Anno 1701

Hendrick Jorgensen awaits his allies ship on the farthest edge of his kontors dock because rumors were heard that the ship contains huge amounts of lamp oil. A joyfully panic overcomes Hendrick and he can not stay still. The last two days were hard work for the young man. He had to scrap together all the coin he could get to buy as much lamp oil as possible. The settlers were not amused as Hendrick ordered to sell all the wood and brick available in the depots of the city. "We need that for our houses. Don't you see they are getting too small for our families we need these materials". But Hendrick had no choice, he needed the lamp oil and all the islands in the north were already occupied. No! He had to do anything in his power to get this lamp oil even if it meant the ruin of his city and of himself.

The great computer controlled players in "Anno 1701" give the 3th game of the series a great bit of character and add to the cute comic style of the game with cities that burst in different colors and islands full of exotic animals and local plantation . But to start from the beginning in anno 1701 the old (and hugely appreciated) concept does not change. Only beginning with one ship and a few resources the player starts to build a small settlement, expand on other islands, get more resources, trade with others, rage ware and build the greatest city the world has ever seen.

The "pirate kid" Carmen Marquez or the would be author Hendrick Jorgensen are only some of the characters I really started to like during my anno 1701 sessions. A "problem" that took me so far that I even had difficulties to declare war on these lovable character. The fist time in Anno I felt like playing against players who new how to play anno, who understood the concepts and who's reaction were different to each one of my moves. That's mainly due to the great KI player characteristic as everyone has its own edges, methods and  preference which were shown with great dialogs, small character cut scenes and different trading styles. A fact that improved the playfun allot. Another great thing according the KI players is that the first time in any anno the characters really understood the concepts of expanding and how important it is. Starting from some players that were angry if the player occupied to much islands to others who without hesitation declared war because of it or were even faster than the human player to occupy all island and let the enemies cities no room to grow and no air to breath.

But with this observation there was also to bee see a huge balancing issue with the difficult KI. The main fact the play against these KI enemies was so frustrating is that they were only that good because of given extra money and resources. If they beat me by building up faster their cities faster and getting the production chains set up quicker and more productive than so bee it. But I do not understand why after more then enough attempts and with every possible different tactic it was still not possible to beet even one of them. As I said in my opinion a Hugh balancing issue.

The graphic of the game made a huge step forward coppered with the anno 1503 game a improvement which goes back to the roots and take an example of the great anno 1602. And again we are not talking about the most up to date 3d graphics or renders but more about the general art style (also including menus) and graphical coherence of graphical elements. A improvement that lets us forget the misstep in the second game, so let us not talk more bout it.

According the tech tree this anno could learn something about anno 1503 as this time the tech tree is rather plain and small and the researchable objects are of no real importance in the game (expect the guilders and express ship).
-The lodge options are on the long term really useless I mean it is fun to try them out but other than that it is a pretty useless added gameobject
- the trade with the indigenous tribes is also quiet unnecessary in my opinion and in the later phases of the game (when you have one island full of aristocrats) a real pain in the neck.
-What I further have to add is that the trading ships in this game are perfect and according to that the trading is the best and feel the most natural in this anno.

All together the most humanlike anno there ever will be. Combining the great concept of anno with new game assets of which nearly all are improvements into the right direction (better compute enemies, better trade, great graphics...).