Anno 2070 Review

Anno 2070 delivers an addictive experience, but lacks direction.
Anno, Ubisoft's long running series about exploration, settlement, and growth delivers a unique experience in its newest installment Anno 2070. The Anno series has a long reputation of delivering very fun and addictive game play mainly focused on trying to create a settlement from the ground up and turning it into a sprawling metropolis which is completely self sufficient.
This is of course disregarding the story mode which is actually atrocious. Its plot is clunky, completely disregards the aspect of freedom which many players expect with the Anno series, and overall just isn't fun. It would be unfair though to judge the game off the story mode when the games real time to shine is in its independent match mode. This mode drops you into the middle of the ocean with just a few cargo ships and supplies and forces you to explore and discover which island you wish to settle. It allows complete freedom and endless matches. You can choose between three factions the Ecos, the Industrialists, and the Tech faction. Depending which faction you choose greatly changes the overall game play.
The game has beautiful graphics and a fantastic soundtrack. Its common to sit down and play for fifteen minutes, then look at the clock and realize its been four hours! The addictive quality stems from its immersion. With the incredible graphics and soundtrack you slip into a trance. No longer does the player think about whats around him, but rather he/she becomes addicted to optimizing production through refinement paths and industrial city planning layouts. It doesn't take long for the player to become absorbed in trying to perfect all the production paths. Before long most players begin searching online for other users designs on how to eliminate wasted time and production in ones city. I myself have spent hours trying to discover which layouts work best for each faction.
Over all the game is very fun and very addictive, but some glaring issues arise when new players try to jump into the series with this game. Anno 2070 assumes that most players have already learned how to play the series with previous installments and disregard tutorials almost completely. The learning curve is treacherous as many of my friends have given up after a mere half hour out of frustration. They cant compete with the AI or other players, and they just give up.

3/5

Summary

Pros	Cons
+Addictive Gameplay	-Poor Story
+Stunning Visuals	-Difficult Learning Curve
+Great Soundtrack