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Anno 1701 (Nintendo DS) | 
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| From: Disney Interactive
Category: Video Games
List Price: £29.99
Buy New: £17.63
You Save: £12.36 (41%)
New (2) from £17.63
Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 4507
Platform: Nintendo Ds
Genre: strategy-games
Rating: To Be Announced
Media: Video Game
Operating System: Nintendo DS
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 5.4 x 4.7 x 0.8
EAN: 8717418123581
ASIN: B000PGOK6O
Release Date: August 24, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 Addictive and well designed September 11, 2007
18 out of 18 found this review helpful
Put simply, I'm loving it as a strategy/sim game on 2D isometric view. This is a well executed game, revolving around the idea of building a small empire on various islands. The game mechanics is simple, but well designed so that it keeps you thinking and at times panicking.
The basic idea starts by establishing a market on an island, then building houses and resource buildings (such as sugar farms and tea factories). People move into the houses you build while consuming the goods you produce in resource buildings. Once certain criteria are met, those people will be upgraded to the next level of civility. With that comes a demand for other types of resource which you must provide, and with more houses and people you have to ensure the supply and demand is balanced. Happy people will in turn give you money through taxation. Fail that balance, you will either waste resources or people will get angry and eventually your civilization will downgrade over time.
Strategy comes in through city planning. Many buildings have an area of influence, so you can't just place them anywhere. You have to plan the layout from time to time to ensure that you get the correct coverage. For instance, when you build a factory you often (but not always) have to build the source (such as a mine or bee farm) within the factory's range. Eventually you will need to upgrade the market so that you have more wagons that travel around the island to collect the products each building produces. When people demand, say a university, you place the university so that its coverage goes over those people's houses.
Various islands have different fertility level for your products, so you can't really survive by colonizing 1 island. At some point you will have to build docks and explore the sea by voyage to establish another market elsewhere.
There is a military side to this game, which is rather basic. You can build the likes of shipyards and barracks for deployment against another colony, but don't expect a manual battle like a real-time strategy as you get a very basic automated battle. That doesn't reduce the joy of this game because it's clear from the start that the joy of it is predominantly in the process of city building and it indeed achieves that very well.
The interface and controls are implemented through stylus, and it's obvious that the developers have worked hard on this. It's intuitive, smooth and for me worked very well. Other devs of this genre should take note.
There isn't much I can think of that has gone wrong here. I suppose sometimes a small building can hide behind a big building and become a little tricky to click, but not by much. Also the military could've been a little more interesting. Even better if we could rotate the map by 90 degrees.
You can criticize any game on a handheld due to its small screen or capacity, but seeing this in perspective, I think it's hard to fault this game. Most importantly, it's addictive and somehow manages to grip your attention so you carry on managing and tweaking. That's handy for a long trip on a plane or while commuting. I recommend it if you enjoy a strategy sim like SimCity DS and ThemePark DS.
The best DS game bar none (so far....) October 4, 2007
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
On the PC, I love the Cossacks series and seriously considered counselling to overcome the addiction (well, my wife considered it for me). Up until now I have loved Animal Crossing on the DS, largely as I'm on a mission to have one of every fruit available. However, this is replacing all of them - wife and counsellor included!
The game is incredibly complex for such a tiny little console and the gameplay really very engaging - even addictive. My only criticism is that the game tries to cram a lot of information onto a small screen. This could have been a disaster, but I'm peased to say that the designers have chosen good, sharp icons and graphics that are, while sometimes a lot to take in, nonetheless clear.
I can't believe how much gameplay, and how much game scope, is available on the DS in this game. You'll be controlling everything from commerce, building, exploration and colonisation. Of course, not everyone wants to be your friend, so a bit of war mongering is also on the cards. The controls are all very straightforward, and the icon-wheel interface is very clever indeed - a great way to get a lot of control into a really easy to use stepped/staggered menu system.
If you love war strategy games of this ilk, or even a bit of adventure, then go for it. But be warned, your wife won't like it.....
