1503 A.D. The New World – PC – Review

1503 A.D.: The New World is the sequel to 1602 A.D., a modestly successful North American version of a popular European game, Anno 1602. 1503 A.D. takes players back 100 years to the beginning era of European exploration of what they entitled the New World. Civilizations such as North American natives, Aztecs, Inuits, Mongols, and Bedouins are represented on various islands, as are also roaming peoples like the Venetians and Pirates. Success depends on the player’s ability to build and expand their civilization, make trade alliances with other cultures and avoid the pirates.

Supposedly, much of this sequel is similar to the previous release; as I have not played 1602 A.D., I can’t really expound on improvements, but can only discuss this game as a stand-alone program. From my strategy game experiences, it appears most similar to games such as the Impressions city building games of Caesar/Pharaoh/Zeus/Emperor and Blue Byte’s Settlers. While featuring combat, most of the game’s focus is on city building using economics and trade, for the most part.

There are three extremely short tutorials offered, and I strongly advise players new to the Anno world play through these at least once. Each of these tutorials focuses on a main Anno feature: Starting a colony, establishing trade and combat. The main goals of these features are covered, but in a very bare bones fashion. Silly me, I thought that I would be able to begin the campaign mode after finishing the tutorials, but alas, after restarting the first campaign scenario for the third time, realized that something was obviously lacking in my education up to this point. After lurking about a couple of Anno forums, I discovered that Anno newbies should really play several of the open-ended missions in the free-play mode, before beginning the campaign mode. I did, and found this to be excellent advice.

The free play mode’s first mission takes up where the tutorials leave off. There is an extremely useful help pop-up window series that guides players through the first steps of building a colony in a sequential fashion. Each step is explained thoroughly. For all practical purposes, the tutorials are more for just getting used to the interface and controls, with the first free-play mission being the real tutorial for the gameplay itself. Well, what about the manual, you may well ask, doesn’t it cover all the relevant information? To put it baldly, no, it doesn’t.

One of my favorite all-time games ever is Caesar III, not least for its wonderful manual, which is more like a thick book than an in-game manual. In contrast, 1503 A.D.‘s measly pamphlet is like a single drop of water to a thirsty man in the desert. Basic knowledge is covered, but strategy considerations are woefully absent, as are any in-depth discussions of concepts. There is a helpful online help index on the game which is much better, but even this help file leaves some questions unanswered.

The interface for the most part does a decent job of presenting the information and tools required for tasks in easily manipulated menus. However, again, in-depth information is lacking about the ongoing gameplay, as in where is all the money allocated, what items are lacking, what the people are thinking, etc.. Question marks will pop up from time to time over farms and workshops, but these mostly indicate either a lack of access to a buyer or seller of the merchandise, or to a glut in the market. More detailed information and feedback would have been appreciated. Clicking on various items to draw up information is sometimes difficult, particularly the scout, which can become hard to see among the vegetation. Fortunately, hitting the “M” key will cause an icon to appear over his head.

Once the gameplay basics are mastered, the game becomes more fun in a leisurely, watchful manner. Gamers will want to build up their initial colony fast, in order to support as many inhabitants as possible, as these are the only real way to make money, as trade is mostly by barter (the colony can buy and sell to and from passing ships, but only a limited number of items. Whether these ships in the night were Venetians or some connection of the colony, I never did discover. This little nugget of information was only discovered in the free-play pop info mode). Each colonist has to buy his/her necessities from the city, which is the main income the city will receive. Many public buildings are necessary, but none so much as the Tavern, which requires a lot of alcohol, so be prepared to plant a lot of potato farms for these vodka-swilling people. As the colonists increase in culture, more buildings become available.

Each general need is met by a series of buildings that must be located near to each other in a chain. For example, a tobacco farm needs to be placed close to the tobacco products building; the potato farm within the tavern’s sphere of influence, and so on and so on. As the civilization advances, the economic chains become more complicated. I never did quite figure out just how the individual item market buildings’ influence worked, as their squares of influence appeared to be small, but people from all around would visit them.

Unlike Caesar, the market vendors and other business people will not have to travel past the houses to influence them; instead, the inhabitants themselves visit the public buildings to get the goods and services they need. The only things that need to be central to as many houses as possible are the taverns and religious buildings. This allows for more freedom in city planning than in many like games.

Sooner or later, it will become a necessity to explore the other islands to either establish more colonies on deserted lands, or to trade with existing cultures. The trading system is rather neat, and easily accomplished by automatic trading points which can be assigned to the routes. Most new colonies will be for the purpose of one or two items that will only grow in that climate, like tobacco or spices. Players need to remember that all new colonies require that the scout ship be equipped with building supplies in order to build a warehouse, a fact I kept forgetting and which entailed must criss-crossing back and forth for needed items.

Combat is more of a peripheral component of the game than an integral part. In harder missions, combat becomes more prevalent, but still takes a back seat to the economic model of the program. In most of the free-play missions, the computer opponents aren’t aggressive unless the player plays aggressively. Warfare is mostly streamlined with formation commands, but could be better designed as managing the various types of soldiers can be a bit tedious and painstaking.

Pirates have to be dealt with by everyone, though, and can present quite a problem in harder, later campaigns and scenarios. I mainly opted to just pay protection money to keep from having my cargo stolen all the time. It’s worth it.

The game is visually appealing, and while the graphics aren’t dazzling, they do a good job of enhancing the 1503 world. The buildings and ships are authentic appearing, as are the characters. It’s fun to sit back and watch the people go about their business, although there doesn’t appear to be quite as much activity as in the Impressions games. There is a handy zoom feature that allows for close-ups of the people and buildings, and the details are still sharp and clear at this level of view. The music is quite charming and fits the period well, and can be selected from a play list. I enjoyed most of the songs, unlike many games out there.

This is a good game for those who just want to build a civilization and watch it unfold, without having to plan major battles every 5 minutes. Frankly, I try to avoid the battles of these types of games (an exception is Heroes of Might and Magic, which I thoroughly enjoy, who knows why). The slow pace is just right for building the ultimate civilization, and is quite fun. The only thing I would really change would be to allow players to choose from different cultures to play as, instead of just the European one. Those who want more elaborate combat may have to look elsewhere.