I almost fell asleep playing the demo version of Anno 2070, the city building oriented futuristic strategy game from developers Related Designs and Blue Byte and publisher Ubisoft.
This is not really a critique of what the game has to offer but an evaluation of the general pace of the experience, at least as it was delivered in the PC based demo I got to play through.
The Anno series was a sort of sequel to the Settlers concept, meaning that the focus is on creating a functional city, with workers, resources and manufacturers working together smoothly in order to create buildings, generate trade and keep rival factions at bay.
Anno 2070 takes this concept and moves it to the near future, where melting ice caps mean that most of the world is underwater and islands are all that humanity has to explore any more.
The missions in the demo are clearly designed to introduce players to the core concepts used and make a good job of that but they lack any real challenge and can create the feeling that Anno 2070 will never see anything like real conflict introduced.
On the plus side the graphics are pretty impressive, especially on a good gaming computer, with all the buildings beautifully animated and a clear interface that makes it easy to see what a settlement needs and how the resource chains link up one to another.
Another nice touch in Anno 2070 is what happens when you use the scroll to get close to the actual settlement you are creating, with citizens (who are sadly unclickable) saying phrases like “This place is so happening!”.
The Anno series has found an audience among gamers who still think fondly of something like Sim City and I might give the full game a try, making sure that there's activity and light around my playing PC to keep the sleep temptation away.
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