Anno 1503 A.D.

Although I have a huge soft spot for the precursor in Anno series, I have to admit, that ANNO 1503 A.D. is ... just much, much better. It's practically Anno 1602, but very carefully polished and with so many small but really nice improvements over its predecessor (I personally liked most the possibility of closing all the city gates with one touch). ANNO 1503 A.D. looks better, is functioning smoother, offers much more to build ... and to destroy. And the veterans of Anno 1602 will notice, already in the second scenario of the campaign, that the game turns out to be a much greater challenge than before. Especially war can be now fairly hard. OK, maybe not Omaha beach, but certainly not a Sunday stroll with weapons. In addition to the campaign, gradually adding new features and increasing the level of difficulty, ANNO 1503 offers some free play scenarios and a PLENTY of missions, in which is something for everyone. In my modest opinion, ANNO 1503 A.D. is the best game in the Anno's historic setting trio (1602, 1503 and 1701). And at the end, like in the case of the predecessor, I humbly beg You : please please play GERMAN version, cause its soundtrack and messages for the player are so climatic, unique and ... funny, especially if you are not German native speaker :) !

Anno 1503 is no doubt, a very nice game, using the classic isometric style gameplay. Anno 1503 is wonderful music, a very large map and island, and a lot of depth and thought. However, there lays on problem for me. The difficulty level is far by the most difficult I've played from 1701, 1404, and 2070. I actually originated from 2070, where I just loved the production chain/ resource management the Anno series is just great at delivering. I then moved on to Anno 1404, AKA in North America, Dawn of Discovery. I absolutely feel in love with it, nothing beats a game in the renaissance setting. I then worked my way down to Anno 1701, where I just loved the colonial setting resembling my beloved first game that brought me to PC gaming, Empire: Total War. To be honest, Anno 1701 is quite unique in the way some of the resources work, as some of it is actually finite, and the area of effect/influence/radius plays a big role when creating your production chains. Then I finally came upon Anno 1503. Anno 1503 is a love and hate relationship with me. It feels so different from the other games, as the authenticity of it can be felt. If you're like me, you will find it very difficult adjust to the way everything works. Unlike previous games, the menu is very organized, but complex at the same time. If you are not familiar with the series, just browsing through that bad boy could be daunting. But the most obvious sign shown in Anno 1503, is it's very steep difficulty. The islands are big in some scenarios, and if you place your first warehouse in the wrong spot, you will likely struggle for the first two hours. Heck, your whole scenario or campaign could be doomed. It's a great game, don't get me wrong, you're still managing resources and such, but the combat is another issue. It's really like an RTS, I mean you have to build every unit, one by one. The equipment for each of those soldiers isn't cheap. I'm about at word count so, tl;dr -- it's a great game, but it's hard.

Maybe one of the best early Annos for complexity. Now, after the disappointment of 2205 (shallowest and prettiest of them all), Anno 1800 is almost at release but the old Age of Sail Annos seem entirely within their natural habitat, as it were. Hemp, fish and leather feels more 'right' than futuristic gubbins and space elevators. One downside: the prospector has a voice actor -and the mix is well off; he shouts in your ear like you're profoundly deaf at each and every click upon him and his mule. "HOW MAY WEEEE BE OF SERVICE?" "YES MY KING!" (read as if 72 point font) at 590 decibels does not a great sound experience make. Eh?/5 stars

Anno 1503 is not a bad game, not at all. It is just not as good as the one that came before it (1602) and not nearly as good as the one that came after (1701), at least in my opinion. Compared to Anno 1602, it has more of everything - more climates (five instead of two), larger islands, more buildings, more goods, more ships and military units, and so on. However, that doesn't mean it is necessarily better - just more complicated in many ways. For example, to construct ships you do not only need wood and cloth, but also ropes, which require a completely new production chain, and they are only needed for a few other things. Also, most of the military units are not very useful as in there are not that many differences between them and instead of one type of goods for weapons you now have six different types of weapons, plus armor. There is a lot of micromanagement involved and if you are into that kind of thing this might just be the right thing for you, but I think the more focused Anno 1602 and the streamlined Anno 1701 are the better games. This is also the only one of the three games where money is not earned through taxes but from selling the goods directly to the citizens, and where aristocrats do no evolve from merchants, but require their own houses to be built, and they have their own, unique demands which are actually somewhat easier to satisfy than those of the merchants. As I wrote in my Anno 1602 review, if you have never played an Anno game, I recommend playing Anno 1701 first. If you like micromanagement and complexity, this might be a good choice to play after that (but probably Anno 1404 would be better, which I haven't played, yet). The 2D graphics are even more detailed and colorful than those of the first game, and the greater diversity in the islands is a definitive plus. The music, while not as great as in the other two games, is still very good and fits the mood perfectly. See my reviews for Anno 1602 and Anno 1701 for more about these games!