I am God! Now what happens when I click this....?! November 16, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Last year I heard that Settlers (my favourite game of all time on Amiga/PC) was to be released on the DS - so I got a DS in anticipation.
Unfortunately (nearly a year later) after several delays, it was released and lambasted by critics due to the glitches and constant crashing which render it nigh on unplayable. Thankfully though - someone recommended this alternative to me...
...The first thing I did when I got this home was lose the instructions. Not a bright move considering that the game is considerably large in scale, but playing the game on "Story mode" guided me through everything I needed to know, and the game has a trusty Annopaedia which is a huge helpfile organised alphabetically by keyword.
"Story Mode" is a good way to start the game as it gives you something to strive to and something to complete (unlike "Continuous Mode" which goes on forever). It consists of a series of chapters with missions, each mission introduces you to new elements of gameplay, and once you have completed a few of these you will feel confident and not need any real additional guidance. It also adds a story to the game (hence `Story' mode!) as it describes the settlers of the islands around you, be they friendly comrades or `orrible pirates, and I know it's wrong, but Carmen Marquez is pretty attractive - as far as computer generated images go.
Anno 1701 is a complex strategy game - the premise is simple enough though: You are a pioneer sent on a mission by your Queen (who looks like Queen Elizabeth I, but she had been dead for quite some time by 1701, maybe it's a cross-dressing King William III?!). You build a settlement by providing houses for your population, various industrial and agricultural buildings, public service buildings, a road network, ship builders, etc. But the more complex your society gets, the more your people demand of you as they advance through several social classes until they reach aristocrat stage - and then food and a pub isn't enough, they require theatres, jewellery, chocolates and the like in order to stay happy. And keeping them happy is the key to success, they'll pay higher taxes then so that you can afford to fund extra voyages to other islands to populate those and fend of those pesky pirates.
This game is incredibly addictive and has transferred seamlessly to the DS. Some modifications to the PC version have been made to help make the game easier to control, and they've worked. Entirely stylus controlled (unless you want to configure some shortcut buttons) the game controls never feel baffling, and always seem natural. When you drag the stylus across the screen to scroll across the landscape, the movement is flawlessly smooth.
This is what Settlers should have been like, not a screen freeze or a stuttering visual in sight. This has pushed the boundaries of DS capability and is definitely a five star game. You're not going to play this and put it down after a weekend feeling that you've done all you can do with it - this is an epic game - you will get your moneys worth! There's always something to do, be it build some more cotton farms, or increase your taxes - you'll find yourself taking your DS with you everywhere so that you can open it up and make the odd adjustment here or there to your (hopefully) thriving society.
 Really good game, and worth trying out! September 22, 2007
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
I actually got this game while I was in Germany, as I heard a lot about it while I was there. I love strategy games, so this was an interesting game to look at for me, as until now I've never found a really great one on the ds (well except for AW DS).
The game is similar to Age of Empires I suppose, but you have more control on building your city and empire up. The graphics are pretty good too, although can be a bit annoying sometimes as when you start to have a large city it can be difficult to see what is going on.
As far as the gameplay goes it's pretty good. You are given tasks by your queen to gain land, defeat enemies etc for your country. There are many different buildings to make, and you have to cater for your villagers with materials, food, and other attractions such as churches, pubs, universities etc. You can build armies too to defend your island, and you can attack other islands by the sea. And therefore take over new islands. Another cool option is how oyu can control the price of different materials on the world's market, so you can lower or higher it depending on the stock you have.
The options in the game are good, the campaign will last a while, I still haven't finished it! Also there is an unending free play mode which is interesting, but I think the campaign is where all the time will be spent. The multiplayer side works well, but why is there not a single card link up??!???!?!??! This is the worst side of the game!
Overall I think this a breath of fresh light for the ds market. I think as long as you don't expect this game to change your life or that you are getting the game of the year you won't be disappointed. I'm not, and I hope there will be further games in this series.
Excellent January 19, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I loved this game, I highly recommend it.
Only slight flaw is that there is only one story mode then you are stuck with the continuous play.
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