مدیر فروشگاهThe Anno series can rightfully be called one of the most successful in its genre. It never had multi-million dollar sales or amazingly high ratings, but despite this, German developers continue to confirm the stereotype of a hard-working nation, delighting fans of economic strategies with new games for twenty years. Of course, the development teams, as well as the publisher, have changed, but the spirit of the series and its German roots have been preserved (if you pretend that Austria is Germany).
After two not very successful parts of the series in the sci-fi genre, the developers returned to the colonial period of our history. This time the choice fell on the 19th century – the era of the industrial revolution and the dominance of European powers. In addition to the mechanics already familiar to fans, players will have to take care of the cleanliness of the environment, prevent labor strikes, and also send ships on overseas expeditions for valuable prizes.
The game was promised to be released in February, but there was another postponement, and now it comes out at the end of April. But almost everyone was given access to closed beta testing. Unfortunately, not all gameplay content is included in this testing. There is no full training, no story missions, only a sandbox. And of the five stages of settler development, only the first three are available. It’s much more difficult to judge the final product from them, but I still decided to write a preview.
The story about the Anno series should start with another German economic strategy – Settlers. From its inception in 1993 until Settlers 7, the series did not undergo significant game-mechanical changes. A nascent settlement was given under the guidance of the player, and it was necessary to rebuild it, supply the inhabitants with the necessary resources and capture the surrounding territories.
The main activity in the game was building production chains: in order to simply supply workers with bread, you need to sow the fields, dig a well for water, build a mill, a barn, and only at the end build a bakery. And this is not to mention the creation of weapons or the smelting of gold coins. The gameplay of Settlers is based on proper management, managing free space, available resources and everything else. Of course, there is also war, but it is not the one who fights well who wins, but the one who supplies the army well.
Settlers laid the foundations for the entire German school of economic strategies. Each of them stood out in some way, but the basis was approximately the same: long production chains and indirect control of units. Cultures had a more detailed approach to managing subjects, Knights and Merchants had a greater emphasis on military action, and Alien Nations featured a fantasy setting.
Which is logical, these games are aimed primarily at the German market. In Germany, a huge number of people play this kind of strategy, they hold tournaments, and in general everything is very serious. On the Anno 1800 CBT discussion forum there were two sections – for German and for English, and in the first there were twice as many posts, which says a lot. There is an opinion that even if these games are not sold in the rest of the world, the publisher will still benefit only due to the German market.
They say that the Settlers Online browser is only slightly worse in quality than the full-fledged parts of the series.
The Anno series looks like a variation on the theme of “settlers on the archipelagos”. Instead of large open spaces and building one solid settlement, players are forced to huddle on small islands. The seizure of territories was replaced by the colonization of neighboring islands, and land battles were almost completely replaced by sea ones.
Because of this, increased attention to trade and resource exchange has been added to the already familiar mechanics of production chains. On some islands you will not have wheat, on others – iron, and somewhere you will have a lot of resources, but there will be no place for a large settlement there. For the colonies to prosper, you now need to take care of the fleet and thoughtfully plan the routes of cargo ships so that all the islands have all the goods they need.
The series has changed developers several times. The first two parts were created by Max Design, then Relative Designs took over the series, releasing Anno 1701. After certain events, the rights to the franchise passed to Ubisoft, and Relative continued to work on new games. From their pen came the excellent Anno 1404 and the less excellent Anno 2070, which moved the scene to half-submerged islands from the near future.
After this, development was given to Blue Byte – the authors of the entire Settlers series. Somehow they managed to make Anno 2205 just plain bad. There were interesting mechanics, but everything that made us love the series was lost. People complained about short and extremely simple production chains, wrong emphasis in gameplay, and the like. Of course, they weren’t completely disappointed in the series, but their credibility was undermined. And as a measure that should fix everything, the developers began work on Anno 1800.
After the first launch of the game it seems that this is just a small reskin of Anno 1404. Nostalgic memories even make it feel like the graphics have remained the same. But still, this is a very conservative series, and to see the difference between its parts, you need to look more closely.
