IN a world that's constantly changing, here's something that isn't (well not much anyway). This isn't always a bad thing and here it means lovers of the Settlers series will enjoy this latest outing without having to worry about any changes in game play.

The series has been immensely popular over the past few years and this Gold Edition adds to it by repackaging Settlers IV (released last year) together with add-on pack, The Trojans and the Elixir of Power (released in March this year).

In this strategy game you play one of four tribes either the Romans, the Mayans, the Vikings or the Trojans, with the idea being that you build a settlement for your tribe to live in.

As you expand this settlement you will eventually come across the other tribes and it's at this point you'll either try and trade with them or take over their land by force.

There is another aspect to the game that didn't feature in the previous Settlers games and that is the mysterious Dark Tribe.

They go around destroying the lush green land and then it becomes unusable unless you send your gardeners out to convert it back again.

The gameplay is fairly easy once you've got the hang of it, although trying to find some of your special unit settlers is tricky.

I was sure I had five geologists but I could only ever find one perhaps the other four were in the residence I built expanding the population.

However, I enjoyed watching these cute little characters running around building up my settlement for me at my whim.

Anybody with designs on management would do well to buy this game, just for this experience.

When the building is complete the settlers just move in and start using it, and then all you have to do is make sure they have a good supply of raw materials.

If that sounds a bit too easy you need to take into account the fussy bunch of settlers you've been lumbered with.

If you build a mine for instance, the miners like a certain type of food coal miners like bread and will work more efficiently if that's what they've been fed, for example.

To provide bread for them you have to build a waterworks, grain farm, grain mill and bakery, all because your miners are fussy eaters.

You also have to manage your resources of stone and wood to ensure that there's enough to complete the buildings.

Suddenly, the game seems slightly more complex and when your settlement expands it becomes increasingly difficult to juggle what resources you have.

There's a wealth of buildings required to make your settlement grow smoothly and controlling all of these to make sure they interact efficiently is a challenge in itself.

This is where having an army can be useful as it protects your land and also gives you the strength to take over enemy lands.

Building armies requires building a barracks where your settlers can be trained to be soldiers.

Generally, the greater the number of soldiers you have, the better chance you have of expanding into another tribe's territory.

Your soldiers fight harder when your settlement has greater value and prestige, which basically means it's bigger than your opponent's settlement with some nice statues to boost morale.

However, the battles are rather one-dimensional affairs which seem to require pure numerical superiority rather than skill and judgement.

I did enjoy watching my opponent's men turn to angels and fly off to that settlement in the sky, though.

This is a fun game to play that will keep you occupied for hours if you let it.

Fans of the series will no doubt be breaking their necks to get this game and work through the many missions.

However, I can't help but feel if you already own Settlers III, then this is new version has little to add but if you don't already own one of the series this is a good place to start.

Overall: 3/5