Anno1404 DoD is a Sim/RTS game I fondly refer to as just Anno. Ive wanted to write a review on it for sometime. Its not a new game at all however the graphics are nothing short of stunning. Anno is a PC game. I want you to take a deep breath and really let that soak in. "Its a PC Game". In every way or form Anno has all the grace of PC Games of yester years. In Game industry that is constantly being flogged and violated by dumbed down console rubbish, Anno is a shinning star.
Its complicated, deep, engaging and addictive. It wasn't just programmed, published and slapped on the shelves. Its a crafted masterpiece. Someone or a few someones on the dev team of this game put their heart and soul into this game. Now that I'm done praising it I will tell you why I feel Anno is so great.
Anno1404 is set in the age 1404 when the Oxident (The West) and the Orient (The East) start to establish trading routes. In this historical and quite romantic setting your mission is to establish trade routes with the Orient and learn the ways of the east. You will come up against both rivals from your homeland of England and Oriental Corsairs. But combat is not where Anno shines. In fact Anno is a resource management game. Your building colonies and making sure the needs of your colony are being met. Much like a Sims game your people have needs and wants that will help them advance as a civilization.
Unlike other RTS games, Anno has a gazzilion resources not just 1 or 2. Getting the goods you need made is not straight forward at all. You can't just hog one type of resource and trade it for others. You have to expand and colonize different islands to get your hands on multiple different resources.. Its not a case of Credits, Tiberium, Minerals or Vespene gas.
Keeping your economy a float isn't always easy finding the perfect balance between taxes, production costs, upkeep, production bottlenecks, trading routes and just overall managing an entire civilization by yourself can be a daunting task. But Anno is a rewarding experience once you start to get the hang of whats going on after about oh 20 hours of gameplay you will get that feeling of control and power games of this genre are supposed to provide. You may even learn a bit about history or how certain products were made.
You will find that as you colonize and grow in Anno you will also get the opportunity to build an Oriental settlement you will then be managing 2 different peoples with unique needs and wants. You will find that both civilizations will desire commodities and luxury items from each other and really get a good picture of how the establishment of trade routes effected the world and how we see it today.
Whilst I haven't really gone into depth on the game mechanics of Anno. I leave you with this final note. If you enjoy management Sims or history or both this game is for you. Its deep and rich and alive and it comes highly recommended.
If you enjoyed the following old school titles you will love Anno.
Dungeon Keeper 1+2
Theme Hospital
Populous
Sid Meier's Civilizations Series
Ive decided to not give the game a Star or numerical rating as I find the whole concept destroys the point of reading reviews. People don't read reviews to make their own decisions anymore. They simply look at a numerical number and go with the flow. Many of the good titles get overlooked because they get assigned a numerical value of 7 or 8 for not being mainstream enough, whilst games with very little depth that are basically carbon copies of other games, get 9.5 ratings. Yes I am talking about Call of Duty: Modern Failfair 2 and Black Oops.
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