Anno 2205 isn't dumbed down

[dylanstrategie]

I have played a few Anno games, Anno 1404 (on free weekend), Anno 1701, Anno 2070, and now this one. And I can say it from the perspective of someone who has played a ton of strategy games, I don't see what has been "dumbed down" in this game. If anything, this game has more depth

To me, it just sounds like a buzzword being incompetently thrown around. What does "dumbed down" even mean anymore at this point ? Do you actively dislike the new tools like moving buildings, do you dislike the clear display of resources ? The removal of old and annoying systems like resource hauling and warehouse annexation ? Do you not like the fact that combat was separated from the city building part ?

[Star Paladin]

I'm not confusing anything. YOU are confused that I'm not a blind fanboy. It's not just simplified, it's plain Ole dumbed down. You going to stay on every forum, review site and twitter playing whack-a-mole trying to insult the thousands of posters that feel the same way? Good luck with that.

[STRAWBELLY JAM]

Originally posted by Star Paladin:

Sorry, but this Anno is like "Lego City". It's almost like a tablet game now.

What a comprehensive review!

[Hooch]

Originally posted by Star Paladin:

I'm not confusing anything. YOU are confused that I'm not a blind fanboy. It's not just simplified, it's plain Ole dumbed down. You going to stay on every forum, review site and twitter playing whack-a-mole trying to insult the thousands of posters that feel the same way? Good luck with that.

No, I'm objecting to silly, ill-thought out, and inaccurate comments that are a result of nothing more than group-think. When you can actually support anything you say, that is when it is worthwhile and meaningful. Until then, you are just towing that group-think "party" line.

[Alexargen]

Hard mode is broken to me... its easy.. you just keep goeing in your initial island, and once is full, you go to artic, i get lvl 19 and i bougth anither zone to concurrence before go to artic... thats mean 2.000.000 easy +25.000 incomme... i can tell, this game is broken, then i triyed to go to artic, and no workes came... so... you get stuck there..

[P100]

In my experiance this game is verry dumed down compared to al the other anno titles.
I have played and own all anno titles and am a HUGE fan of anno (still play anno 2070 daily after playing it for countless hours!).
I don't wanna go al to specific to why this game is dumed down, and i have to admit that 3 days after te official release date i have not touch this game anymore!
With al the previous enstalments it cost me easily more than 3 weeks to figure everything out! With every new version there was tons of new stuff to explore and try out, every game every "run" every MAP was/is diffrent and even now after countless hours and more then 200+ save games anno 2070 feels fresh every time i start a new map.
The lack of random generated maps makes this game easy as pie! no matter the difficulty you need to tackle the exact same problems on th exact same map/island that is the first reason why this game is dummed down.
The micro management system which is a HUGE thing in anno is bad! Normaly it took me weeks or even months to optimize all the trading routes to perfection! i have achieved this within 3 days with anno 2205, this might have something to do with the fact (like i said in the verry first sentence of this reply) that i have played all anno titles that have been published to date! But the lack of a good micro management system to optimize to perfection is reason Nr 2 why this game is dumed down.
For a more better explenation of the micro management system in all the previous anno titles, you needed to calculate the amount of demand of certain product/need you need to calculate the amount you need to produce EACH shipment, you need to calculate how long it would take for you're ships to collect and deliver that product (if it is produced or gatherd on a other island) or you needed to keep track of how many transporters the storage center have and the amount of they can collect! Also you needed to take pirates into account! what if you're cargo ship is destroyed or detaind ? how long can you provide that product directly form you're storage before it is depleted. To optimize that perfectly you needed to experiment and think 10 stepps ahead! now... it's just to damn easy! just make sure you're procuct income is +1 (or in the green) and all is fine!
It took me weeks to figure out how to reach the final "stage" make a profit and provide all that is needed/demand. This i completed within 72 hours of anno 2205.
The diffeculty spike from normal to hard (or what ever) is.... well..... crap! no significint challenge to be found there there.
and since i keep playing the same island over and over and over and over and over again it took me 3 days to figure the perfect building order and placement (for my playstyle, everyone has there own order/way of placement/architecture) so i don't feel any challenge when i start over. And since the demand and island condition are the same everytime you start over no matter the difficulty..... makes it easy!
With al the previous enstallments i felt like i needed to experiment with "where do place this, where do i place that, how many of this do i need how many of that, do i have enough space on this island, do i need to expand to a other island, how many cargo ships do i need, how much is the total upkeep when i expand, how many mine site's does this island have so if i build 3 iron on this island i need to collect ore on a other.. is this cost ifficient at this "stage" with anno 2205 is just place ♥♥♥♥ around........ On this map (let's say artic) i place all this crap on the moon i place al this and ervything gets transported to that TADAAAA Done!.... that is not how it went with the previous once that kind of carelesly building and placement could get you into big troubles as you progressed on that particulair map/island! I don't feel like there are consequences when i build the wrong building at the wrong time in anno 2205 or when you placed something wrong or later in the game you need more space so you need to replace alot of building NO PROBLEM just click and drag and all problems are solved! With the previous games it cost you resources it cost you credits etc... so you where carefull where to place stuff think about the amount of space you have and tried that way so that is not a inch of unbuild space!
And WHERE is al the warfare ? where are the pirates blocking/stealing/boarding my cargo ships etc.... which could cause BIG troubles!

