ANNO 1800 REVIEW

After a few drinks, it's a regular theme in my life that I begin to extol the glory of British Imperialism. It involves praising the virtues and redcoats of Churchill, tea and getting the cane out from the cupboard to use it on the Frenchies. We can all agree that the whole "experiment” of USA Independence has not worked out. This is why I love strategy games set in this time period, despite the fact that there are a lot of them. Empire is a decent game, but the combat lacks nuance. The sailing ship combat is so bad that it is hard to see. Meanwhile, the amazing Europa Universallis IV is so complicated that I have failed two attempts to understand it.

Imagine the feeling of desire that I felt when I discovered Anno 1800by Blue Byte & Ubisoft. This is the latest installment in an apparently long-running series that I had never heard of before. It was set in (approximately), the Golden Age of Sail, and colonialism. It's a ship-to-ship fighting game, but it also has resource management and expansion features that might appeal to the same part of my brain as Factorio. It's not a replacement, but I can't stop admiring the style at this stage... And Factoriobasically is as much my favorite Empire game, the game seemed perfect for me.

It was an Epic Store Exclusive, so I had to accept that fact. Tim is known to be irrational and beat me up about it. With GOG Galaxy 2.0 on its horizon, my complaints are even more futile, but it still irks me that the thing couldn't be purchased on Steam.

Anno is a game in which you compete with 3 other factions (players or AI) to become the largest, most corrupt trading company within a fictional Empire. Each of you are responsible for building an island settlement into a thriving city and economy. You can also expand to other islands to obtain new resources. Finally, you will need to travel to the New World to establish distant colonies and import foreign goods. You are essentially the East India Trading Company in a way, but you are still dependent on the distant Crown. This doesn't really matter much.

There are three win conditions that must be met: you must eliminate all opposition factions, have a certain number final-tier citizens and reach a certain amount of money in the bank. You have the option to subsume other factions or conquer them through economic means. You can also aim to become the first player in your city to have citizens from all five tiers of the citizenry happy. This means that you will need to expand the game to the late-game and rush to complete the checklist of items each tier requires. But, I believe that none of these are the point of Anno. A large part of Anno's enjoyment is in the simple act and development of your colonies. It's like Factorio and other engine-builders, it's all about the journey, not the destination.

It is very satisfying to see a strategy game where victory can be achieved by economic means. These games usually have access to "diplomatic" wins from allies and domination victories that blow your foes to the ground. However, economic victories in strategy games can't be achieved because it is difficult to define what "won". This game's economic system is quite interesting in that you can purchase shares in other players' islands. While this can be quite expensive for new colonies, it is possible to buy shares in the main islands for a substantial portion of their income. You can continue buying shares until you reach the point where you have the option to buy the entire island and destroy your enemy without firing one shot. This is a clever way to solve the problem of economic wins in other games being so unrealistic. This option, unfortunately, also ends all existing island development. But I guess if you could keep it, that would be ridiculously absurd.

The economy is the real draw of Anno. It's the reason we all exist. It's not easy to start, so you have to put a lot of money into your settlement. You make small profits or even lose some. But as time goes by, you will gradually increase your production tree and begin to make big bucks.

I find it hard to decide if it's addictive or absorbing. The work involved is never finished. It's possible to switch the game on quickly, determined to complete one task, but after three hours, it's not done because you've been distracted by dozens of other things.

It starts small to attract you in. A market and port are necessary, which can be connected by a road. You will also need houses close to the market to house some farmers. You will need to build fisherman houses for your farmers. To make clothes, you will need a weaver. This is made possible by the wool from a sheepfarm. It's easy. To do all that, you will need to have a few sawmills and lumberjacks. A fire station is also necessary to light fires. It's simple!

You want to make sure your farmers are happy. Happiness reduces the risk of riots, and increases your income. You decide to buy some potato farms in order to make schnapps, and then build a pub. All of this requires you to build more homes to ensure you have enough workers to supply all these buildings.

You can then upgrade one of your farmers into the more lucrative, but more demanding "workers". These people now need food, including bread and sausages. To keep them happy, you will need beer and a church. All of these buildings also mean that you need clay, bricks, and more farmers. You have to grow and expand. You will most likely need to travel to another island if your home place isn't able to grow the hops required for beer. This means that you will need to build ships and set up trade routes. You also need to defend your trade vessels with gunboats or frigates because there are pirates in these waters.

Then you can upgrade to Artisans. Next, Engineers.NextInvestors. Investors. It's difficult enough to keep your citizens satisfied, but it's a new challenge to make sure they are happy and have access to luxuries. You also need to supply other islands. This means you have to expand to new countries so that you can ship back stuff like gold, cotton, and rum.

You should also be investing in your island to attract tourists and specialists, and trading with other people. Naturally, you will need to build ships to ensure you're ready for war.

Plus, you must- Wait... What's this? You've ran out of Schnapps. Your farmers are furious.YES! Please!ForFUCKSTake a look at these sakes!

This sounds like an insane workload. It is possible to spend hours trying to optimize your production trees by min-maxing your islands. You're also dealing with six other issues that are competing for your attention, so you could spend hours micromanaging them all.

However, this does not mean that you can't have a good time playing the game. You can spend an hour on the keyboard and then become so engrossed in doing so many small things that you lose track of time. You might be disappointed if you don't make any progress, even though you will have enjoyed the hours that you spend playing.

This is especially true when the game opens up into the New World. While I enjoy the Anno mechanics, I also love that you can colonize distant islands and have different production and trade trees. It's a lot fun.

Problem is that the game's pace slows down once you start it. You find yourself clicking back and forth between the different islands and production chains. It's impossible to advance when there is always something in demand.

Not "challenging", but "frustrating". While the former is true, it becomes less challenging and more like a game that is actually challenging.

This is not an intentional situation. You simply have to "git Gud" or you will die trying. It's a grind, but gitting gud becomes less difficult. This is where you might need to do multiple attempts to nail certain aspects.

This is partly due to the details of each playthrough. Although this might seem like something that will be lost on a lot of people reading this, I feel like you don't get enough information in certain places. It is clear that you are informed which products are increasing and decreasing in any particular island. There is no other information, and it would be very useful to have some additional information. One example is that a single schnapps distillery can supply schnapps to 600 people. If you have less, your supply will technically be increasing. However, you will be told that it is stable. This means that if your supply starts to decrease, it can cause problems. You might not notice this until it actually happens.

This is just to mention the ridiculous number of specialists that can offer small bonuses to your cities if they are placed in strategically-located buildings. It's a nightmare for perfectionists. It is also not easy to find rare rewards on expeditions.

Last but not least, I must add that I am not sure how I feel regarding multiplayer. Private multiplayer is a game where you have to be able to take 5+ hours of work and play against friends. You have two options: you can choose to work together from the beginning or accept that you will be competing, which can lead to some bitter moments. It can take the joy out winning, but you know that you won't be able to expand your empire unless you exclude them from the game for the remainder of the (many hours).

Online gaming against randoms allows you to bypass the frustration of the above. The victory conditions are based on the game's mid-game and make it much easier to reach them. This takes away the whole purpose of the game, which is the journey to the end.

Anno is a great engine-builder, despite some issues with the late-game pace and some inherent problems with multiplayer. There's always something to do, sometimes too much. It is easy to lose yourself in hours of trying to perfect your islands. It's a joy!