[Review] Anno 1404

[[MC]Ronin[MC]]

 

Of all the RTS/Sim hybrids, Anno 1404 was one of the most enjoyable. It neatly combined the city-building tranquillity of The Settlers with the gunboat diplomacy of Age of Empires to make a deep and absorbing game.

Venice is an add-on pack featuring 300 new quests, 60 new items and a series of new scenarios based around Venetian culture. There's also a new island type (Volcano) adding to the trading and tactical possibilities of your old European and Oriental cultures. Visually not a lot has changed – it's still great to look at, with your hoard of animated townspeople going about their business. There's also a new sounds and music, making the city building side of things curiously hypnotic when you've got bigger issues to take care of.

 

 

 

Perhaps the biggest change with Venice is the addition of Spies to your diplomatic toolkit. Spies are available once you've built an Operations Base, but once done they can take care of policing your own city or creating mayhem in an opponent's. Depending on the level of the building you occupy you can launch arson attacks, sabotage the water supply, spread disease or sow dissent in the marketplace to (eventually) start a revolt. In Oriental bases you can also send out a belly dancer as a distraction or create false prophets to cause more widespread confusion. Naturally, others can do the same to you but this, and the option to buy Council membership in rival cities offers interesting new ways of expanding control without resorting to naval combat. There's also a decent multiplayer mode which can be played by up to eight people over the internet or local area network in versus or co-op mode. At the time of writing only a handful of people online owned the add-on, making this impossible to test, but it will be interesting to see how the more tranquil pace of Anno survives on competitive online servers.

 

 

 

However there are disappointments. Not only is there no single-player Venice campaign (just 15 new scenarios) but you can't even replay the old 1404 campaign using your new units and abilities. For such a notable naval power there's only a disappointing two new trading ships, and keeping track of quests is still as cumbersome as ever, with the all-important Quest log still buried on a sub-menu. So, although Anno: Venice doesn't quite fix all that was broken, luckily there wasn't a lot wrong in the first place.

 

 

Description
For the first time have the critically acclaimed and best selling strategy game Anno 1404 and its tremendous add-on Anno 1404 Venice in only one pack.

Anno 1404 and its add-on are an award winning combination of construction, economy, discovery, diplomacy & combat. Raise monumental metropolis and develop an idealized historical empire in the Orient and the Venice of the Renaissance. The game also offers multiplayer support, allowing you to share this experience with your friends.

Key Features
Play the critically acclaimed Anno 1404 with its add-on: Meet the Orient and Venice!

Get to know the culture and technologies of the orient building your own oriental settlement,
Develop secret cabinets, infiltrate your enemies and sabotage their expansion by ruling a Venetian Harbor.
Rise huge metropolises!

 

 

 

Build a unique seaside with the harbor systemConstruct both Venetian and Oriental impressing monuments to crown your creation,
Shape the character of your city with alleyways, city walls and castles.
Play Anno 1404 and Anno 1404 Venice in multiplayer and online

Up to 4 players.
Challenge your friends by playing versus mode.
Choose Co-op mode and defeat the AI , by merging your techniques.

 

 

 

Activation: Automatically added to your Uplay PC library for download.
Requirements: You will need to install the UPLAY PC application in order to run this content
Release date: 08/12/2010
Type: Strategy, RTS

 

MINIMUM
OS: Windows® XP (SP3), Windows Vista® (only)
Processor: Pentium 4 3GHz or comparable (dual core recommended)
Memory: 1 GB (3 GB recommended)
Graphics: DirectX®9-compatible graphics adapter with 128 MB RAM (DirectX®10 with 512 MB recommended)
DirectX®: DirectX®9/10
Hard Drive: 6 GB free space
Sound: DirectX®9-compatible
Peripherals Supported: Windows-compliant mouse, keyboard, gamepad, headset

* Supported Video Cards at Time of Release:
ATI® Radeon® 9600–9800 / X300–850 / X1050–1950 / HD2400-2900 / HD3400–3870 / HD4300–4890
NVIDIA GeForce® 6100–6800 / 7100–7950 / 8200–8800 / 9200–9800 / 120–140 / 250–295

Laptop versions of these cards may work but are NOT supported. These chipsets are the only ones that will run this game.