For me with all said above the game feels real dumed down, really dumed down and with the LACK of randomly generated maps and resourcers i don't feel like there is a challange once you reach the final stage, i don't feel like "let's start a new game" because you need to tackle the exact same problems on the exact same maps with the exact same amount of space and resources! I personaly can't spent hours upon hours in the migromagment system to perfectionalize everything becuas it is to easy now just CLICK and isntantly all goods are transported with no waiting time, no ships that need to travel and could be destroyed/stole or looted along the way! i can't spent hours to find a way or build enough battle ships to block all pirate activity so my cargo won't be stolen! Which realy makes the whole micro menagment system real easy!

And these are just some of the reasons why i personaly feel that this game is really dumed down!
And i take into consideration that like a said in the first sentance that i have played all anno titles to date (and also own them all) so i had a pretty good idea which problems would/could occur. There was and is no challange for te be found in Anno 2205 compared to al the other anno titles

P.S sorry for bad gramma english is not my main language!

[An Dun]

the game isnt dumbed down, its just a city builder for dummies, it isnt a strategy game either as there is no strategy to this game

[the2pages]

Originally posted by P100 NL:

In my experiance this game is verry dumed down compared to al the other anno titles.
I have played and own all anno titles and am a HUGE fan of anno (still play anno 2070 daily after playing it for countless hours!).
I don't wanna go al to specific to why this game is dumed down, and i have to admit that 3 days after te official release date i have not touch this game anymore!
With al the previous enstalments it cost me easily more than 3 weeks to figure everything out! With every new version there was tons of new stuff to explore and try out, every game every "run" every MAP was/is diffrent and even now after countless hours and more then 200+ save games anno 2070 feels fresh every time i start a new map.
The lack of random generated maps makes this game easy as pie! no matter the difficulty you need to tackle the exact same problems on th exact same map/island that is the first reason why this game is dummed down.
The micro management system which is a HUGE thing in anno is bad! Normaly it took me weeks or even months to optimize all the trading routes to perfection! i have achieved this within 3 days with anno 2205, this might have something to do with the fact (like i said in the verry first sentence of this reply) that i have played all anno titles that have been published to date! But the lack of a good micro management system to optimize to perfection is reason Nr 2 why this game is dumed down.
For a more better explenation of the micro management system in all the previous anno titles, you needed to calculate the amount of demand of certain product/need you need to calculate the amount you need to produce EACH shipment, you need to calculate how long it would take for you're ships to collect and deliver that product (if it is produced or gatherd on a other island) or you needed to keep track of how many transporters the storage center have and the amount of they can collect! Also you needed to take pirates into account! what if you're cargo ship is destroyed or detaind ? how long can you provide that product directly form you're storage before it is depleted. To optimize that perfectly you needed to experiment and think 10 stepps ahead! now... it's just to damn easy! just make sure you're procuct income is +1 (or in the green) and all is fine!
It took me weeks to figure out how to reach the final "stage" make a profit and provide all that is needed/demand. This i completed within 72 hours of anno 2205.
The diffeculty spike from normal to hard (or what ever) is.... well..... crap! no significint challenge to be found there there.
and since i keep playing the same island over and over and over and over and over again it took me 3 days to figure the perfect building order and placement (for my playstyle, everyone has there own order/way of placement/architecture) so i don't feel any challenge when i start over. And since the demand and island condition are the same everytime you start over no matter the difficulty..... makes it easy!
With al the previous enstallments i felt like i needed to experiment with "where do place this, where do i place that, how many of this do i need how many of that, do i have enough space on this island, do i need to expand to a other island, how many cargo ships do i need, how much is the total upkeep when i expand, how many mine site's does this island have so if i build 3 iron on this island i need to collect ore on a other.. is this cost ifficient at this "stage" with anno 2205 is just place ♥♥♥♥ around........ On this map (let's say artic) i place all this crap on the moon i place al this and ervything gets transported to that TADAAAA Done!.... that is not how it went with the previous once that kind of carelesly building and placement could get you into big troubles as you progressed on that particulair map/island! I don't feel like there are consequences when i build the wrong building at the wrong time in anno 2205 or when you placed something wrong or later in the game you need more space so you need to replace alot of building NO PROBLEM just click and drag and all problems are solved! With the previous games it cost you resources it cost you credits etc... so you where carefull where to place stuff think about the amount of space you have and tried that way so that is not a inch of unbuild space!
And WHERE is al the warfare ? where are the pirates blocking/stealing/boarding my cargo ships etc.... which could cause BIG troubles!

