“So we begin with farmers, then the workers, and the whole labour movement.
“The game is structured in civilisation levels,” says Riegert. There’s a lot of stuff going on, and you can create a huge, persistent, expansive empire if you want to. When you arrive the continent is fighting for independence, and you can get involved in this via the diplomacy system. “New factions and characters are also introduced to the game.
Games like anno 1800 how to#
“You’ll have to learn how to import and export goods,” says Riegert. So the idea of South America is to throw a whole new set of challenges at them, taking them out of their comfort zone. When a player reaches this point, they’ll be more than familiar with how the game works. But we know that most players will want to make their mark on this new continent.” You don’t actually have to colonise it, however, and can simply import its unique goods and knowledge. “When you reach the mid-game, South America can be discovered and built on. This wild, untamed expanse of misty, atmospheric jungle is more difficult to get a foothold in, but brings with it new animals, minerals, luxury goods, and crops to harvest, including cocoa beans for producing chocolate.
When your civilisation reaches a certain level, you’ll be able to expand your territory to the so-called New World. In another example of real history informing the game’s systems, colonisation and trading with other nations is another important part of Anno 1800. But there’s no good or bad way to play the game and we will never judge the player’s morals.” You could prioritise efficient industry above all, and deal with anyone who opposes you. You can be a little bit of both, or you can go to the extremes of both scales. “But we don’t have a clear black and white system where you’re good or evil. “You can just say whatever, I don’t care about pollution and I’m going to build police stations everywhere to suppress the riots,” says Riegert. Of course, you can go the other way too, creating an industrial dystopia where the air is choked by the relentless black smog of industry, and a brutal, violent police force keeps protests and strikes in check. But the cool thing about Anno is that you can apply modern standards to this time period and try to do things better, for example keeping your industry on another island, away from the places where people live, to reduce pollution.” “Today we know that polluting the planet is bad and we have labour rights and so on, so the industrialists and robber barons of the 1800s are the villains. “When we play historical games and look back in time, it’s through a modern lens,” says Riegert. “And in the later stages of the game, the technology even goes as far as the early 1900s.”īut, this being a sandbox game set in a semi-fictional world, you don’t have to follow the path of history that closely. “Even though the game is named Anno 1800, we’re more in the middle of that time period, around 1850,” says Riegert. More than we could ever fit into one game, actually!” Anno 1800, he says, is based mainly on the Second Industrial Revolution, which counted railroads and electricity among its world-changing technological advancements. “When we really got into the research, we realised there was so much cool stuff we could do from a design perspective. “It’s a good fit for a strategy game in general” he explains. I ask Riegert why Blue Byte felt the Industrial Revolution was a good fit for Anno. Taking beer will aid diplomacy hiring a reliable, trusted captain will raise morale. Before the ship departs I select supplies and crew, some of which have buffs that’ll help me on my mission. “Exploration and adventure are very strong themes in the series, which are normally not part of a classic building game.” I get a taste of this when, during a three-hour hands-on demo of the game, I find myself sending a ship on an expedition to a faraway land. “Also, there’s always a ship on the cover art of an Anno game,” he adds. But in our games those features are deeply connected to the building side of things. It has elements usually found in turn-based strategy games. “But the difference is, while those games often focus mainly on the building aspect, Anno is also a deep, multifaceted simulation. “In some respects Anno is like other city builders,” he says.
Games like anno 1800 series#
Anno has a dedicated, passionate fanbase, but what if you’ve never played one of these games before? I ask Dirk Riegert, creative director, what he thinks sets the series apart from other city-building strategy games.