Like Tropico, I enjoyed the real-time function of this game. Each time a house gains a level, more buildings are available to improve the settlement, but more complex products are required by the population. In the Orient, there are only two levels, nomads and envoys. The Occidental inhabitants move from peasants to citizens, patricians and eventually nobles. These are combined in various ways to create a whole range of products, desired by the different strata of society.

The raw produce includes wood, stone, hemp and iron in the Occidental islands, and spices, quartz, clay and indigo in the southern Oriental islands (among many others).

Like any good 4X game there are chains of production based on an array of base materials, which are not all available on each island. The art, like just about everything in the game, is polished and detailed.

The feel of the game is not as humourous as Tropico, but seems a little like Fable as a strategy game. Anno is something like Tropico, if you were to control more than one island. Given that I recently wrote a review of Tropico 3, I may as well compare the two games.

Anno 1503 city layout