Customer Reviews

1701 A.D.

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Having enjoyed the previous two games in the series, I was surprised and pleased to find a third just released. I immediately scooped it up. What a shame it hasn't been better promoted, at least in North America. Like the first two, it's another classic in the making.

The graphics are high quality and enchanting. A large brilliant color palette was used in everything from the buildings to the stunning landscaping.

There is a large variety of buildings available with some carry-over in style from the previous games. Meticulous detail has always been the hallmark of Sunflower games. They absolutely lived up to that here. Also there is much more emphasis on production than providing services. The amount of goods available for production or purchase is staggering.

The interface is relatively minimal and quite intuitive. I found the setting of trade routes easy to organize. There was some "green/red" confusion as to which goods were indicated as in demand or for sale, or to be loaded or unloaded. With some help on the forums that was clarified and the rest was fairly simple.

The construction menu was well-organized and easy to access. I would have liked to see road construction be a separate option. There was no undo button, although you could set the option for demolish to return the entire construction cost.

I found the Free Trader and his VERY lucrative assignments a bit unbalancing, but he would be very helpful in getting past the learning curve without having to restart your city or cheating. This option can be turned off or ignored later.

The research trees were quite comprehensive, with separate trees for the school and university. It was not always clear how to apply research benefits and upgrades to your mines or production facilities. Thankfully there was not too much micromanagement required as the game itself can move at quite a fast pace.

Combat can be largely avoided in the continous play mode, although not the scenarios. Although be prepared, there's nothing like coming home to riots because everyone ran out of booze. Or chocolates. But, if you want to build up huge fortifications and take everyone on, by all means. You have the option at the beginning to choose which opponents, if any, you will be sharing the map with. You may request a specific map, or let the game randomly generate.

There is a 40-page manual included in the box, as well as some very good in-game tutorials that will help you master the basics. This is a somewhat exacting economic simulation. While thoroughly enjoyable, it can get complicated quickly. Some experience with these types of games would be very helpful, but there is enough provided to get anyone started building their very own medieval empire. The core gameplay is solid with consistent logic applied throughout. With the mouth-watering graphics, attention to detail, and depth of the customizable gameplay this is a game you will want to play again and again.

This game (U.K. version) installed and ran (25+ hrs) on a midline gaming system, meeting system requirements, with no crashes to desktop, graphical errors or other technical difficulties noted.

I loved the previous incarnation of "Anno", called 1503 AD, The New World. I also loved Simcity 4. In my mind, these are both very similar games, especially when you play in continous mode. I found 1503 had a very steep learning curve (that is, it was hard to figure out how to avoid running out of funds). It was very...persnickety, I suppose. 1701 is much less so, and a lot more fun as a result. Just building roads correctly in 1503 was maddening! (That road is CLOSE to the farm, but it's not touching the right part of it---grrr.) None of that silliness here. And boy howdy is it GORGEOUS! I'm running it on a system that barely meets the minimum requirements, and it is smooth as silk, with the best 3D graphics I have yet seen in any PC game. I tried the demo of the much-anticipated Casesar IV, and found the interface very clunky; the graphics sub-par. Quite a disappointment, after waiting all these years. 1701 is the best "Anno" so far, by far. Try the demo, and see for yourself. This is the city builder you were looking for. Have a ball!

Without getting too long winded, let me say that this game is very well done and offers some truely addictive gameplay not often seen in most PC games. Anyone not familiar with the ANNO series should seriously consider this their first chance to experience one.

Presentation, execution, and style are through the roof on this game. It performs very well, even on low end machinery, and doesn't have any bugs to slow things down.

Overall, this is a must-have for City-Building or Sim fans, you can't go wrong with this title!

I haven't played the previous Anno series but this one is superb. The graphics and game play are awesome to experience. 1701 A. D. is fully 3D and fun to play as well as a real challenge. If you like 'city builder' type games this is the top of the line, IMHO, and all set in the year of 1701.
Object is to inhabit an island and start a civilization. Not all resources are available on this island, (food, cloth, wood, bricks, etc.), so you have to set up trade ships and trade with the other islands all while maintaining a budget. You may also find another island of your own and set up shop there for your own resources.
I highly recommended it and the price is well worth it.

1701 AD is the best and most addictive game I have played in years. The interface is beautifully done and entertaining while being intuitively easy to use. While there is some aspect or possibility of combat and defense, it is not strictly a part or requirement of the game. In fact, one of the challenges of this game is to build your influence without resorting to violence. Great fun for all ages.

