[h1]It says a lot when the weakest game in a franchise is still greater than most city-building sims and RTS games can hope to achieve.[/h1]
Well, what can I say, it`s the fifth Anno game and the only real change was the setting. While all previous four games were set in the late middle age or early modern era, Anno 2070 jumps into the not too distant future where humanity successfully ignored the climate change and turned earth into basically Waterworld (don't hate, the movie's not that bad). Only a few small fertile islands are left, which are heavily fought over by the Global Trust Corporation, the most powerful and efficient organization on earth and the Eden Initiative, who seek ecological balance. A third more or less neutral party is a group of highly intelligent scientists. During the 11 missions of the singleplayer campaign you get to play all three parties (often at the same time), who have to team up against a virus-infected AI that wants to eradicate mankind.
Gameplaywise the three factions don't differ too much from each other. Basically, Trust Corp is much more efficient in producing their goods and needs a lot less space for their buildings, but their ways are also the most polluting ones that significantly decrease the fertility of the island and increase the risk of environmental catastrophes like oil pests and such. Eden Initiative's buildings are a lot more environmentally friendly, but their disadvantage is that they need a lot more space for their buildings. The scientists finally have the ability to build underwater bases to exploit the natural ressources at the ocean floor and they absolutely have to because they just eat special food made out of seaweed. Yuk.
Because you play all three factions at the same time for a vast majority of the campaign, it can get a bit confusing to navigate all the different building menus and manage all the specific production chains for each faction, even for seasoned Anno veterans. In addition, it will take a little time to actually understand all the new production chains and purposes of the buildings, due to the setting. In all the previous Anno games you pretty much instantly know what you need a forge, cattle farm or winery for. But what the f*ck is the purpose of weather control stations, info hives or carbon fiber factories in an Anno game? Furthermore, the Sci-Fi setting is an interesting change of scenery, but this whole post-apocalyptic thing makes the artstyle actually pretty drab and it just lacks the colorful charme of it's Renaissance-themed predecessors.
So yeah, once you've accustomed to the new gameplay mechanics, the campaign becomes definitely one of the easier but also weaker ones in the series and so far Anno 2070 has been my least favorite experience in the franchise. It may beat Anno 1602 simply because it looks and sounds much better and the gameplay is much smoother and more refined, but then again those two games are nearly one and a half decades apart from each other so you can't really count that in Anno 2070's favor. But the good thing is: Apart from those few flaws, it really isn't any different from the previous Anno games and that's great news. If you love city-building sims and prefer a futuristic setting over a historical one, then there is absolutely no reason to not try out Anno 2070.
PS: If you already have an existing Ubisoft Connect account but can't start the game because it keeps telling you that you used the wrong login password, just change your password once when starting the game. That'll do the trick.
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ANNO 2070
Genre: Simulation
Release: Q4 2011
( ) 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.
(X) 6/8 Great game, universal recommendation. 30 bucks would be a steal for this.
( ) 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.
