Anno 1404

Anno 1404 Dawn of Discovery
Developer(s)	Related Designs Blue Byte Software
Publisher(s)	Ubisoft
Composer(s)	David Christiansen (Dynamedion)
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Genre(s)	City-building, Economic simulation, Real-time strategy
Mode(s)	Single-player, Multi-player, Co-op

Anno 1404, known as Dawn of Discovery in North America, is a city-building game and economic simulation game, with real-time strategy elements. It was developed by Related Designs, produced by Blue Byte, and is published by Ubisoft. Anno 1404 is the sequel to Anno 1701 and will be followed by the upcoming Anno 2070.

An expansion, titled Anno 1404: Venice, which adds multi-player and other features, was released on February 26, 2010.

Gameplay

As with other Anno games, the player, at the will of their unnamed country of origin, creates and manages their fief aside AI players. The player must colonize islands, plan settlements, set up factories and farms to meet their citizens needs, enter diplomatic relationships with AI players, and engage in naval and ground combat with others.

Trade is an essential element of forward progress. Occidental populations can not grow past a certain level of success without Spice, and later Quartz, that can only be generated in Oriental lands. Although populations generate taxable income, it is difficult to generate enough gold to make meaningful capital investments without extensive trading. This is simplified by an automatic trading process that allows an island to make resources available to visiting merchant ships.

As the player progresses through the game, they gain access to naval vessels and troops which allow them to invade and ultimately to defeat other players. Anno 1404 features an updated interface, bigger islands and worlds to explore, a sandbox mode and other features new to the Anno series.

Campaign plot

Anno 1404 partly takes place in the Orient.

The campaign begins when the player is sent to administer a fief granted to him by the Emperor, in the Occident. The Emperor is unwell and Lord Richard Northburgh, cousin and treasurer of the Emperor, is building a magnificent Cathedral to pray for the Emperor's health. Meanwhile, Cardinal Lucius is making preparations for a Crusade against the 'infidel' people of the Orient, aided by Guy Forcas. In the first few chapters of the campaign, the player learns the basics of gameplay and the economy by assisting Northburgh and Forcas with supply and construction tasks, as well as meeting some of the other main characters.

As the Crusader ships leave the harbor, Northburgh begins to uncover clues to a mysterious crime. He and the player move closer to the Orient, and befriend the Grand Vizier of the Sultan, al Zahir, who helps the player to defeat a band of Corsairs and break up a child trafficking scheme. The plot thickens as further clues reveal that a main character is implicated in a sinister conspiracy to overthrow the Emperor himself. Because he comes too close the truth, lord Northburgh is captured and the player is left on his own to unravel the mystery. Over the next several chapters, the player must win over new allies, convince the leaders of the Crusade that they are being manipulated for false pretenses, and survive dire circumstances in order to defeat the villains and restore the Emperor.

The campaign serves as a tutorial, is divided into eight chapters and can be played on three different difficulties: easy, medium and hard.

Some of the characters encountered in the campaign can be selected as computer opponents in a continuous game, in which both lord Northburgh and al Zahir are neutral powers/trade partners.

Features in 1404

1404 has some new features that distinguish it from its three predecessors (1503 AD, 1602 AD and 1701). These features include:

Occident and Orient

As was the case in Anno 1701, the game world is divided into the occidental (western) and the oriental (eastern) zones. These zones and their inhabitants are inspired by a northwestern European style for the occident and an Arabian style for the orient, although not necessarily historically accurate in both their visuals and the attitudes of the characters. A major difference between previous entries in the series and Anno 1404 is that players are required to build settlements of both western and eastern origins. In order to produce particular goods (spice, indigo and quartz) which allow occidental people to advance in rank, the player must build an oriental settlement.

Housing levels

Also differing from Anno 1701, there are six instead of five housing levels. The four of these that belong to the occident are peasants, citizens, patricians and noblemen. The other two that belong to the orient are nomads and envoys. In the occident, the player starts with settling peasants, who can advance to citizens. The number of envoys settled has an effect on the number of patricians in the occident which are able to advance to the fourth and uppermost occidental level, noblemen.

New goods

Since the game takes the player to the year 1404, the range of goods available is significantly different from the goods available in the previous games, which took place later in history (although goods like fish and beer were retained from the previous installments). Some of the new goods include spices, bread, meat, candlesticks, leather jerkins and brocade robes for the occident and dates, milk, carpets, pearl necklaces and marzipan for the orient.

Quests

Although quests are not new to Anno 1404, both it and its expansion, 'Venice' feature far more than previous games in the series. Quests are given at different intervals to the player by the neutral powers as well as from various of the people in your settlements, though the latter is less common. These quests offer rewards such as honour points, ships, gold coins, goods or socket upgrades (such as items to increase the firepower or speed of a ship). There are several quest types, including fetch quests, delivery of goods, races, sinking enemy ships and finding specific individuals in a settlement in a style similar to Where's Waldo. AI competitors will also offer quests to the player as long as the player has formed an alliance with them, achieved through the diplomacy system.

Achievements

Anno 1404 and its add-on Venice add the possibility of rewarding achievements to the player. Those achievements can be seen as 'milestones' and vary from quite easy to extremely hard, since a lot of them are 'hidden'. The achievements are divided in 5 categories: diplomacy, setup, economic, military and general. Quite a few of the achievements are interlinked, being part of another 'bigger' achievement. In the base game there were 206 achievements to be had, the Venice expansion added another 110 of them, totalling 316. However, as of patch 2.1/1.3 not all achievements are reachable, as syntax errors in the games' xml files are still present. Trying to correct these game files will result in the achievement not being awarded as the game recognises this as modification.

Copy protection

A restrictive aspect of the game is its rigorous DRM system based on Tagès. It forces users to activate their game online once by submitting an activation code after each installation on a different computer or a significant hardware change. The activation can be performed on any PC with an internet connection. It can only be activated three times by default and unlike many other DRM systems it does not support revocation of already used licenses. Further licenses can be requested free of charge by contacting Ubisoft.

The copy protection has been completely removed with patch v1.1 for the DVD version. Digital download versions retain the copy protection.

Reception

Reception

Aggregate score

Aggregator	Score
Metacritic	82/100

Review scores

Publication	Score
GameSpot	8.5/10
IGN	8.2/10

IGN gave the game an 8.2, saying it was "a worthy successor to the Anno franchise." D Critic praised the game, saying that "with up-to-date graphics, a great soundtrack, and great gameplay, there’s a lot to love about this game."

Expansion

Anno 1404: Venice

Anno 1404: Venice was released on February 26, 2010. The expansion included 15 new scenarios, the original 6 scenarios from the Anno 1404 game and added a third non-player power, the Venetian dignitary Giacomo Garibaldi. Garibaldi enables the player to sabotage other player's cities and/or buy them out. Originally, there were also three new computer players planned but these were scrapped for unknown reasons.

A plethora of new buildings were added:

• A multi-part personal mansion
• New ornamental buildings such as Saint Mark's pillar

Two new quest type were added: ship race and privateering.

Furthermore, the player now has to option of requesting a quest in order to gain more honour points and/or gold coins/goods.

Patches

Version 1.0 of the game was shipped with a number of bugs in it and although patch 1.1 addressed some of these (and removed the copy protection), a new patch was released with the release of the 'Venice' add-on (originally version 2.0), updating the base game to 1.2. On November 25, 2010 a third patch was released to address (among other things) a serious savegame bug, patching the base game to version 1.3 and the 'Venice' expansion to version 2.1.

External links

• Official US site
• Official UK site
• Official forum