The Settlers review at Vooks.

"The Settlers is an economically based simulation game which sees you managing an entire community of people from the word go up until they have reached total domination. The aim of the game is to successfully manage your people and your resources in order to basically survive and then thrive in your environment. The game has proven a popular hit on the PC, but does the transition from PC to DS work? Read on to find out.

As alluded to, The Settlers is a simulation game with heavy emphasis on the economic side of life. The Settlers offers you 3 modes of play, though each mode doesn’t differ a great deal from the others. Also offsetting is the fact that the game modes described in the manual don’t even mirror those in the actual game. Due to the nature of this simulation game, I believed it a wise move to read the manual before delving into the actual game. It was most confusing to read up on the different game modes offered only to find that they do not exist, at least not in the way the manual described. In any case, what you are offered is a Roman Campaign, World Campaign, and a Free Play mode. The Roman Campaign is made up of 10 missions, starting with your fleet of people escaping a damaged ship onto an island. It is from here you need to start playing God and helping your little minions make the best of a bad situation. The World Campaign is really much of the same, except you take control of varying societies spanning across the globe. Finally, the free play mode allows you to tweak many of the games settings so you can play how you like. Each mode still boils down to the same thing, and that’s the experience of simulating the life of a community of people."

Full Source: Vooks