Anno Online is Ubisoft Blue Byte’s next addition to the timelessly popular Anno series, and in an attempt to introduce the classic city-builder to a wider audience, it’s been made free to play – oh, and you can play it in your browser.
That’s right, Anno Online is a full-fledged entry to the series but it’s completely contained within a browser – so you can play it anywhere from your high-spec gaming PC to your Macbook. To a regular consumer of titles like this, that might not seem too impressive, but rest assured – this definitely is. Once the sheer size of the game begins to peak over the horizon and the compelling city-building starts to get its hooks into you, you’ll see what I mean. It’s developed on Flash rather than Unity for mainstream accessibility but it’s got plenty of power behind it.
Getting hands-on with the title quickly revealed the vast scope of Blue Byte’s ambitions. Starting with a fresh game from scratch, it took a good twenty minutes to have the basics of the game introduced, and even then we’d barely scratched the surface of what Anno Online had to offer. All of the mechanics are introduced as you play rather than in giant chunks of information to scroll through at once – easily one of the smoothest introduction to a game of this genre you’ll ever play. Building markets and farms to sustain your settlements, watching more and more settlers flock to your slowly expanding town as resources swell and technology advances is inexplicably rewarding.
“Free To Play” is something of a loaded term in the industry, with many titles relying on a pay-to-win mechanic that can often set players apart simply by the amount in their wallet (or more appropriately, the amount they’re willing to spend on the game). With that in mind, it’s certainly good to see Ubisoft approach the development of this brave new market with everyone in mind. The option is there to buy the secondary currency to advance your settlement faster but by no means is it necessary – if you want progress but you don’t want to sink weeks into the game, you have the option. For those players who are content to take the game at it’s normal pace, you’ve got quite the road ahead of you, from what we saw, there are hundreds of options for city building and countless numbers of upgrades. No two settlements are going to be alike and there isn’t one set path to success – it’s up to you.
A little later in our demo time slot we got to load a much further advanced account, which roughly reflected four months of player progress. The leap is incredible, as demands for resources demand you settle new islands and establish trade routes between them it becomes a whole new game. It was the very definition of being thrown in at the deep end, but bear in mind, this would have been the results of four months of playing – you’re going to know what you’re doing by that point. Even if you don’t want to dedicate that much time to one game, you’re not putting anything down for it, and that’s what’s going to pull so many people to Anno. You might start out thinking “I’ll just clock an hour or so a day” you’re going to find yourself playing for much, much longer.
Only a few words about the multiplayer were spoken but no-one’s going to be in a position where a paying player can steamroller over their precious city and lose hours of progress. There will be player interaction, but no-one’s going to be able to rob you of your precious progress (or spent money) while you’re not playing like many other F2P titles. The team behind it have a strong background with this kind of title and they know how quickly people shut off when they lose hours of work.
Free to play and browser gamers are used to getting toned down, freemium titles that they can’t make much progress in unless they’ve got cash to spare on virtual currency, but Anno Online is the first in a trio of Blue Byte games to remedy that. This is a full-on Anno game accessible by those who just want to play and those who can pay, and the core experience will remain the same regardless. So far, so good – and the game has potentially endless scope for new content with no real endgame as such. Of course, with months of content for purist players, that time’s not going to appear any time soon. A very promising look at the future of free to play, and perhaps the gaming industry itself – city sim fans, get ready for your next favourite game, and rejoice – you’re not going to have to pay a penny for it.
Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
You must be logged in to post a comment.