Anno

Anno – Create a New World... then do it again and again!

Have you ever wanted to feel a bit like a God? If so, then perhaps you should be taking a closer look at this particular ‘Civ’ style game?

You have two modes to play – story and endless. In story, you’re tasked to be a dutiful prince and help your father (and King) help save your country by exploring lands and growing colonies which can supply much needed food and spices to the mainland. Interestingly your brother is also tasked with a similar challenge, but unlike you seeks to gain resources through war rather than peaceful means.

For anyone familiar with the Anno games on the PC (or Populus, Civilisation, Age of Empires etc.) you will instantly feel right at home with the controls. A simple press of the OK key and you open up all the various options available to you; from buildings to taxes. You’re guided by an aide who tells you how to do the basics and the effects these have on your civilisation. For example, you first have to build a home for settlers to move into, then a wood cutter to give you more wood (for your buildings), a mill to make bread (to feed your settlers) and dairy farm (for milk to quench your settlers thirst). Before too long, your colony will grow in size and sufficiency, but all this costs you money so now you must look at taxing your civilians – but be mindful that too much will cause them to be unhappy and ultimately harm stunt your progress, or worse!

Before long, you will be glued to this addictive title. So be careful to leave yourself several hours to progress through the various challenges and get the most from this game. If you’re into more simplistic games like arcade types, you probably will be put off by this virtually endless title. Although, in fairness, I’d recommend anyone to step outside their comfort zone and give a game like this a go as a good RTS (real time strategy) title is hard to find and all too entertaining to miss out on. Besides, you might just turn your back on Pac-Man!

It seems that virtually nothing’s been left out. This is a very beautiful game to look at and indeed listen to. The controls are clear and even the AI is pretty good too. Take for example when you need to connect your buildings by a path, you can either painfully move the markers around within the grid or move the cursor from where you’d like the path to start to where you’d like it to finish and it will make an attempt at laying the path for you. In truth, it can take a while for you to get used to, but it’s pretty accurate and timesaving.

If I were to pick any faults, I’d have to say that unfortunately the difficulty level can’t be set from the start or altered so it won’t get too challenging until the final levels for the more advanced players. The main challenge though at all times is getting to lay out the buildings around the available land for the maximum effectiveness. In story mode, you will also move from one colony to the next, so it is a pretty repetitive process building your settlement over and over again. All that being said however, it’s pretty satisfying getting to watch your huts blossom into a township.

Rating 90%

Positives

Great detail

Excellent ambient sounds

Pretty good AI makes cumbersome tasks quite simple

Negatives

Repeating the same process of starting your settlement from scratch over and over again is pretty frustrating

You can’t challenge yourself by altering the difficulty setting

Not good if you’re only after a quick game