Anno 2070

Overview

Anno 2070 is the latest in the popular Anno franchise, a series of historical colonial and economic simulations. Departing from the historical settings of the previous games, Anno 2070 takes place in a future where the planet has been ravaged by unchecked pollution and climate change, and focuses on industry in place of the simple processed goods of the previous games. Despite this, gameplay remains much the same, with a familiar interface, the same concept of production chains starting with raw goods, processed into trade goods that your citizens desire. The one major departure in this game includes a split between two factions, the Ecos and the Tycoons. The Ecos are futurist and green, while the Tycoons focus on rapid expansion and heavy industry.

Gameplay

Much like the previous Anno games, Anno 2070 remains a real-time strategy/simulation game. The bulk of the game involves peaceful economic growth and colonization. You construct homes for your citizens, cater to their needs, and once their needs are met they promote to higher level citizens that pay more taxes (and demand more expensive goods). These demands can be as simple as having a particular building (such as a marketplace) nearby, to demanding a good that requires a complex production chain to supply. The production chains start with the gathering of natural resource. The game map consists of a large series of islands, each containing different natural resources. The rarest of natural resources are very few in number, usually sparking warfare when one player is left without it. Through a series of different buildings you can process natural resources into other goods and either trade them for money or keep them to promote your population. The production chains can be long and complex, forcing you to manage and defend a series of buildings and trade routes across multiple islands.

The game differs from the previous games in the series by having two distinct factions, the Ecos and Tycoons. The Ecos have technologies which allow you to do more with fewer natural resources, allow wind power and other clean power sources, and have building of a sleeker and more futuristic appearance. The Tycoons' technologies allow fast processing of natural resources, can be wasteful, produce more pollution, and allows for rapid expansion and cheaper housing. The Techs are a secondary faction that can be utilized similarly to the Orient in Dawn of Discovery. They can be befriended and used by either of the two primary factions. The techs allow you to extract resources from the ocean floors and also build airports to take to the skies. The Techs also increase the efficiency of farms for the Ecos and reduce the Tycoons' heavy industry's impact on the environment.

Also featured in this edition is a dynamic world, and along with it natural disasters. The technologies you research and amount of pollution you output alters the environment around you. Sea levels may rise, animal species may go extinct, and natural disasters may happen more often. Hurricanes and tsunamis can devastate your islands if you don't take the necessary precautions. All factions can research technologies that help reduce the odds of natural disaster and lower global warming.

Gameplay is broken up into two modes, Campaign and Continuous. Campaign is a series of story-driven missions with varying objectives. Continuous is a sandbox mode that allows you to set the number of opponents, your starting position and bonuses, the goals (if any) you decide to pursue for victory, and more.

Deep Ocean

On October of 2012, Ubisoft released the Deep Ocean expansion pack. The most important feature added was the extension of Techs into a full fledged faction with more citizen tiers, more buildings, more required goods, and their own monument. Additional features of the expansion include a new campaign, more vehicles, more items, hostile takeovers, and additional challenges and scenarios.

Digital Deluxe Edition

There is a Digital Deluxe Edition available via Steam which contains the following items :

• Two Soundtracks entitled "Ecos" and "Tycoons".
• One 152 Page art book.
• One Tree of Technology poster.
• Two in game items one for increasing research and one for changing the look of your base by attracting Dolphins.

System Requirements

Minimum System Requirements

• OS: Windows 7, Vista, XP (SP3)
• CPU: Intel Pentium DualCore 2GHz or equivalent
• RAM: 2 GB
• GFX: DirectX® 9.0c compliant, Shader 3.0 compliant Video Card with 512MB of memory, or equivalent
• HDD: 5 GB of free disk space

Recommended System Requirements

• OS: Windows 7 (64-bit), Vista (64-bit)
• CPU: Intel Core2Quad or equivalent
• RAM: 4 GB
• GFX: DirectX® 9.0c compliant, Shader 3.0 compliant Video Card with 1GB of memory, or equivalent
• HDD: 5 GB of free disk space
• DRM: Temporary broadband connection required for one-time product registration at first launch of the game, permanent broadband connection required for multiplayer. The U-Play DRM only allows up to 3 Activations if you use all three you will have to buy a new copy of the game.