ANNO 1701 is the latest in a series of empire building sims. It is made to be accessible to all levels of players, offering enough depth for experienced players while still being easy enough for players new to the genre. The game starts out on a ship as you sail around to different islands, looking for your favorite one to settle on. Some islands will have less than ideal terrain, others may already have settlers on them, and still others might just not be to your liking. Once you find the perfect island, though, you can get down to the business of building a civilization.
ANNO 1701 lets you set your own goals. You can do battle with your neighbors, or set up trade agreements and keep the peace. It’s your choice. The only thing you’re required to do is keep your population happy. Gauging their happiness is fairly easy to do. You can click on a portrait of one of your citizens and their facial expression will tell you how the overall population is feeling. When things are good, they will have a happy and content look on their face. But if things are bad, and especially if you raise the taxes to high, their expression will change to show you just how angry they are with the current situation.
There is a lot of city life happening in ANNO 1701. People are constantly wandering about the town. The nobility will walk through the market with their noses held up in the air. Children will play. Drunks will stumble about. If the population is unhappy, protestors may even show up to complain about your governing. This city life really adds to the feeling that you are building a civilization for people, not just a collection of buildings.
There are 150 different building models, making for a rich and diverse cityscape. Some of the building types are only unlocked once you have reached the peak of civilization. You can even take pictures of your city in Postcard View (showing close up objects clearly and blurring further objects to create a sense of distance) and share your accomplishments with other players.
With ANNO 1701, Sunflowers is making a game that will entice vetran simulation players into trying something new and introduce the uninitiated to a new genre of gaming.
I’ve always loved video games. I don’t know why, but they’ve always fascinated me. When I was younger, if I visited someone who had an Atari, that was all I wanted to do. It was a glorious day when I finally got my very own Nintendo.
I like a wide variety of games. I’m great at action and rpg games. I tend to be too much of a perfectionist with first person shooters and stealth games. I’ll spend 20 minutes in a level, only to reset it the first time a guard sees me. Platformers aren’t really my thing, I think the technology has better things to offer than that now. And I don’t do sports games.
I love games with a good story. I’ll play for hours just trying to get to the next plot twist. In a perfect world, I’d be writing my own video games someday
