Anno 1701 (PC)

Where the game falls down is when you go to war, there’s not a lot of strategic planning here, it’s a ‘mine is bigger than yours’ scenario and leads ultimately to frustration as the player with the most advanced of anything is likely to win the battles. War usually happens when there’s a scarce commodity and things get fractious between the so-called allies and other nations, you can play the game however you want and if you want to play a peaceful style game, pick opponents that are likely to be pushovers.

The AI is on a whole a fairly decent one; it concentrates on building up its own colonies, exploration and even engages in trade and diplomacy with you and the other opponents. It can make some pretty good decisions in terms of creating a thriving colony and very often expands quicker than you. It has various settings and when it comes to war, the AI often knows its strengths and weaknesses.

With such robust gameplay and a really great GUI the game has a mild learning curve; it’s also a nice looking game. The graphics are excellent in Anno 1701 and the game has some of the nicest water effects in any game of this type. The models and animations are all top notch and the game’s style shines through there with special events like a brass band, all animated with a great deal of heart.

The camera is fully 3d and you can tilt/pan/rotate to your heart’s content, there’s even a special mode for taking screens where it gives you a panoramic view – a nice touch there. The light and shade effects in the game really add to the overall look and the building models are suitably rendered with a great deal of detail, it’s nice to see the individual tiles on the rooftops and the cobbles

The sound and music are likewise top notch, the voice acting as you might expect is a little OTT in places but it fits with the larger than life feel of the game. The music is a dramatic and often sweeping score. There’s a lot of life in the actual gameworld thanks to a good use of ambient and spot sound effects, the various buildings all have their own audio cues.

You can play the game with a mix of human and AI opponents/allies in multiplayer and there’s online and network play enabled. I foresee a lot of alliances made and broken between friends and enemies in the multiplayer, if the games go anywhere the same direction as ours.

So there you have it. I think Anno 1701 has a great deal of potential, there’s nothing absolutely mind-blowing about the game. The product is solid and it’s presented in a package that brings out the fun in the game, from the excellent tutorials to the superb GUI it’s a joy to play and never feels like a slog. It is let down by a poor strategic battle element and war should have been given the same amount of polish as the other elements in the game – it feels a little tacked on otherwise.

The sheer level of detail that Anno provides in terms of characters and structures on screen at any time is excellent and it’s a game that you really can sit back and have hours of relaxing fun with. Play it at your own pace or with friends, but play it non-the-less.