Dawn of Discovery

by UBI Soft

Product Features

• Explore the beautifully detailed world and discover new places to create your civilization
• Set up trade posts in the spice mines of the Orient and explore new trade routes to keep your nation growing
• Learn from other nearby cultures to expand your horizons and master the challenges of establishing a society
• Seamless user interface delivers multiple game play modes and faster player rewards for both long or short play sessions
• Exclusive multiplayer modes across platforms

Product Details

• ASIN: B001VJBYZY
• Release Date: June 23, 2009
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,372 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Platform: PC | Edition: Standard

Dawn of Discovery PC

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

96 of 110 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Even Better Than AD 1701 (and as of patch 1.1, DRM free!), June 29, 2009

By 

M. Hamann (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Dawn of Discovery (DVD-ROM)

I bought this game because I really enjoyed AD 1701 (aka Anno 1701). Outside of North America, this game is known as AD 1404 or Anno 1404 which makes it obvious that it is another entry in that series. Coming from AD 1701, I was not disappointed at all. This review is more for people who enjoyed AD 1701 and want to know what's new. People who don't know the Anno series should know that it is a city builder/resource management game. You build cities--like in SimCity--but in a fictional/historical context. And you need to use mines, farms, and ships to create and move those resources.

The game mechanics are very similar to AD 1701. The artwork, music, and voice work is similar. Now for the differences--which, fortunately, are mostly improvements.

In this game, you get two sets of populations, the Orient and Occident, with different needs but with some resource needs going across the populations--e.g. the Orient needs wood and tools from the Occident and the Occident needs spice, indigo, and quartz from the Orient. The person you play is from the Occident--you can't choose to play as a Occidental player yourself. As you play, you need to gain prestige with the computer player from the Orient to unlock building types for your cities in the Orient.

The higher socio-economic classes now have their basic needs fulfilled by multiple items, so there is less rioting because you fail to meet a need for a single item. That makes the population more stable. I had a few riots, but they were short lived and not too damaging. There are also ascension rights that create fixed ratios of the socio-economic classes. This fixes the problem of AD 1701 where ended up with snobby aristocrats and nobody else to be snobby to. Beggars are also added. You need to build them a shelter and they make requests. You can also kick them out, but I haven't tried that--they apparently become aggressive.

You can set prices on items to buy and sell are your port, but I haven't really used that. It will probably more useful in the future if they add the multi-player option. Perhaps, this replaces the option in 1701 where if you need a resource you could request a direct shipment that was expensive but guaranteed.

There are a lot of resources to manage with a fair amount of overlapping inputs (e.g. charcoal is needed both to make salt and smelt iron). You set up the fields for farms for more layout options. When mines run out, you can pay to dig some more and get more resources from the mine. Some of the factories have water wheels and have to go on a river site.

The guild house and school/university research system is replaced by a new system. You can get access to special items to purchase from the computer players. These let you add features to warehouses to increase space, add carts, make islands more fertile, levy tariffs, speed up manufacturers, etc. Even better, you can add features to ships such as special crew members, better sails, better arms, diplomatic letters, even a powder keg for damaging fleets. You can also get these through questing.

You can make Occidental ships and Oriental ships to take advantage of the different ships types--they differ by speed, cargo capacity, armaments, and the number of extra sails/special crew/etc you can add.

There are monuments requiring large amounts of resources to try to build--like a big gothic cathedral. The harbor system is really nice and lets you make quays with repair cranes, piers, defense towers and store houses.

I haven't done any fighting except what there was in the campaign mode. But the fighting is done with encampments rather than by micromanaging individual troops. There are even trebuchets to try to knock down the buildable city walls with towers and gates. There is some sort of provisioning system as well, but I haven't used that, either.

What's missing? I play single player, but people who liked the multi-player aspect will miss that since there is no multi-player support. I wish there was an intermediate cloth stage between the hemp and clothing and that the cloth would be necessary for sails. There seems to be a missing Orient socio-economic class. There are only two right now (compared to four for the Occident). Silk is only used for carpets and not for clothing. I'd like to see more use of more of these resources. I want to make indigo dyed silk robes--gosh darnit! Hopefully future expansions will add some of this.

So, I am enjoying Dawn of Discovery. I think it's enjoyable for anyone who likes this type of economic simulation where the emphasis is more on building and less on fighting.

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best games I have played, October 26, 2009

By 

D. Snow (Las Vegas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Dawn of Discovery (DVD-ROM)

Before I begin, I would just like to say that the ridiculous DRM copy protection has been REMOVED with patch 1.1. Thats right, its gone!!! So I think that everyone that rated the game down should change their review or something, because now people are going to look at this game and see 2/5 stars and assume the game is horrible.

Anyway, I just discovered 1701 A.D. a few months ago, and after playing that and getting hooked on it, I discovered Anno 1404 (known as Dawn of Discovery in America), and it is AMAZING.

The graphics are top notch. Every little detail is shown...it is so relaxing to just watch the hustle and bustle of the city as the citizens go about their activities. But that doesn't mean this game isn't easy...in fact, it might just be one of the hardest games I've ever played. It requires actual resource management, trading strategy, combat, EVERYTHING. I love the depth. But it never feels overwhelming, thanks to an excellent control scheme.

Really, I don't think words can do this game justice, so I advocate that you download the demo for the game, mostly to see if you enjoy the game, but also to see if your computer can run it (it should be able to...I can run it on medium and my computer is average).

Please check this game out! I can guarantee that if you like Age of Empires or SimCity, you will LOVE this game. I can't stop playing!

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 3 install limit removed, January 4, 2010

By 

Lisa Mirante - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Dawn of Discovery (DVD-ROM)

This is a great game as far as gameplay goes. The graphics are great, the game itself is extremely complex and open ended. The main reason for the low review score is that there used to be a 3 install limit which has been removed. In fact, once I got the latest patch, I didn't even need to keep the DVD in the machine to play. I gave the overall rating only 4 stars because, while the game itself is incredible, official support in English is virtually non-existent. Without the help of user run forums, I'd have been lost.

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