Starting somewhere around Anno 1701, the series was praised for its visuals. Anno 1800 didn’t disappoint either. Technologically, the graphics are not impressive, but many small details make it clear that a tremendous amount of work has been done on the picture. Wheat fields sway in the wind, huge clouds of smoke rise above the factories, each building is designed so that its functionality is clear at first glance. Just watching the game is already nice.
Impressive game and sound. I https://lux-casino.co.uk/bonus/ won’t talk about how realistic the noise of the mills and bakeries is here, but the music here is excellent, and the phrases of the settlers and workers are heard in a logical British accent. Either they hum songs, then they mutter something under their breath, or they try to be indignant at working conditions, which is downright touching.
In general, the whole game is permeated with the atmosphere of the 19th century. Moreover, as before, they are trying to mix different cultures into one wild mixture. For example, the houses of engineers are very reminiscent of the central districts of Paris, the dialect of workers is purely hard workers from the eastern docks of London, but when you try to describe the music, only the expression “melody of the industrial revolution” comes to mind.
Well, tell me what’s beautiful, huh??
Gameplay is very similar to Anno 1404. The same islands, approximately the same NPCs with their quests and dissatisfaction with or without. There is even a division between the development of “European” and foreign islands. Only instead of the conditional conquest of Arab countries, now you need to populate the South American jungle.
Despite the assurances of the developers, naval battles are also not far from their previous iteration. Still a minimum of tactics and maximum emphasis on the coolness of ships. But there will be no ground battles at all. The developers decided to cut them out completely in order to focus on other aspects of the gameplay.
As for the development of cities, here, too, almost everything follows the old patterns. Due to the fact that the most technological stages of development are closed in beta, a false feeling is created that nothing has changed in the game. The same churches, pubs, breweries and mills. Except that instead of apple cider there is schnapps made from potatoes, and the “overseas colonies” do not produce spices, but specialize in cotton and cane. In general, for fans of the series everything is simple and clear.
There are also plenty of new mechanics and differences from previous parts. And at all levels of gameplay.
So, the very basis of the development has changed. As before, the map is divided into cells, and all buildings fit neatly into them. But in Anno 1404, market squares, churches, fire stations and other buildings extended their influence over a certain radius. And, obviously, a round radius. Round zones of influence on a square map… This really infuriated me, since it was difficult to build something beautiful and convenient.
Now everything is tied to the roads. Let’s say we build a road network around the market and immediately see how far houses can be built along these roads. The same applies to all entertainment and service buildings. From now on, it is necessary not to fit buildings into a strict radius, but to carefully plan the road network so that every residential premises has access to the necessary buildings. It even makes sense to plan a city using blocks.
True, I have not yet fully figured out what the saturation of the green illumination of roads affects when highlighting buildings with a radius of influence.
The principle of farm improvement has also changed. No, if you raise pigs, sheep and other animals, nothing will change for you – you will still build the main building and 3-5 small pens next to it. But everything related to plant crops now requires large spaces. It was strange that half the city could be fed with bread from four miniature fields, the size of a residential building. Now the wheat fields are just that: fields. Huge, 144 cells. The same applies to potatoes, hops, and all other plants. Now we need a lot of space to supply the city with bread, beer and other wonderful things. Again, this forces the settlement of entire islands just to build them up with farms for the domestic market.
Another difference was the system of “upgrading” houses. Previously, in order for a peasant’s house to turn into a city dweller’s home, the residents had to not only be fed and clothed, but also entertained. Now the needs of families have been divided into, in fact, needs and “things for happiness” (I’m not very good at translating into Russian). If we talk about peasants, then for the first time they need food, access to the market and clothing. But the pub and potato schnapps are already a source of satisfaction for the residents.
The difference is that the number of people in the house and the possibility of upgrading it depend on the needs. There are 10 people – you can turn it into a house for the working class. But things that provide happiness only increase the level of happiness and income from houses, but do not in any way affect the growth of the city.
The happiness mechanics themselves have also been improved. It began to depend on many indicators, including air pollution and working conditions. The developers themselves thus decided to give players the opportunity to play both an evil dictator and a leader who cares about citizens. In the first case, you save a lot on many things, but you get problems – strikes, burning of houses and other things that I did not have time to see. In the second case, you avoid all this and at the same time receive bonuses in the form of festivals that increase the financial well-being of the city.
