I started playing after the 1.6 update and am roghly 12 hours in that I really enjoyed. I play it through GeForce Now so I can appreciate the nice visuals. Atmosphere and story is the highlights thus far. What felt like "plastic" charachters in the prologue grew on me considerably. I like the freedom to play story missions and side quests in whichever order preferred. Gunplay is enjoyable and the choice to go stealth or all guns out is nice.
Beautifull graphics and soundtarck, immersive gameplay, Anno 1404 is one of the finest in the series. The Orient and Venice add a bit of spice to the in game economy. The game grabs your attention completely and the session lenght reminders come in handy to keep you in check with reality.
I have no other words to describe this game. I feel like it pushed videogames to the realm of art. Still very enjoyable after all these years, this game will be remembered as a milestone in storytelling.
Maybe it's nostalgia, but I find the simlpe graphics and controls fresh and fun in the sea of more modern and complex theme park titles. It's a fun game that lets you be creative. The scenarios are nice, but some of them feel unnecessarily long. For me, the game shines in it's "Create your own" mode. Only downside is the slowness of the terrain editig tool. Large terraforming projects are not very enjoyable.
It's important to condition yourself for horror. Once you set your mindset the fun begins. No other horror experience I've ever had was quite like this one. It's really scary and I like how it's like riding a wave - It's scary, then not so much, so you let your guard down, and then something scares the s**t out of you and you find yourself running in hysteria. This happens a few times througout the story. It's not just jumpscares, the story and atmosphere suck you in a world of helplessness, desperation and fear. It it somewhat short though. I finished it in two sessions, less than 5 hours overall, but I think it's impact would have been lessened in a longer runtime.
The best game in the series. I've spent so many joyfull hours in it as a child... I am surprised that it's still a lot of fun. Just be careful with time, it's one of those "I intended to play for an hour in the afternoon, but it's midnight already" type of games.
The relatabiity of the characters, even if your personal story has no connections with the fictional one, shows the greatness of the writing. The best bodies of work implant you in their world. This game definately does.
Yes, it could have been better. Yes, you can read how it was rushed and chopped at the last moment before release, otherwise it may have never been released at all, and feel bad about it. Yes, the main story is somewhat short. But the immersiveness of said story and the game world lead me back to it every now and then. Experienced best around christmas :D.
