Monarchia: Second Dawn

Back in the age when technology didn't rule our lives, and we didn't spend our days hammering away at the F5 key whilst staring blankly at Twitter, people actually did things of merit.

They'd hunt and gather food for their tea instead of shoving something in the microwave for four minutes. Or they'd devote hours to constructing a roof to put over their heads, rather than paying an estate agent exorbitant amounts of money to do it for them.

If Monarchia: Second Dawn is anything to go by, it was a simpler time, without such frivolities as phone tapping, gym membership renewals, or books by Katie Price.

In their place stood especially blocky 3D visuals, a soundtrack so exasperating you want to smash your ears in, and a tendency to get eaten by lions.

Yet, even with these caveats, it's hard not to melt into Monarchia: Second Dawn's world, if only because it evokes memories of Amiga classic The Settlers.

As was the case then, your role as ruler is to construct a society from the ground up, founding everything from the houses the population lives in to the food they eat.

Unlike The Settlers, however, this brave new world plays out in a 3D, Mario 64-meets-Ocarina of Time-like environment, and you'll spend much of your time simply navigating around - lowering the view, spinning around a full 360 degrees, or zooming-in on your subjects.

When it comes to actual gameplay, Monarchia: Second Dawn is primarily concerned with planning, either for present prosperity or future survival.

Initially, you'll need to construct a bearable ecosystem. Building houses near a forest will enable you to harvest enough wood to expand your town, though you'll also need to place farms and ranches to fill the bellies of your population as it grows.

As in real life, the more you expand the more raw materials you'll need to farm from the ground in one form or other, keeping the whole game ticking over and ensuring there's always another goal to aim for. Not that you'll ever need to determine what those goals are.

Play in Monarchia: Second Dawn is split into levels that merge into one another. Meeting the goals prescribed at the start of each stage rolls you straight on to the next batch with little interjection in between, meaning you never lose anything you've created – your town simply gets bigger and bigger.

But despite the game's ease of flow in some areas, Monarchia: Second Dawn is surprisingly rough around the edges in others.

Placing what are often rather fiddly buildings on the iPhone's small screen, for instance, can be a frustrating experience, as the game often fails to register a second tap to confirm its position.

The visuals, as mentioned, are a touch craggy and indecipherable unless zoomed-in, and the game's inability to tick off goals as you meet them is confusing as it is sloppy.

Most important of all is the hotchpotch nature of battles. Like all elements in Monarchia: Second Dawn, every building you place is bound by its relativity to the surrounding area, and castle towers – which play host to your town's soldiers – are only effective when in range of your foe.

This means you can spend time defending what you perceive to be your most vulnerable spot only to be slaughtered as the enemy approaches from a different angle altogether.

Indeed, combined with Game Overs that pop up without warning (giving you little chance to learn from your mistakes), the main thing Monarchia: Second Dawn could do with is more direction, both in terms of its delivery and its efforts to aid its players.

Newcomers may find Rebel Dwarf's hands-off approach a trifle intimidating, but for those willing to put the work in there's no denying that Monarchia: Second Dawn's ground is fertile enough to bear fruit.