With the announcement of the upcoming 1404 AD, the next installment in the long running Anno series (as it is known in Europe), it is fitting that North American gamers now get to experience the full scope of the current installment, 1701 AD.  Bundling together the original 1701 AD and the expansion, The Sunken Dragon, the Gold Edition is a great buy for fans of the original and newcomers alike.  But each entry in this series has always come with one caveat—the need for patience.  Moving at a sometimes glacier-like pace, the game demands that the player enjoy tinkering with and staring at their colonies for long periods of time.  Thankfully the visuals, music, and streamlined gameplay all combine to make the waiting very pleasurable and more importantly, rewarding.

Gameplay and Interface

The Anno series is a pseudo-historical simulation of European colonization.  Each game consists of a map populated with a series of islands, meant to represent a mix of American, Asian, and African lands, complete with native civilizations.  Setting up an initial colony on one of these islands is only the first step, as the increasing demands of settlers cannot be met by staying idle.  Sure, every island can support fishing, gathering lumber, and hunting, but other crops and resources the player will eventually require can only be found by venturing out and finding other islands, which can specialize in up to three of these other resources.   By setting up a chain of supply across these islands, players can gather everything their population needs to upgrade their homes (which in turn require more luxuries), build fleets, armies, and of course, acquire more gold.  Various disasters such as meteors and plagues, as well as pirate fleets, add a touch of unpredictability.

There are three ways to play the game.  The player can set up a sandbox game, which generates a random world, play one of ten increasingly difficult scenarios from the original game, or play the Sunken Dragon campaign from the expansion.  The great thing about the new campaign is the story, which follows the exploits of the player’s persona helping to acquire the Eye of The Dragon, a mysterious lost treasure, before the evil Diego del Torro finds it first (dum dum DUM!).  While it is not a persistent campaign, with resources or units transferring from mission to mission, each mission takes the player further into the story.  One major complaint in the original game was the lack of such a campaign.  The ten scenarios were more akin to tutorials, with each one teaching new elements of the gameplay, with only the last one being a significant challenge and requiring the exploitation of all the game’s features.  For new players, these are a great way to learn the game, however, and each one does feature unique goals, from allying with Indian tribes to helping survivors of a shipwreck rebuild their colony.  They can also take anywhere from one to three hours, depending on how fast one plays, so there is a good chunk of gaming here.

Players that have already completed the original scenarios will find the campaign much more challenging.  I played it on the hardest difficulty and each mission took anywhere from an hour to over four or five hours to complete.  What I’ve found, however, is that unlike a lot of strategy games, it is not easy to lose a mission.  There are generally fail-safes that prevent a mission from ending if a player performs poorly.  For instance, if the player starts to run out of gold, he may get a loan, or if he is missing vital resources, a free trader will be able to sell more goods.  But, if the player does poorly or fall behind, it can take quite a bit of time to recoup and get his supply chain up and running again, so the challenge comes from enduring this and coming up with the best solution to get a colony back on track.

The original 1701 AD already had a great custom game mode, in which players could choose from a variety of opponents of varying difficulty, different victory conditions, and the size of randomly generated island chains.  The expansion adds some new opponents, as well as the ability to make your own missions with a detailed editor.  I’m always wary about playing up editors as an added value, as most people don’t end up using them to a great extent.  But, it’s there for those who want to utilize it and is reasonably intuitive.

Strategy games live and die by their interface, especially those in the city-building genre.  1701 AD sports one of the best.  Gamers familiar with the Impressions series will recognize the way the cities are constructed.  There are five levels that the population can reach—pioneers, settlers, citizens, merchants, and aristocrats.  Once enough residents upgrade to the next level, new building options open up in the way of the economy, military, and city beautification.  Simply clicking on the category of citizen brings up all of their building options.  Some structures, like houses and roads, can be placed anywhere on an island.  Others can only be placed in the vicinity of a marketplace or warehouse, or a related resource.  For instance, in order for a brewery to function, it must be placed within a certain distance from a hops farm.  Colored map overlays make placing buildings in their proper place a breeze, or warn the player when an island cannot support a particular resource.

