use of any original game code and all the logic has been reverse engineered, or is rewritten to be different either by purpose or due to lack of knowledge. RttR however does make use of original game graphics, sounds, and text files! So to function it requires you to copy the original game files to it’s own directory.
RttR provides lots of new features that can be configured on and off as desired. The biggest attraction however is the online multiplayer! The game also still receives updates as it has done since 2005 so there is something to look forward to as well. There is also an active community at RttR discord and RttR forums where you can find people to play with.
Note! This project was originally known as Die Siedler 2.5
The Settlers II: Veni, Vidi, Vici - History Edition
This is Ubisoft Connect exclusive release from 2018 which mostly provides enhanced resolution support, autosave, new controls, as well as local multiplayer support which allows you to make use of two mouses as well as configure keys for both players.
There is no online multiplayer support so the main catch of this release is the easiest way to play together with a friend on a single computer. Some players have also found themselves to prefer the new controls.
Internally the game still refers to itself as Gold Edition which can be confusing.
Note! Return to the Roots is not compatible with History Edition game files.
The Settlers II (10th Anniversary)
Also known as DnG or Die Siedler II: Die nächste Generation this is a renovated 2006 remake of the original game with a new storyline. The graphics are entirely overhauled to 3D and details of the game mechanics have been updated so that you don’t have a true backwards compatibility to the original game. You can bring original game maps to 10th Anniversary, but the new maps are not transferrable to the original game.
As can be seen from the screenshot above the game has quite a different aesthetics going on compared to the pixel art of the original game. This edition of the game has it’s own fans though so you can still find people to play with via the LAN multiplayer feature!
Just like Gold Edition you can find 10th Anniversary from GOG.com!
The Settlers (Nintendo DS)
As a very surprising fact The Settlers II has been ported over to the Nintendo DS handheld in 2007! However the game was simply called “The Settlers” which is an interesting choice.
This release provides most of the original game, but has no multiplayer of any kind. It is also got poor reviews at the time of it’s release due to slow load and save times, and the unresponsive touch controls.
So which one to pick?
Most likely you are going to get the best experience by playing Return to the Roots. The bad thing about it is the hassle to get it running as you need to copy the original game files to the game directory. However it has an active community and via the online lobby you can find others to play with more easily than for the other games.
Gold Edition is also an option especially if you want to experience the original Roman Campaign – and if you have never played the game then you want to play that campaign as it will teach you the basics to get you up to speed! Also since you need the game files for RttR you probably want to get the Gold Edition anyway. The downside is that the biggest resolution is 1024 x 768 which can feel very limited on modern 4K resolution capable systems.
History Edition is a more adventurous pick. Two players playing on the same computer each with their own mouse is a rather unique experience so that might be a selling point for you. Also you can experience the Roman Campaign on larger resolutions via HE so that might be something to consider.
10th Anniversary is something you probably already know if you want to try out. It gives different graphical style in it’s full 3D glory, and it is a good game on it’s own right albeit is still quite different from the original.
Nintendo DS version is likely something that has more of a collector’s value and something to try out if you get the chance rather than something to pursue for.
Need more help?
You can get help by visiting RttR discord or RttR forums!
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