Anno 1404 Portable
Melvin Amey
Anno 1404, known as Dawn of Discovery in North America, is a city-building and economic simulation game with real-time strategy elements, part of the Anno series. Released in 2009, it was developed by Related Designs, produced by Blue Byte, and published by Ubisoft. Anno 1404 is the sequel to Anno 1701 and is followed by the futuristic sequel Anno 2070. Though the game centers on a series of fictional events, the overall concept of the storyline is based upon real life aspects of medieval and renaissance history such as the Crusades, advancements in gothic architecture, construction of cathedrals, and hanseatic trade involving the rise of patrician merchants and early forms of capitalism.
One of the main focuses of the game in the "city building setting" sense centers on the construction of monuments, namely a Gothic cathedral and an Arabic mosque. The construction phases of these monuments are dependent on certain preconditions which have to be met in order to continue building. The player also needs to stockpile building material in order to commence such a project. The process of the construction of the cathedral resembles very closely the castle/palace (and Asian Dragon Temple) feature that was displayed in 1404's predecessor, Anno 1701.
As players progress 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.[7]
As was the case in Anno 1701, the game world is divided into two culturally distinct zones. In Anno 1404, these zones are inspired by, though not intended to be historically accurate to, northwestern Renaissance Europe and the medieval Near East, referred to as the Occident and the Orient respectively. One of the major differences between previous entries in the series and Anno 1404 is that players are required to build both occidental and oriental settlements simultaneously in order for the inhabitants of their settlements and available buildings to advance. Despite the addition of player-managed oriental settlements, the Occident remains the primary focus of the game. The Orient acts more of a trading partner in order for Occidental people to advance in class. In order for this to occur, Oriental goods such as spice, indigo and quartz must be produced and shipped from Oriental colonies.
In Anno 1701, every residential structure could be advanced to the uppermost class, so a city could be entirely made up of Aristocrats by the end of a game. In Anno 1404, a number of peasants are required to support a moderate amount of citizens who in turn support a number patricians and noblemen. There are several other factors that can impact the ratio of lower class to upper class, however. For instance, the number of envoys settled in the player's oriental settlements will satisfy a sum of the peasants and citizens required to support patricians and noblemen in occidental settlements.
Since the game takes place in 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.
Although quests are not new to Anno 1404, both it and its expansion Venice feature far more quests than previous games in the series. Quests are given at different intervals to the player by neutral powers, mentors like Northburgh and Al Zahir, and from various people living in the player's settlements. Computer opponents, if they become allies through diplomacy, will also offer quests to the player. Quests offer rewards such as honour points, ships, gold, goods or upgrades for settlements or ships (such as items to boost goods production in a settlement or increase the firepower of a ship). There are several quest types, including fetch quests, reverse fetch quests, sinking enemy ships, or finding specific individuals in a settlement (a mini game similar to Where's Waldo). Some of these quests can be quite complicated, with multiple smaller quests in the chain. The Anno 1404: Venice expansion adds 300 new quests and two new types of quests: trading race and ship boarding.
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.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. This has been addressed by an unofficial user-made patch.
With the crusade completed, Lucius leaves it under the command of Marie d'Artois, who joyously brings most of the forces assembled to the Orient. However, Northburgh discovers that children from a settlement she had been governing went missing in her absence, and leads the player to the Orient after discovering Forcas moving several ramshackle ships out of the region. Making contact with the Grand Vizier of the Sultan, Al Zahir, the group discover that the children were abducted by Forcas into order to ensure the crusade cannot be stopped. Although they rescue the children, Forcas has Northburgh arrested for interfering in Lucius' plans. Concerned about the crusade, Al Zahir works with the player to find evidence of Forcas' betrayal in order to convince Marie to end her involvement. In response, she lends her fleet to the player, which is ultimately used to defeat Forcas.
Anno 1404: Venice was released on February 26, 2010. The expansion includes 15 new scenarios, an espionage system, volcanic islands and an added third non-player power known as 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. The Venice expansion also allows the player to play the original 6 scenarios of the base game but with all the added features and improvements of the Venice addon.
Like many others who didn't know about this game series before, I was wondering what game should I start with, which is the best etc. Cause there's quite a few of them. There's plenty of threads asking those questions and many commenters make it sound like it's a fair comparison, and quite a lot of them actually said 1404 is the best Anno.
Sea-trading city-builder Anno 1404 (or Dawn Of Discovery in North America) has sailed into our critical harbour to unload large bales of real-time medieval economics. Will it attract gaming patricians? Or could it simply be a peasant's hovel furnished with old-school resource management? Here's Wot I Think.
Occasionally a game comes along that feels like the raw antidote to what I've previously been playing. Having been immersed in the nerve-fraying battle-horror randomness of Arma II for so long, Anno 1404 is like a neutralising balm: slow, careful construction of towns, farms and armies, all under a well-kept, slightly cartoonish theme, where the UI is obvious and the 3D buildings appear hand-crafted. It's been a kind of instant underlining of how far apart the poles of PC gaming actually are.
Over the past few days I've been entirely consumed by the precise-yet-accessible city management, and actually feel a little spoiled by how easy to play the game is. As with the best of such games, mastery of the thing is much, much further off, however, and Anno 1404's demands on my gaming faculties languidly spiral into complexity as I try to build large cities, or more complex trade structures. That's okay though, because I feel like I've got plenty of time to get into the rhythm. Despite the occasional complaint from one of the NPC characters, there's really no rush, and Anno 1404 unfolds largely at your own pace.
This latest title in the ongoing building and trading-focused series is - given all that preamble - probably only of the best RTS games we're going to get this year, particularly if you're looking for something which gives death-action a backseat. It delivers a huge solo campaign and, unusually for an Anno game, a selection of wide-open sandbox missions. As it happens, the solo campaign is probably the weakest aspect for an experienced RTS player, at least for the first couple of hours. There are some deep frustrations with the story acting as an extended tutorial: you're initially limited in what you can achieve, despite being able to see the options that lay ahead of you. More annoying, perhaps, is the fact that what you've built is not carried over from one level to the next. Either the game resets to an approximation to what you should have built, or it places you on a new map. Neither seems quite right, not least when it's natural to take a certain amount of pride in the brick-and-timber metropolis that you've raised from the ground.
1404's levels are set on a series of islands. Some of them are already inhabited, while others are virgin territory, ripe for conquest. Once you're into the main game of the campaign these islands become mixed with "the Orient", and open up options for building Middle Eastern, or desert-based land uses. Irrigation becomes an issue, while certain kinds of crops must be planted in this new terrain. Whatever the landscape, each island has a large number of resources, side from pure space to build, and these can be exploited for 1404's secondary money making activity (primary being tax on settled citizens) which is trade. Trade is crucial once you've got past the earliest twigs of the tech tree. Controlled via the map screen, trade routes allow you to automate exchange of goods with nearby ports, and there's always an NPC port around that will accept your goods. Working out what you have a surplus of, and then delivering it to the right port, is the trick that will decide just how wealthy your little empire is going to be.
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