For me with all said above the game feels real dumed down, really dumed down and with the LACK of randomly generated maps and resourcers i don't feel like there is a challange once you reach the final stage, i don't feel like "let's start a new game" because you need to tackle the exact same problems on the exact same maps with the exact same amount of space and resources! I personaly can't spent hours upon hours in the migromagment system to perfectionalize everything becuas it is to easy now just CLICK and isntantly all goods are transported with no waiting time, no ships that need to travel and could be destroyed/stole or looted along the way! i can't spent hours to find a way or build enough battle ships to block all pirate activity so my cargo won't be stolen! Which realy makes the whole micro menagment system real easy!

And these are just some of the reasons why i personaly feel that this game is really dumed down!
And i take into consideration that like a said in the first sentance that i have played all anno titles to date (and also own them all) so i had a pretty good idea which problems would/could occur. There was and is no challange for te be found in Anno 2205 compared to al the other anno titles

P.S sorry for bad gramma english is not my main language!

your 100% right i loved playing anno 2070 being proud of building up an empire of 20,000 citizens with the running motive in my mind being "we must rebuild humanity" but this time around were just a corporation settling workers which isnt as fun and settling 20,000 people takes 5 minutes since because it was so hard to do this in 2070 you were able to look at your primary bustling city and seeing all the grandeur of what you have worked for 20 hours just that game to build but here in 2205? forget that just throw things down in 2070 i had to settle whole islands for just tiny resources then arrange their transport to a main island where i foster the growth of my people and i would have to worry about the routes being sacked or underproduction then account for the time it would take for the resources to get there and as more time went on you had more things to discover like nuclear launch silos that are super expensive why? because you can! there is no reason the silo was needed but i still built one and launched missiles at things for fun i have ornamentals i could put down that really spruced up the place turrets warships i could build whole fleets and terrorize the seas but in 2205? well i could place buildings theres no REAL trading and combat was handled in a small instanced area that was really rather boring and i couldnt actually manage the building and upkeep of my ships nearly as much as i wanted to they dumbed down anno for a larger crowd and killed their loyal fanbase doing it thus killing their sales making this probably the least successful anno game since 1404 was hellishly complicated and really kept you working but 2070 expanded the islands and made everything complicated but still fantastically fun which the expanded options of a future environment made more fun! but 2205 with all the possibilities of a future in the 23rd century ruined it all! it doesnt even feel like the year 2205 since judging scientific advancement from today to 2070 is was pretty good they were still using convential weaponary but it all fit but from 2070 to 2205 technology is basically the same they are even still using bullets and shells! realistically shouldnt they be using lasers or something? or atleast have lasers as something you could research? there isnt and it feels more like 2071 then 2205 since the technology and environment is remarkably the same

[Greygor]

Wall's of text here.


For me, in my opinion.

We have a different game from 2070.

Is it better? That's subjective.

But I enjoy 2205 as a game, without comparing it too 2070.




I do wonder if it had been 2070, with a new skin and no game play changes how many people would be complaing.

[the2pages]

Originally posted by Greygor:

Wall's of text here.


For me, in my opinion.

We have a different game from 2070.

Is it better? That's subjective.

But I enjoy 2205 as a game, without comparing it too 2070.




I do wonder if it had been 2070, with a new skin and no game play changes how many people would be complaing.

i wouldnt have been in my mind 2070 is still relevant in todays market so giving it a refresh wouldnt bother me but larger islands would be a must just not 1 million large that and going to space in anno was overhyped since you do it so soon all the luster of the achievement is gone and it really ends up becoming just a novelty since it takes just 4 more hours to fix humanity's energy crisis and save the world

[P100]

Originally posted by Greygor:

Wall's of text here.


For me, in my opinion.

We have a different game from 2070.

Is it better? That's subjective.

But I enjoy 2205 as a game, without comparing it too 2070.




I do wonder if it had been 2070, with a new skin and no game play changes how many people would be complaing.

Nope i would be more happy with that then i am with the crap that is called anno 2205, and to be honest i suspected/hoped it would be a reskin of 2070 but with SPACE colonization! :D

[Landorcan]

Originally posted by Ghosrath:

I'm a seasoned Anno player, having been with them since Anno 1701 and I already managed to bankrupt my first corporation (on expert).

I like the new way that your resource production is displayed, it makes it less of a guessing game. I also really like the building upgrade modules.
The arctic region looks like a nice challenge, unfortunately i didn't get to spend a lot of time there before bankrupting..

On to the moon in my next playthrough!

