Only the first three were available to me in this preview, so I couldn’t play around with the end-game tiers, but what becomes apparent even with the first three is that each of them is far more individual than before. You have 5 social classes of citizen, (farmer, workers, artisans, engineers and investors). With Anno, it feels like very little is lost from the previous entries in the franchise, and what works great is expanded upon and made even better.įor instance: The setting of Anno 1800 is the period of the Industrial Revolution, and that theme really carries through a lot to gameplay mechanics.
#ANNO 1404 PREVIEW SERIES#
When I was growing up, the gold standard of this genre was always the Sim City games, but where I think Anno is better as a series is that Sim City took the route of making the newer games simpler and simpler each time. You build, design, layout and expand your city in various ways, and by doing so, you keep the inhabitants of the city prosperous and happy, although you have very little direct control over them individually. In Anno, your focus is rather the city itself. If you think it looks similar to an RTS like Age of Empires, what really sets it apart is the focus – in something like Age of Empires, your goal is to build units that you control, and then use those units to destroy your enemy. …think of this game like Sim City or City: Skylines, but with a historical setting and focus…įor those who might to be new to the franchise, think of this game like Sim City or City: Skylines, but with a historical setting and focus, and a campaign to play through.
#ANNO 1404 PREVIEW FULL#
Added to that is the fact that the aforementioned title was released a full 10 years ago, and you can throw in the technical and graphical progression as even more reasons to bring you back. That means that if the last game you played was Anno 1404, which released in 2009, you would get the biggest possible jump in time scale and setting for the series within the real-world games.
The series has now covered every century from 1400-1800, but not in that order. After two forays into futurism, with Anno 20, Anno is settling back into its roots again with Anno 1800. If you’re into historically-based city building games, the best series in that (admittedly small) genre is back with a bang.