I am sorry, but this simple feature is a dealbreaker for me. I do not use any of the keyboard layouts that are in the options menu (nor shout it matter: use scancodes). So every time I start this game, I have to change the keyboard layout in my system. That is already annoying enough, but then even when I change the keyboard layout to a compatible layout, they keys are not arranged how I would like them to be arranged. For example when you want to play on a laptop, arrow keys are just not the keys that you want to play with, on Desktop that is fine though. And last but not least, I have a lot of experience in other similar games, and here I just use a reverse mapping of jumping and shooting. I am sorry, the game might be good, I don't know. But this is a dealbreaker for me. And it would be an easy to fix issue.
I played Anno 1602 when it was released, and I really liked it. It was hard at first and made me struggle a lot. But overall despite the struggle, or even because of it I really have great memories to that game. I played it until I had achieved everything leaving me with a positive feeling to really accomplished something. When I got this game for Christmas after it came out I played it and the magical spirit for this game was gone. I played through this game entirely without resistance. I saw everything and though I had already seen it. When I finished this game I had no big memories connected to it. There was no struggle, and no moment of "Ah, now I got it". Everything here feels streamlined and blunt. I have to admit, building trading routes is better than in 1602, but gameplay wise it is the same but without the magic to experience it for the first time or giving me any nostalgic feelings I have with the first game. For me this was a disappointment. I am not comparing this game with 1503, because 1503 really did try to do something new, and I wouldn't say I played it enough. This is also the last game of this series that I played.
I am not a big fan of puzzle platformers and I am not a big fan of the visuals of this game either. But I've read pretty positive reviews about this game, and when I got the game through the humble bundle, I eventually played it. Not excited at the beginning I skipped through the story elements, something I later really regretted to do. But the more I played the more I liked what I did. Puzzles really became interesting and challenging. Solving them made me feel good, progress in this game really made me feel good. And not too long into the game, the game was sadly already over. But the feeling I had when I finished the game was a bit mindblowing. I really had to sit back and rethink what just happened. This feeling in the end is the true reason why I can't give this game anything else than a 5-Star rating. But one advise I can give to you when you decide to play this game now: You really need to solve the game on your own. Don't look up solutions or look up how someone else finishes the game, it won't work, you have to play this game on your own. And even then I can't guarantee you that the game will have the same effect on you, than it had on me, but I can guarantee you that there is something truly unique in this game.
