Anno 1800, the Ubisoft masterpiece that nobody knows

Anno 1800

Among the meanders of the shelves of the cumbersome Ubisoft Connect, the digital platform of the French giant that only those who are forced to use, squeezed between a Viking with a double ax, paramilitaries on a special mission and fervent worshipers of the Creed of the assassins, the Anno series exists and resists. to the last chapter, Anno 1800, has reached its peak.

The origins

Anno 1800: the artisans have arrived in the city, giving them a home that is worthy of it will be just the beginning Conceived in 1998 by a small Austrian software house, in 2009 Anno ends up in the arms of Ubisoft which entrusts it to what was once the Blue Byte of The Settlers and which today has become in effect the strategic and management division of the company. Blue Byte produces Anno 1701 and Anno 1404, finally incorporating part of the workforce to begin developing the following chapters on its own. In 2015 it is the turn of the brave Year 2070, a chapter set in the future that aroused more than a concern among fans about the direction taken by the series which, however, in 2019, retracing its steps, evolves into what is today its most successful, its deepest and most precise chapter: Anno 1800.

Old world

Anno 1800: islands have different resources and vary in size We are talking about a game that has just entered the its third year of life, not a novelty, but like many other modern video games even Anno 1800, since that April 2019 which marked its great debut in society, has never stopped growing, expanding its mechanics in so many different ways, becoming what three years ago we could only suspect it was: a milestone like that.

Anno 1800 is that chapter which brings together all the good ideas introduced in no particular order in the previous years, making them concrete within a city builder structure of rare and precious workmanship. As the series dictates, Anno 1800 is also set in an archipelago of islands from the Old World that will be colonized and defended, but unlike other similar games, Anno is focused on sustenance and the construction of increasingly complex supply chains, in order to attract citizens of higher social classes.

If clothes and fish are enough for a farmer not to leave the city, and pork and alcohol to be happy, the subsequent types of inhabitants will be much more demanding. Building buildings that live up to the expectations of the wealthiest classes will also require new materials, such as windows that will require sand and glassmakers to be created, or canned meat which, among iron mines, specific animal farms, slaughterhouses and warehouses, will require different steps and a lot of workforce to finally be put on the market.

Another problem: each island has only part of the resources required by the game, and not all agricultural products are compatible with all soils, characterized here by a selective fertility. It is possible to trade with the other characters in the game to make up for some shortcomings, but logically this will affect the income and not all resources are available in the Old World.

Across the ocean

Anno 1800: this is the general map, where we will be able to move between the different continents of the game and start the extra scenarios. new colony totally different stylistically, where to produce rum, sugar and other local specialties that we will then ship to European cities. And it is precisely to the New World that this fourth season pass of Anno 1800 is dedicated, to date the Year with the most expansions ever, all of excellent quality and able to expand the gameplay in many ways. In the first DLC of the fourth season, called Bright Harvest (Seeds of Change in Italian) we will be able to build a huge modular hacienda with which to produce new and old resources in more quantities and faster. Nothing extraordinary but the best of this fourth year is yet to come: in the summer it will be the turn of Empire of the Skies which will allow the construction of different types of airships to move goods and people between continents as well as the first matching service of the game.

The third and final expansion of Season 4 will arrive at the end of 2022 and will introduce a new level of population to the New World, where only two different social and architectural levels are currently foreseen. With this third tier, we will finally be able to transform these wonderful tropical islands into much more structured settlements, along the lines of Cuba. More meat in the fire for a game that in three years has seen the appearance of skyscrapers, systems dedicated to tourism, the introduction of African colonies where to build another type of settlement, new economic mechanics and different "flavor packs" to make the cities even more beautiful.

The charm of the Caribbean

Year 1800: in Africa they will be irrigation channels are fundamental All Anno can show off extremely detailed graphics, and from this point of view too Anno 1800 has set a new standard. Despite the lack of curved roads, which would make the cities even more realistic but threaten the accuracy of the gameplay which also includes a certain skill in the management of spaces, Anno 1800 is a paradise for those who love to build functional and credible cities. Underpasses, public toilets, canals of putrid water to reproduce the darkest of Victorian cities, glass and steel markets, universal fairs and then zoos, museums and modular botanical gardens that will be filled by organizing expeditions around the planet. Over time, each city acquires its own character that will make it recognizable among a thousand.

Year 1800: night falls, cities change face ... Given the great talk about Monkey Island and its unexpected return, we can't do not point out that Anno 1800 is perhaps the only game that allows you to recreate fantastic reinterpretations of the Melee Island masterpiece Lucasfilm. Cities like postcards, but full of life: the inhabitants of Anno 1800 are not single individuals as for example in Tropico, but they do an exceptional job in giving life to clubs, streets and residences. Anno 1800 is so graphically beautiful that it does not even look bad in first person, a hidden function (activated with Control + Shift + R) that allows you to visit your creations and those of other players just as if you were a visitor to the island. In the first person it is also possible to come across Easter egg missions that can unlock several interesting features; moreover it is also possible to drive wagons, bicycles and cars.

Anno 1800: the game is full of special buildings that are often also linked to new game mechanics It is all Anno 1800 that is full of contents, secrets, mechanics unexpected and special personalities that can make a profound difference when used in the right buildings, such as trade unions or town halls. In addition, the game also offers an exciting campaign that we recommend to all newcomers, plus other adventures introduced in the shortest time, but always done with extreme care and therefore worthy of attention. But the game experience is customizable in every aspect: if you don't want to play with the campaign there is the sandbox mode where you can change every variable, totally disable the AI, play multiplayer with and against your friends, extend your empire to dominate lands and seas or create a profitable web of trade routes. You can create dirty metropolises shrouded in factory fog, and natural paradises where the brightest buildings are thrown into the sky from the white sidewalks. And all this must work, consequently every inhabited center, if not taken to the extreme, will have that realism that only organic development can guarantee.

This is just one of the many magic of Anno 1800 and its thousands of hours of intelligent and re / creative gameplay, despite himself imprisoned in a desolate and desolate Ubisoft Connect that acquires charm only thanks to the all you can eat of the "plus" version which, in addition to all the games in the window, allows access to Anno 1800 and all its additional content.

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