Recommend at a minimum you have a credit ballance in ecess of 60 k per minute before you even touch the moon. That thing bled me dry. I played first run at easy and was on my 15 loan and still had not succeeded in the basic layout.

[the2pages]

Originally posted by Landorcan:

Originally posted by Ghosrath:

I'm a seasoned Anno player, having been with them since Anno 1701 and I already managed to bankrupt my first corporation (on expert).

I like the new way that your resource production is displayed, it makes it less of a guessing game. I also really like the building upgrade modules.
The arctic region looks like a nice challenge, unfortunately i didn't get to spend a lot of time there before bankrupting..

On to the moon in my next playthrough!

Recommend at a minimum you have a credit ballance in ecess of 60 k per minute before you even touch the moon. That thing bled me dry. I played first run at easy and was on my 15 loan and still had not succeeded in the basic layout.

60k per minute? you dont need that you just need basic knowledge of finances i jumped to the moon making 5000 credits a minute i left the moon making 30k a minute

[BoNeZ]

It isnt really dumbed down, its streamlined yes, you need to play it for a good while to realise this.
The one problem is doing the horrible quests for say Graphene, they get tedious real quick.

[Argent]

I almost never post on discussion forums, but I think I'll toss my two cents in for once. Having played ANNO 2070 only, ANNO 2205 is much more streamlined by comparison. A lot of the micromanagement is gone, and there's no sense of urgency or responsiveness in the face of disasterless maps. In addition, your populace only responds negatively if you fail to supply them. Thus, a lot of the 'small interruptions' that forced you to dig in and fix things are gone, and thus the game is streamlined quite a bit. You don't have to worry about a tsunami wiping out half your city and production chains but you do have to worry about the moon sucking up all of your positive credit balance. The game's progression is also quite linear plotwise. These do constitute significant differences from ANNO 2070 but saying that they're dumbed down is inaccurate. ANNO 2205's challenges are in the fine mechanics of expansion. Endgame these mechanics become repetitive (yes, you're going to need to put 5 finance calculators on that fusion power plant), but along the way one still has a lot of fine-tuning to do.

If ANNO 2205 gave you the ability to 'win' maps the way you can in 2070, I think people's expectations would be a little different. However, the plot centers around your nascent corporation rising and rising and never failing (excluding a bankruptcy in the hardest game mode). It's a different kind of city builder than 2070, but it's not bad on its own merits. It's just got different rewards and incentives to keep playing. It is, for lack of a better word, a bubble in which you can decide what kind of layout you want for your territories with the (relatively) small confines of economic productivity to restrict you. I actually am enjoying the fact that the game world isn't ever trying to kill my cities the way they can in other city-builders (I mean disasters in SimCity were devastating considering the game never usually let you make enough money to replace anything destroyed)

Older players may be angry because the system of reward/challenge/incentive has changed so much from the older titles (and those things are what all video games are about) but it doesn't FAIL to provide them, it just has a very different structure than before. Ultimately the gamer him/herself will have to decide if 2205's mechanics are satisfying enough for them. I, for one, find myself playing 2205 a lot lately, and that's only going to increase as the DLCs and updates come.

[Scynix]

For arguments sake I'm only going to compare 2205 to 2070. The removal of aspects that created difficulty is, in turn, "dumbing down".

It's a little weird to me this discussion has even gone on this long. 2205 is significantly easier to play than 2070 was. Money is the only real resource management involved now- you cannot run out of tools or the most basic construction materials. You don't even have to micromanage/design structure grids.

Battle is completely removed from the main functinality of the game. Which, honestly, is a complete shame to me- yes, 2070 naval combat was 'meh' at best, Warcraft 2~esque units shooting at each other. 2205 has some beautiful naval ships, and more mechanics for combat, but placing them in a weird minigame was just a bad design choice.

Don't even get me started on the complete removal of the Ark/upgrade module system. The vast majority of my 2070 time was spent playing with the different production/combat modules so I could customize how my start was. Heck, you could even unlock stuff like new player colors from completing game achievements.

2205 is the first time, in the entire Anno series, that I've been bored. I'm bored because all of the difficulty is gone. The only thing you have to maintain is income, spamming tier 1 housing is still a great way to mass income. Atleast in 2070 I had to have a good basic productin chain running before I could fleece new settlers out of their money.

Almost everything cited by the OP is, in fact, "dumbing down". Removing "annoying systems" like resource hauling removes one of the design aspects. The new tools made the game even easier- I don't even have to plan ahead. I can build haphazardly and fix it later.

You quite literally implied the game was dumbed down by commenting on all of the changes- ALL of which resulted in a removal of challenge.

There is eventually a point where removing a perceived repetitive or annoying task is removing gameplay. The removal of so many things that forced some forward building planning in turn removed a large aspect of what made the game more challenging.