You can't really go wrong with any Anno game, but this is maybe the best one to start with. I love action. I like my games with a lot of blowing sh*t up and killing dudes. My favorite genres are first-person-shooters (because there's a lot of killing dudes), stealth games (because there is a lot of killing dudes sneakily and silently) and realtime-strategy games (because you build huge bases and armies to blow sh*t up and kill dudes). If there was one genre that I thought I couldn't like even if my life depended on it, it was the economic city-building simulation genre, the genre that is well known for one particular franchise: ANNO. I was unable to comprehend how buildung houses and streets for dozens of hours without any real purpose could be remotely fun. Until I tried it myself. When I started with Anno 1602 a couple of years ago, the first few hours where rough, because it is indeed somewhat tricky to see through all the rather complex building- and economic mechanics (especially in Anno 1503, which does things wildly different than all other classic Anno games in that regard). But once I got the hang of it, it turned out to be addictive. Since then I sunk literally hundreds of hours into Anno 1602, Anno 1503, Anno 1701 and lately Anno 1404. Anno 1404's core gameplay isn't different from the preceeding Anno games at all: You just build the necessary infrastructure, carefully balance out your taxes, ressources and production of goods, establish political and trading relationships with other players and very rarely carry out land- or sea battles, all with the sole purpose of developing a handful of small huts, farms and pigsties into a sprawling glorious metropolis. What's so particularly good about Anno 1404 is how polished and well-developed everything is. Even though the older Anno games are perfectly playable and great fun still today (yes, even Anno 1602), Anno 1404 is the one that comes very close to being just perfect. Everything is significantly more beginner-friendly, from the controls and functions all down to the combat system (which they never got right in the previous games even though it is clearly not the focus in Anno). Of all the Anno games I've played so far, this is the one that is the most comfortable to play and therefore especially recommendable for Anno beginners who want to get into the series. On top, just like the previous Anno games before it, Anno 1404 has a well-designed and entertaining singleplayer campaign that acts as a sort of 20 hours long tutorial and prepares you for the more challenging scenarios or the endless game, where you can just build your city as big as the map allows it, with no specific goals. Anno in general lets you play it like you want to. If you are looking for a slightly more stressful and challenging experience, there are the scenarios and the three different difficulty settings of the campaign. Or you can just lay back in the endless game and build your city completely at your own pace, without any pressure or aggressive competitors, but with basically limitless ressources. It's a near perfect and very rewarding game to just completely loose yourself in for a few hours. I could play the game for a thousand years more and still wouldn't find a single tiny thing here to complain about. No matter which Anno game you play first, everyone of them will seem overly complex and simply overwhelming and very hard to get into at the start and Anno 1404 is no exception, but once everything clicks and you finally understand how easy in principle it all is, Anno will literally glue you to your screen. Even if you are more like me (blow sh*t up, kill dudes), I highly recommend trying any of the Anno games (at least from the ones I've played so far). Chances are you'll be surprised how addicting, fun, relaxing, rewarding and well-made a game with barely any sh*t to blow up and dudes to kill can be. _________________________________________________________________________________ ANNO 1404 (History Edition including the "Venice"-AddOn) Release: Q2 2009 Genre: Simulation ( ) 0/8 Simply one of the worst games ever made. Don't waste any money on this. ( ) 1/8 Bad. Seriously flawed with barely any redeeming qualities. Worth a couple of Cents at best, if at all. ( ) 2/8 Sub-par. Only for hardcore-fans of respective genre / series. Don't pay more than 5 bucks. ( ) 3/8 Meh-diocre. It‘s okay. Don't pay more than 10 bucks. ( ) 4/8 Decent, but not for everybody. Don't pay more than 15 bucks. ( ) 5/8 Good game, Must-play for genre- / series-fans. Worth 20 to 25 bucks max, if you are not a fan. ( ) 6/8 Great game, universal recommendation. 30 bucks would be a steal for this. (X) 7/8 Outstanding game, a milestone of it‘s respective genre. Definitely worth its full prize. ( ) 8/8 Simply one of the best games ever made. Get this, the prize doesn't matter.
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