But sadly I am not quite impressed with the direction of the expansions, particularly the third season. I was interested in how DLCs would improve on the negatives. In terms of gameplay: items are way too unbalanced, new population levels don't require old goods and public buildings (makes things way too easy), AI's cheating is too obvious, their expansion speed is too fast, naval combat is too complicated for AI to deal with. As far as narrative goes: lack of grand quests and monuments, 19th century as some sort of fantasy land, general reluctance to deal with the period, lack of neutral NPCs, lack of depth to existing NPCs and opponents. Some design choices I disagreed with, both in terms of narrative and gameplay. The game is beautiful, logistics were complicated, optimization mattered, worforce was an amazing addition, beauty-building had actual gameplay meaning, diplomacy and economic competition were reasonably challenging.

It did have that old Anno feel and it was pleasant to play. When Anno 1800 promised to bring challenge back, I was very glad and bought the game.įourth, I actually did enjoy Anno 1800 on release. It looked way too casual compared to classic Anno experience.

The gameplay was simplified, maps were static, warfare was weirdly implemented etc. The reviews made a clear impression that it was an experiment. Third, I did not play Anno 2207 because I neither had the time, nor was I interested in the game itself. As long as my city did not look ugly of course. It made me challenge myself and get better at management, number-crunching, planning etc. However, I have always respected optimization and logistics challenge the game presented. Second, I am not that good at optimizing and am much more at home with beauty-building. This is important because these games formed my expectations of Anno experience. Second most played game was probably Anno 2070. Spent a lot of hours playing them, especially hunting achievements in Anno 1404: Venice. First, I want to say that I am a big fan of old Anno games.

Anno 1404 venice item icons