Dawn of discovery: Venice: Review

Venetian boats slowly swim through the channels of luxurious island cities. Hondoliers entertain the nobles with singing, thick merchants consider profit from the next sale of shirts to eastern partners, and the poor pray to let them go into the city. Yes, we return to the amazing Anno 1404 again. And all this splendor is our.

But as if not! It was only worth starting to enjoy the beauty of Venice, watching the gondolas and luxurious ladies, as a computer mentor immediately showed us our place. You, they say, slave, and look at all these locks, channels and fountains with your eyes, and touch the raw earth with your dirty hands on which you will grow apples for nobles and other lords, wheat and hemp.

When we thought that we had to do in the addition, we imagined that we would need to deal with the needs of large beautiful cities. Build locks, decorate the settlement with fountains and there is grapes, following a luxurious taffet. But the developers did not even suspect that we drove such stupidity into our heads. And the prefix “Venice” in the name means that we can do all the black work so that this beautiful city could exist.

Yes, we again play the role of the head of a small settlement, which grows a variety of crops, extracts metal and stone, sews shirts and knit ropes, sows wheat and turns it into bread. Everything is as before. Almost unchanged.

How is the addition to the original differ?

Then what is innovation? A reasonable question. In fact “Venice” – The addition is not quite ordinary. We already know very well, What The developers usually stick in DLC: several new missions, a couple of buildings and one of some resource, if this joy comes out for the strategy. So Anno got a similar addon. Only he is a little crazy. And instead of three or four new levels there are fifteen.

True, there is no campaign. You can just play one script after another. And all missions are connected only by heroes and a place of action. Everything happens in Venice or near it.

From fundamentally new, which really somehow influenced the gameplay, only two “chips” appeared. First – now you can hire spies that are fading on the enemy land. Second – there was more space for political actions. Everything else is more like patches. They screamed a little, corrected this, improved the work of the next ..

So they remain in the end from the really interesting – only scripts. And therefore the main question is – are they worth it to buy an addition exclusively for them? Now we will try to answer it, but at the same time we will tell you how to play Anno 1404 in general and what is special about it.

What are you, Anno 1404?

The first mission-we get to the island, and some bored https://cocoacasino.uk/ lord, who shows with all his appearance that asking us for help, he does a favor to us, reports that he has not loved one master for a long time and wants his settlement to fall into decay. But he himself will not go into this business, everyone should do.

And now we are throwing us on an island where several houses, market square, church and several hemp fields are already standing. And before arranging dirty tricks, you must first establish production, lay trade routes, increase the level of welfare of citizens.

In short, an addition, like the original, is a classic economic strategy. We have several types of goods that are either necessary to saturate the inhabitants of the settlement (and different castes consume their products – ordinary settlers will agree to eat fish, and patricians want fresh hot bread), or to build new buildings. A special feature Anno The fact that the player and NPC are managed exclusively by the islands and far from every “land” there are all the necessary resources. Therefore, you have to either master new territories, or engage in trade.

Complex-money relations here are not developed as well as in Port Royale, for example, but still they have a rather important role. For if the city is large, and the taxes are small, then you can only make money by selling surpluses. Plus noble citizens adore all sorts of overseas goodies. And if you do not have your own island in the south, then you want not to, but you will have to buy them from your neighbors.

But still trade is not the most important. The first violin here is played by establishing production and improving the settlement. It is necessary to execute the vagaries of residents who, satisfied and joyful, receive higher social statuses and this reveal us new buildings. We have to obey the gentlemen who want us to produce exactly what they need. And sometimes you need to fight. But rarely and little by little.

If you are not familiar with the series Anno, then, maybe it will be easier for you to understand what it is if you imagine Tropico, but without politics and with a bunch of competitors in neighboring islands. Or Caesar, where we need to fight a little less.

And the addition perfectly continues the path of the original. True, making a slope not in a free game, but in interesting scenarios.

Fifteen stories, fifteen events

And by the way, the plots of missions are very funny. But most importantly – in almost every script its gameplay. We don’t have to do only and the topic from time to time.

For example, our benefactor is going to arrange a secret meeting with his allies. But not in his palaces, he is waiting for guests, but wants to bring them to our island. Only the trouble, our settlement is not a comfortable town where it is nice to walk along the streets and talk about important matters, but some huge factory mixed with giant plantations. And therefore, we are modestly informed us: “And you, dear, have half an hour to put it all in order and do it cleanly, and it’s nice for the eye. Can you do it – the conversation will be completely different … ”And the list of tasks: build a city wall, make a luxurious gate, build statues.

So you have to quickly increase the production of stone, frantically look for the necessary goods on neighboring islands, selling useless cords and bread that have already become useless. The needs of their own citizens will have to forget ..

Just three minutes before the end of the deadline, we finally put the last statue, lay the carpet and breathing we woven behind the gentlemen of the nobles. And then our benefactor stops again and says, they say, we will stay here for now, and after half an hour we’ll go further, so get ready. And now we need to erect a magnificent church, put fountains everywhere, decorate the whole city. And for this one stone is not enough.

And by the end of the mission, when we are already exhausted, we will fall down, our “collective farm” will turn into a gorod city. And I recall industrialization, five years in four years … Literally in two hours we completely changed our settlement. In other tasks, even a tiny redirect production is spent a lot of time and effort. But there is no choice, the deadlines are settled, and we work at some crazy pace.

After such a hurry I want something else. We were not enough for the city and therefore there is no more desire to build our “little Venice”. And the developers do not force, they tell us another story. They say that one bard lives nearby and loves women like no other. Ready to crawl in their legs and sing them with serenades with the appearance of the moon and until sunrise. But one young lady is not like this behavior – and she promised to kill him. Save the poor man, please.

And now we are already playing the role of a benefactor and we can absolutely vilifying the beauty of our city. Let the poor walk there, let the inhabitants lay drunk at the tavern. The main thing for us is to build a fleet, collect the army and explain the capricious girl how bad it is to offend romantics. After all, they have such innocent hearts.

And we will not just bother on our own. The bard will constantly cry in our armor and tell how difficult it lives in the world without love. At the same time, sometimes the girl will appear on the screen with threats and warnings. Plus additional heroes will surely ask us for help. It turns out very curious.

And there are a lot of such completely motley missions in addition. Moreover, some are created specifically to test the new policy system. So, immediately in the first missions we have to arrange arson, hire a dancer who distracts merchants in the competitor market, and call a fake prophet. You can even arrange a revolution – and then the enemy will lose power.

So I want to go through all fifteen tasks. Let the first are simple, but they remind us of the mechanics of the game. Then it will be more difficult. And not every assignment can be fulfilled immediately. Some will have to sit over some evening ..

In general, the addition turned out to be a little strange (too little new, only mission), but still very interesting. It allows us to play Anno 1404 again after a long break. Many of us have already forgotten, as there and what. And there is an opportunity to remember, try new tactics, get acquainted with different heroes and again plunge into this funny world, where the most important thing is to observe. After all, sometimes it’s interesting not so much to build and trade, but to watch how the townspeople go from the church to the tavern, how the lumberjack fills the ax on their shoulder and goes to “hunt” to the next Christmas tree, how the haze rises above the forge, how apple gardens bloom. So far there is no other strategy that would fascinate simply by the life of artificial men. So we have no choice.

Pros: solid missions that combine a fascinating gameplay and an interesting plot;A little redesigned balance.
Cons: too few innovations;The presence of an original game is required.