Get Hooked with Anno 2070 by Jeremy Ray
Anno 2070
Ubisoft, Strategy
If you like building cities and crafting strategy, then you might want to get your own copy of Anno 2070, Ubisoft’s newest offering in the strategy and city-building genre. This is the futuristic version of the long-running series of strategic city-building games—and with Anno 2070, you do not need to produce ivory, jade, spices, or dates. You will need to learn how to produce fancy health drinks and microchips, which are highly demanded by the city’s residents. Plus, you will also need to produce submarines, which will in turn scan for various anomalies in the nearby waters.
The futuristic feel of the game is immediately obvious from the main menu, which features a view of the Earth from what seems to be a satellite feed, complete with static that will interrupt the image. The main menu screen is impressive by itself, but wait until you get into playing the game. Anno 2070 is very detailed and highly daunting, even to the most experienced strategic city-building gamer—and the game will easily lure you in for countless of game hours with its intricate social and economic structures.
Gameplay
There are gamers who are looking for titles to amuse them and help them pass the time, and then there are also gamers—more serious ones—who are looking for something that will really challenge their skills. Anno 2070 is one of the titles specifically designed for the latter.
Experienced strategic gamers know that a combination of sandbox urban planning and well structured missions makes for a great city builder game, and Anno 2070 boasts of these. After a couple of hours with the game, you will surely find yourself addicted to it. You simply cannot stop—you want to see how your civilization flourishes or you will keep telling yourself that this will be the last quest (but come on, we know that you cannot stop at just one quest).
The persistent quality of Anno 2070 is further enhanced by a “meta-game,” which keeps the rewards coming as you progress through the game. Your city’s main structure is an ark, which is basically a floating base that your AI companion will deploy advice and updates from. This ark can be upgraded with every module that you will earn, purchase, or research as you progress, and these modules can increase your production. When you log in on Anno 2070, you and the other players can get the opportunity of choosing and voting for the leader of your faction, which will help you reap the rewards that player might offer you into the future.
Of course, you will need to be connected to the Internet in order to interact with other players, but if you are not, you can still continue playing in a single-player format. Overall, Anno 2070 is the game to avoid if you do not want to be spending every waking moment in front of your computer, monitoring the growth of your civilization.
