Blue Byte revealed that mid-January it will start a closed beta test giving fans a chance to check out the tutorial missions, as well as skirmish multiplayer maps.

The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom gives gamers the opportunity to choose the best way to lead their kingdom to victory, in a rich environment set in middle-Europe during the early Renaissance.

Developed by the Ubisoft Blue Byte studio located in Düsseldorf, Germany, The Settlers 7: Paths to a KingdomTM brings a fresh, innovative design to the franchise, while reintroducing the strong game mechanics and deep gameplay that are hallmarks of the highly acclaimed Settlers series. Players will easily become engaged in an exciting campaign, skirmish maps or multi-player challenges in a world of lush forests, open meadows, fast flowing rivers, and high mountains.

Key Features:

• Rich gameplay mechanics: The deep building and production systems allow gamers to expand their kingdom village by village, sector by sector, optimizing their creation by fine-tuning production chains and transport systems.
• Variety of gameplay: Gamers will be able to choose the best path to lead their kingdom to victory around three main pillars:
  • Military: by building strong armies and defeating opponents with shear military power.
  • Science: by increasing their influence in the monasteries, gamers will be able to have access to the most beneficial technologies.
  • Trade: by occupying the best trade routes to become the wealthiest player on the map.
• Depending on each style of play, gamers will be able to unlock a variation of new and unique possibilities, changing the way they build their own kingdom.
• All-new victory system: New victory point system brings more tension and competition to the game. Victory points are awarded in many different ways depending on the choices gamers make throughout the evolution of their kingdom.
• Online Multiplayer: gamers will be able to play online and face opponents in classic adversarial and co-op teamplay modes. Online features include user-generated and downloadable content, in-game feeds, and various leaderboards.
• A new graphic engine and improved AI: A brand-new graphic engine will let gamers experience the beauty of their kingdom in a never-seen-before level of detail and more than a dozen AI profiles, each with unique behaviors, will add enhanced variety to the game like never before.