Staff – February 11, 2019 at 5:36 AM
Anno, a series of RTS city management games developed by Ubisoft Blue Byte, comes back from the future with Anno 1800. This installment of the long-running series is set during the Industrial Revolution, making it the first entry since 2009’s Anno 1404 to be set in the past.
The historical theme is everywhere in the game, as the player manages pollution from industrial facilities, prepares harbors and ships for exploration and naval combat, and quells worker riots. The result is a finely tuned strategy game that has multiple metrics of success, from keeping your workers happy to grooming your city for potential tourists.
Ubisoft Blue Byte was excited to bring the series to the 19th century, as they found it a useful transitional period between two formative technological eras. “It is the perfect fit as it forms a symbiosis of the Middle Ages and modernity,” the developers said. “Players start at the end of Medieval times, but then discover new technologies, such as steam machines and electricity. So it gave us the possibility to combine both Medieval and modern technologies.” In addition, daring explorers can also play a scenario that guides them through discovering the “New World,” a strikingly beautiful location that is inspired by South America.
True to its historical setting, the worker is at the center of Anno 1800. They drive the production pipelines of your city, and keeping them happy should be one of your top priorities. “It’s also possible to make your inhabitants work harder, but this could lead to strikes if you don’t find ways to keep them happy,” Ubisoft Blue Byte explained.
Just as in previous Annos, you upgrade your workers by upgrading their homes. You start out with farmers’ residencies, which can then be upgraded to workers’ residencies, and then artisans’ residencies, etc., with a total of five possible levels of residencies throughout the game.
But the system works a little differently in Anno 1800. Farmers, for example, are needed to operate sawmills and sheep farms, but once they’ve been upgraded to workers, they can no longer work at those facilities, and are instead employed at steel mills or clay refineries. You’ll have to keep up every level of residency in a city to ensure that all of your resources are being produced.
Another new mechanic in Anno 1800 is the “attractiveness” meter. Your city’s attractiveness is determined by things like “vulgarity” (the amount of “ugly” industrial buildings in a city) and “culture” (the presence of things like zoos or museums). The more attractive a city is, the more tourists will visit, boosting the local economy.
Designing the city of your dreams is a little easier with the thoughtful new “blueprint” feature. It allows you to insert placeholders for buildings in the form of silhouetted “blueprints.” This also works if you don’t quite have enough resources to build something but want to queue it for future construction. Once you have the resources, you can simply click on the blueprint to construct it.
This is such an intuitive and handy device that it’s a wonder more strategy games don’t have a similar feature. For seasoned Anno players, it makes planning for later-game scenarios much less of a pain.
Ubisoft Blue Byte has a thoughtful tip for any hardcore Anno fans out there: “If you are interested in Anno games, we would like to welcome you to join the Anno Union at www.anno-union.com. This is our community platform where we work hand-in-hand with the fans.”
Anno Union members can have a significant impact on the development of the game. In fact, one of the islands featured in the game was designed by one of Anno Union’s members. So if you want to learn more about the game or even have a say in its future content updates, join the Anno Union.
Anno 1800 will be released on PC on April 16, 2019.
Also, be sure to check out our exclusive Anno 1800 Wallpapers available for download.