And the last and most significant change in the population system was jobs. From now on, every mine, farm or factory requires not just any kind of labor, but a specific one. Peasants work in the fields, workers work in factories and bakeries, window making workshops require artisans (the third stage of development), and some buildings unavailable in beta require engineers and investors who were also unavailable before release.
This approach changes the very principle of upgrading residential buildings. Turned all peasants into workers – resulting in widespread famine. Made too many artisans – factories stopped working. And so on. The player is constantly looking for balance and is forced to competently rebuild their cities. This mechanic is difficult to describe in more detail. It’s just that people have become a full-fledged resource that needs to be carefully monitored, and this has greatly changed the gameplay for the better.
And here you can edit the press for influence points so that citizens are not too sad.
Less “fundamental” features have also appeared that do not oblige the player to anything, but add several game elements that can diversify what is happening. Among the things that are not available in the beta are railways and electricity. It is not yet known how it will work, but the screenshots look interesting.
If we talk about what we managed to touch with our own hands, then we can remember tourism. If you build a pier for walks and other entertainment facilities, you can make a profit from visits to your island. To have more money, you need to monitor the reputation of your city: eliminate fires and riots, beautifully decorate the surrounding area, transfer all heavy and “vulgar” production (like pig farms) to other islands, and so on. Interesting idea and a good challenge for a single player game.
Added sea expeditions – sort of text quests with interactivity. We equip the ship, send it on a text adventure and make a few decisions along the way. At the end, the player will receive a reward (if the ship did not sink along the way) in the form of bonus items, exotic animals, specialized specialists or historical artifacts.
Zoos and museums are supplied with animals and exhibitions from these expeditions. What’s funny is that the building of a museum or zoo is, in fact, just a “gate”. In order for them to start making a profit, you should place enclosures or “exhibitions” next to them, and then, if possible, decorate it all. The only negative is that it takes up too much space. But you can have plenty of fun decorating your own park with exotic animals.
The development now has a “blueprint” mode – you can plan construction in advance, so that later you don’t have to deal with the chaotic remaking of the city.
And, of course, there were various changes in balance, timings and production chains. For example, planks are now considered building materials, not wood. So next to the lumberjack’s hut you also need to place a sawmill. Similarly, alcohol is produced in two stages – we grow potatoes, take them to the distillery and there we make schnapps.
I was pleased with the new fire mechanics. If previously they appeared randomly (or at least the player could not determine the reason), now everything works much more openly. Depending on the buildings, plots of land receive different fire hazard status. For example, in distilleries there is a high risk of the entire factory exploding (and they do explode!). The construction of a fire station not only helps to quickly extinguish fires, but also significantly reduces the chance of a disaster.
Police stations and hospitals operate similarly. Only they protect against uprisings and diseases. The first ones depend on the contentment of certain classes, but I did not identify the causes of the diseases, since I never came across them during the beta test.
The approach to conquering the new world has changed. Now, like the Moon in Anno 2205, the islands of South America are on a separate map. When moving between locations, downloads are not required, but this approach led to a bug with disrupted delivery of goods between parts of the world. However, this will probably be corrected for release.
And overall, a lot of nice little things have been added. Trade in surplus has become a little more convenient; You can deliver cargo between the islands not only with your own ships, but also with hired ones (the prices there are decent); the island’s defensive structures have reached a new level; timings and balance of production chains have changed; at the first and second levels of population development, the number of necessary buildings was expanded, and so on. The developers have stated several times that the balance in the game for release may differ significantly from what exists in beta, so we will not go deeper into this.
***
After a noticeable failure in the form of Anno 2205, Blue Byte studio managed to “get back into the game”. Already from the beta it is clear that a tremendous amount of work has been done, and I will be very surprised if the final product turns out to be mediocre. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to touch the most delicious half of the game, because it was in the later stages of development that all the cool features of that era should emerge. But even what we have already seen is done at the highest level. Somehow, the developers managed to significantly change the approach to the basics of gameplay, while not losing the spirit of the Anno franchise, which should definitely appeal to both fans of the series and many others. Just have to wait for the release.