Exploration is similarly easy.  A world map can be used to send ships out to explore and find new islands.  One only needs to discover a piece of the island for the whole thing to be revealed from the fog of war.  This makes exploration a much less tedious task, as there is no need to circle an island to reveal its entire coast.  Once an island is discovered, the player can click on it to see what special resources can be grown on it.

Combat is handled like any real-time strategy game, though at a much slower pace.  There are a few different ships that can be constructed.  Some can be used only for transport or trade, others for both cargo and fighting.  Ship combat is not detailed at all, with no attention paid to wind, ammunition types, facing etc.  Ships simply lob cannonballs back and forth until one or the other is sunk.  Land combat is similarly basic.  There are different types of soldiers and artillery.  But again, there is nothing akin to advanced tactics.  One simply throws overwhelming numbers at the enemy to defeat them.  Forts and cannon towers can be placed for extra defense.  Clearly, combat is not the focus of the game, and strategy gamers looking for a wargame with any level of detail are likely to be extremely disappointed.  Combat in 1701 AD is a supplement to the focus on building a colony and its economy, and when taken as such can be a fun diversion but it isn’t the focus of the game by any means.

Graphics and Audio

When 1701 AD first came out, the graphics were rather impressive for a strategy game.  The water quality alone was attention-grabbing, changing color from shimmering blues and greens around tropical islands to dark, choppy seas around stormy atolls.  The game is still a pleasure to look at, with all sorts of pleasant effects.  Rolling clouds drift overhead, seagulls circle around a colony’s shipyard, and dolphins follow in the wake of ships.  Looking at previews of the next installment, 1404 AD, shows us how far graphics have come since the initial release, but 1701 AD is still an attractive game.

The sound is equally pleasing.  Sound effects are pretty much standard as far as strategy games are concerned, but special attention must be paid to the voice acting, which is superb.  Different characters with various English and Spanish accents are played up and sound like they are out of a Zorro radio serial.  But, coupled with the colorful, larger than life graphics they fit perfectly.  The music is an assortment of orchestral scores that fit the mood of the game.  It also changes to fit the situation, so a peaceful tune to build by can change to a tense battle theme when entering combat.

Overall

The value of the gold edition of 1701 AD depends on whether a player has gotten their fill of the game yet or not.  Gamers that have yet to play it should not hesitate to pick it up, as they will be they treated to a fantastic game that has plenty of content and replayability.  The storyline is decent enough to hold attention and there’s enough content that this isn’t a weekend title, but rather a game that has legs to last as long as the player wants.  1701 AD is the best in the series and here’s hoping it only gets better from here on.

Special Mention: 1701 AD for Nintendo DS

For fans of the series looking to colonize on the go, the Nintendo DS version of 1701 AD is a great choice and has become one of my favorite strategy games on the system.  It is a much simpler version of the game.  Certain buildings and links in the supply chain are taken out but this makes it easier to play the game in the short bursts that usually define portable gaming.  The player can also save anywhere in the game, which furthers this.  The graphics and sound are also toned down, but are more than serviceable for a portable system.

Combat is simplified as well, but I actually prefer it over the PC version.  Instead of directly controlling troops, the player builds garrisons and transfers troops back and forth between them.  Anyone wishing to attack the player’s islands will have to overcome these defenses.  If the player wishes to take over an enemy island, first a beachhead must be secured, and troops transferred from a ship.  It is an elegant little system that fits the portable mentality.

The game comes with a campaign as well as the random map features of its PC counterpart.  I would recommend that fans of strategy games such as Advance Wars and Age of Empires for the DS add this to their collection.

System Requirements

Windows 2000 / XP

2.2 GHz Intel Pentium 4

512 MB RAM; 64 MB Graphic Card with 1.1 Pixel Shader

DirectX 9.0c compatible soundcard