It’s been a long time since I played an Anno game. The last one was Anno 2205 which was released back in 2015. Fast forward to the present day and I get to dive back into the city simulation experience with Anno 1800 Console Edition. Anno 1800 is the first game in the main series to be released on consoles which is pretty huge. Normally when playing these types of games I prefer playing them on PC as they are easier and the UI tends to favour the mouse and keyboard but that wasn’t going to stop me from picking it up on the PlayStation 5 and diving into the Industrial Age.
Welcome to the dawn of the Industrial Age in this city-building real-time strategy game. You’ll get to experience the fastest-changing period of all time and discover new regions, technologies, and challenges as you put your spin on building the new world. Taking place during the 19th century, you get to build and manage your cities as you build an empire that thrives and adapts.
In Anno 1800 you must harvest raw materials and manufacture goods to ensure that your people have everything they need to live a happy life. It’s down to you to build the relevant building, structures, and pathways to make this happen.
There are multiple social classes in Anno and you are only able to advance a social class when the needs of the people are met. They will start as townsfolk and will eventually work their way up to the middle class and then Aristocratic to name a few. This comes with benefits and negatives, the benefits come in the form of new buildings, that allow you to expand your empire to newer shores but the demands of the people are increased and harder to manage.
As you expand you will encounter new islands that you can settle upon as well as AI characters or real players, depending on which mode you are playing. The AI characters come with different personalities, and every decision you make could affect the way they interact with you. If you can build a good enough repour, you can set up trade routes and ally with them where as if you get in their bad books, it could lead to all-out war.
To get a better understanding on how the game works, I recommend the single-player campaign. This helps explain how to play the game and gives you a better understanding before you dive into Sandbox or Multiplayer. Even though this isn’t classed as a tutorial it’s the closes thing you will be given, and not going to lie it still took me a while to get my head around some of the mechanics in the game. It is complex and at first, I felt way out of my comfort zone but after a few hours of gaming, I was able to pull it back and get a hold of things.
Managing one settle was easy, it’s when the world opens up to you that it becomes a whole different ball game. You’ll get new islands with new resources, trade routes, and more people to interact with. It blew me away seeing the level of detail Anno 1800 goes into to make it a truly enjoyable experience when you start exploring the mid to late-game elements. The more you unlock the hard it gets but at the same time the more rewarding it becomes.
The heart of the game is keeping your people happy, if their happy then everything runs smoothly. You earn money, can buy new things and advance your classes. However, if your people get angry and don’t enjoy their living conditions, they will drop their work tools and riot. This is a huge problem as all work stops and chaos ensues. I found that making small advancements was the best way for me to stay on top of everyone’s needs rather than building without taking into consideration the consequences.
Anno 1800 falls down to optimising the layout of your settlements as well as looking after your colony. When you unlock boats, you can expand and get resources from other islands as well as trading with neighboring players. There wasn’t a time in this game when I didn’t feel busy or that nothing was happening. It was hands-on all the time, which I enjoyed.
New to the PlayStation version was the revamped control scheme. This was done brilliantly and felt accessible for controller players. Normally with these sorts of games on the PlayStation, they don’t port well as the UI is designed for Keyboard and Mouse but with Anno 1800 console edition it made the effort and made it so that you could enjoy the game to the fullest using the controller.
Graphically, Anno 1800 is gorgeous and runs smoothly on the PlayStation 5 other than the odd frame drop during crowded areas. I love that the game has voice acting in it as it helps when you are busy managing elements of your cities, it doesn’t require you to stop and read huge pages of text. Though, it is a bit awkward when the voice doesn’t line up with the lips sync of the portrait speaking. Audio is incredible as it captures the hustle and bustle of the city, and the crashing of the waves in the ocean, and each character has their own personality. Anno 1800 does a fantastic job at being visually pleasing as well as being well-rounded when it comes to storytelling in the campaign and the unlimited potential in the sandbox mode.
There is a lot of replay value in Anno 1800, with the campaign, DLC, Sandbox, and multiplayer there are hours of gameplay on offer. The thing I love most about Anoo 1800 is that each playthrough will be different, they might have similarities but ultimately, they won’t be the same. This allows the player to come across new scenarios and encounters which keeps the game feeling fresh. When you throw multiplayer into the mix, it makes things more challenging and competitive.
Conclusion
Anno 1800 is a fantastic simulation strategy game with the selling point being the city-building element. For an asking price of £34.99, you can’t go wrong. I can’t help at times feeling incredibly overwhelmed when I have multiple settlements that I have to manage and try to meet the demands of the residents. It can be a proper puzzle sometimes on how to do this but once you achieve it there is a huge feeling of accomplishment. Simulation games are designed to teach us about real-world jobs, processes, and the dynamics of life and I believe that Anno 1800 Console Edition does this right. I can spend hours engrossed in it and getting lost in its beauty, for those reasons I’m giving it a well-deserved 9 out of 10.
Choose your format here https://www.ubisoft.com/en-us/game/anno/1800/console-edition
Enjoy the review? want to read more of our reviews? then click right here to be whisked away to the realm of our opinions.
You must be logged in to post a comment.