Anno 1404: Gold Edition

I have this game on disc but wanted the GOG version as well as it was on sale. It doesn't work properly. I tried on 2 different machines and constantly receive a low memory warning in the game which eventually causes it to shut down. One machine has 32 gigs of memory, the other 4 gigs, the disc version I used on the 4 gig machine for years and never experienced this issue. Eventually it got so bad the game would crash after 10 minutes or so of play. Reinstalling, compatibility mode etc made no difference. So I would advise against getting the GOG version, buy it from somewhere else.

I've never played any of the other Anno games, and got this one as a free gift. I enjoyed it for the first few levels, until combat became more of a factor and it began to feel like a bit of a burden. It's fun building up your cities, creating supply routes and making sure your resources are getting where they need to. I found it challenging but not frustrating. If you make a mistake, there's usually a chance to correct things before it gets out of hand, and the large, open maps mean you can spend time exploring if you're waiting for a process to complete or more resources to be harvested. It gets rapidly more complicated with each level, but does a decent job of walking you through the additions so you understand how everything works without needing to consult a manual. The plot isn't super deep but it keeps things moving, and the art style is detailed and appealing- the deliberately goofy and exaggerated smiles of absolute bliss on your happy citizens repeatedly cracked me up, too. I eventually lost interest and didn't finish the game because every level took many, many, many hours. The game has been described as addictive but I think it would be more accurate to say that it's just built in such a way that it demands large amounts of time to make progress. There are just so many factors to balance, problems to solve and resources to pursue that you get lost in the details and when you look up, 8 hours have passed as if by magic. If you have enough free time to devote weeks of your life to playing Anno 1404, this is fine and possibly even desirable, but I found it increasingly hard to justify this monopolization of my limited time when I could be playing and finishing multiple other, faster-paced games from my backlog. Still, it's a fun and decent game if you have the time for it and I recommend it, especially for people who are already fans of the series.

I had read about the Anno series for years as I was reading about new video games for years and always thought I would give it a try. With some GOG sales I finally bit the bullet and bought Anno 1404. Long story short, I had a blast doing the Elector scenario. It took me hours to just reach the final part of victory, having 2,000 noblemen. But I finally made it. I dont know if there is a mode that explains you how to play but the scenario just dropped me with very little explanation and I had to google time and again specialized forum and websites to understand how to progress. But I imagine this is explained in another mode / part of the game. I liked this game as it is really cute and fun to play. You just do not see time fly by. The difficulty is present but not overwhelming. The various things you have to build / cultivate / buy kinda make sense. The gameplay is definitively there. The graphics are really nice done. Now, the bad parts: the music is quite repetitive. the sound samples spoken by characters are always the same. On my 2015 laptop with 8 Gb of RAM, an SSD and a dedicated graphics card, the game was taking FOREVER to start. I don't want to imagine how slow it must have been with a 2009 average computer. Overall, I had fun. I dont know if I will play other modes or scenarii but so far I give Anno 1404 a solid 4/5.

If the game crashes on starting a new game, you can fix it by setting the setting the date and time format to match the windows language. Note: I found this fix on the gog forums and as silly as it might sound, it worked for me (Windows 10 OS) On windows 10, go to the old control panel and under "clock and region" go to "change date, time, or number formats". Here under "Format" select the option that matches the Windows language setting.

Steps: - Make sure that the region, region format and language settings are the same! - Play and enjoy! This is one of the best entries in the series. The music is a masterpiece of gaming music. It's a hard game, and I had to become an adult to finally appreciate it!