Every little detail seems to have been thought through in this game. It starts with the perfectly designed eocnomic system and ends with the tender loving care given to the tiniest models and animations. Not to mention this has to be one of the most stable games to ever grace my high-end computer. People who will love this game:

- economic sim fans
- folks who enjoy interacting with a virtual world at a more leisurely pace
- owners of computers with high-end grpahic cards (the gfx are beautiful and you'll miss them without a good video card)

After about 25 hours of playing:

Bugs/Stability 10 (out of 10): This game has been perfectly stable for me. It has never crashed or slowed down or had any glitch of any kind. My computer barely meets the minimum requirements and my microprocessor is only an Athlon 3000, which is not quite the minimum requirement of Athlon 3200. It was very easy to install.

Challenge 8: I'm a very experienced gamer and this game has been quite difficult to master, though easy to learn, thanks, in part to a nice tutorial. I think it's too difficult to master (though easy to learn) for casual gamers.

Graphics 7: This game has beautiful graphics, even on my $800, 2 1/2 year old computer, when zoomed in, but I find myself zoomed out most of the time.

Gameplay 9: This game is simply fun to play and try to master. With each game, you learn and do a little better next game. I have never played a city-builder or economic game before (unless you count games like Civilization or Age of Empires for instance) and I've had so much fun so far, I plan to play more of them.

Replayability 8: This game is fun to play over as long as you can keep seeing improvements that you can make to your gameplay.

I have played the other games in the series and doubtlessly have to conclude that this is the worst part.

The graphics have received a major overhaul, yet what the developers must have missed is that graphics were not the main theme in Anno.

The gameplay has been, well, "updated", too.

For example, if you have a wealthy colony, you may have to helplessly watch rats start gnawing away on your supply of marble, iron, and perfume.
At least I believe this should be an optional "feature" in the hard gameplay, but this was one of the points of why I returned the game.

Second, even if you have a healthy economy with maximum viable taxation, there is little money left to wage war if the need arise, as you are struggling to barely make any profit. Call me lame, but I enjoyed 1503 so much because you could edit a text file of how much your inhabitants had to pay for certain goods. Not so in this new version. This was a feature I really enjoyed, as it allowed me to adjust the rate of taxation to my personal needs/skills, as I like to just build a nice colony without worrying too much about the balance sheet.

Colonial goods. This is the first part of the series where you cannot assume total autonomy as you cannot produce all required goods yourself in the Merchant and Aristocrat civilization levels. You need colonial goods. Yes, if you fraternize with a foreign culture you can get them cheaply - but not even nearly enough of them. The free trader is happy to help out for exorbitant sums of money, making having aristocrats almost impracticable. Even worse, if your Merchants or Aristocrats don't have enough tobacco, perfume, or chocolate, they start revolting and burn down your city, even if their other needs are 100% satisfied. This is true for the colonial goods also, and especially problemsome as you may not be able to supply enough of them at times because their production/delivery is outside your jurisdiction.

Islands. Not only are the islands much smaller than in 1503 (even in continuos mode with "large" enabled), but there is also no way to choose what island to settle on because the computer chooses the island for you. Yes, no more sailing to your preferred island, so you better pray you get settled on the right one. Very, very annoying.
Also, the "fog-of-war" mode as some others have complained about is also very annoying.

Overall, this is the worst of the series and extremely disappointing.
I cannot give the game more than one star due to the - in my opinion - serious shortcomings that have extinguished the fun that made playing the other two parts worthwile.
Personally I believe you are better off purchasing a copy of 1602 or 1503.

This is, by far, one the the best "city-building," manage an economy, games ever created. You'll find yourself constantly busy either exploring new islands in which to gain resources, or building the necessary resource-gathering,or production buildings necessary to upgrade one's housing (which leads to even more items you'll need to obtain in order to keep your population happy). Though the military aspect of the game may dissapoint some players, the game is really meant for those who enjoy building a healthy enough economy to sustain a large community, which, if you choose, will equipt you with the necessary resources to overtake and destroy your competition - the other AI computer players/opponents. The graphics on this latest edition are breath-taking, and the game runs smoothly without any problems. This installment, following 1602, and 1503 AD (a very underated game in itself) wasn't voted IGN's Economic Similation game of the Year 2006 for nothing. I highly recommend this game to anyone who enjoys the challenge of managing a growing economy, within a city-building style of game.

I was a big fan of 1602 A.D. and 1503 A.D. These games were more fun than 1701 A.D. Sure the graphics are much better and game play is improved but the joy of balancing the economy is almost gone. Most of the hard building is done for you. There is no campaign story line and the game seems too easy.

I hope that there is a release of an expansion that adds to this game but right now it's pretty boring after the first few plays.

This is a good game that could be great with a few improvements.