Removing access to paid DLC on a single player game is unforgivable.

I appreciate that the developers valued getting this working again. Bonus points for 64bit changeover; I wonder if this game has an active modding community; may be worth a replay...

Thank you for those who gave awards- sorry if changing this review changes anything. But I aim to be reflective- and the negative reviews got what we wanted. Them patching the game and saving it. Ubisoft is still a villain here- and I hope they will eventually learn that they shouldn't just kill single player games.

Update: I will be leaving this review here for posterity, so none of us will forget what Ubisoft did. However, it appears as though an update that was released recently totally removed SolidShield from this game. Thank whoever the hell we need to thank that they actually listened. It only took them FIVE YEARS.

I have this game. I LOVE this game.

However, I cannot rate this positive at all.

UPlay may be a joke, but it is a sufferable joke. The real problem is much scarier than that.

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SolidShield.
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What is SolidShield?

SolidShield is a software DRM engine that was built for corporate applications, NOT computer games. In the business world, people only upgrade computers once every few years. By the time they upgrade a couple of times, the software is obsolete and has been superseded by a later version.

Many gamers are completely different. A lot of us format our machines at least once a year, sometimes more often than that. A lot of us change our hardware semi-regularly as well, particularly video cards, hard disk drives and memory.

This is a huge problem, you see, because all of these changes change the hardware fingerprint that SolidShield uses to 'protect' its software payload. It's akin to the Windows activation system with the very major difference that it it is extremely hyperactive, and very intrusive.

According to Ubisoft, who has said in the past that the PC gaming market is terrible, we are never allowed to change our hardware configurations. If we do, we are obligated to buy a new copy.

Ubisoft says piracy has caused them to require this ridiculous DRM system, which isn't suitable for games at all.

I counter that the existence of SolidShield in this product is causing people to prefer pirating this game to buying it. After all, if you pirate it, you'll actually be able to install it when you feel like playing it in two years' time.

I've never before seen a company that shows such a disdain for its customers. If it were up to me, I'd remove ALL DRM from Anno 2070, and give it away for free (or a lot less than its $60 price tag) as an apology to all of us for having to put up with this travesty.

Until TAGES SolidShield is COMPLETELY REMOVED from this product, I cannot see how anyone could possibly rate it positively.

This sale is a shameless money grab and the game should be removed from Steam as it is fundamentally broken as Ubisoft have taken servers offline and without these servers users can no longer access basic features such as changing a profile picture and key game features such as the Ark. Even then the game still requires ubisoft connect... Do Not Buy, if it has been bought recently for example on this sale (as of 12.05.23) - get a refund.

I stopped playing this game due to game breaking quest bugs which were never fixed and for awhile I've been wanting to play on my days off as it was something different but I've never been able to connect to the ubisoft servers even when they were supposedly up and running.

Not to mention, the game would simply just crash and not load prior to the update around November last year or so.

FIXING UPLAY:

UPVOTE THIS SO EVERYONE KNOWS

The reason Uplay crashes when you try to launch from Steam is because Uplay does not install properly when the install is queued/prompted by Steam itself.

INSTEAD, download and install the standalone Uplay launcher.

THEN, run the new standalone Uplay install and log in with your account.

NOW, you can launch the game from steam as usual as long as Uplay is running and you are logged in.

This is where the Anno series take a dive, and it's all Ubisoft's own fault.

Let me repeat these:

1) No game should ever force you into having an active internet connection when playing a singleplayer game.

2) And no singleplayer game should ever require an active internet connection in order to use in game items.

3) And no game with active connection requirement should ever wipe your progress clean when you are accidentally offline, without any remediation.

Ubisoft managed to ruin Anno 2070 by making all 3 mistakes. Sorry, couple these with a UI interface that alienate big screen, I just can't go on.

I love the Anno series of games, but this game is no longer playable due to Ubisoft's "always online" policy. Trying to play this game through Steam involves the Ubisoft launcher opening, logging into that, re-entering your CD-Key, and then logging into an Anno 2070 account, which no longer works because I guess they stopped maintaining the servers. So now I own a game that I can't even play in single player mode because Ubisoft can't be bothered. Money well spent.

Now, before I begin, I want to say that I applaud the studio who wrote this, this is one of the best games I've ever played. HOWEVER, I will never buy another game using Uplay. After playing this game for about a year I finally bought the expansion I was so excited about. Well, that was the biggest mistake I've ever made. Deep Ocean introduces an autopatcher proxy bug which I cannot fix without going out to some sketchy link on MediaFire to get a FUNCTIONAL autopatcher. That is, unless I go in and download the game through Uplay. Without the patch the game is registered as "Game modification detected" and has no connection to my login and there is no text on any of the menus, unplayable. Supposedly there has been a fix out there for Uplay-only users but I don't have the time or bandwidth to redownload the entire game. I just want to play the freaking thing.

Please go back to fingering your butt Ubisoft, it's all you ever do.
-Slightly annoyed ex-customer

Anno 2070 is a great game, but uplay and ubisoft game launcher have ruined everything

Holy Cow.

1) Anno Launcher - Enter CD Key and Accept EULA
2) UPlay Update - Create Account and Accept EULA
3) UPlay - Sign in with Uplay Account and Enter CD Key
4) Launch software - Sign in with UPlay account - Re-enter CD Key
5) Anno - Sign in with UPlay account - Re-enter CD Key
6) Create addition unique in-game user ID
7) Re-Enter CD Key

Ubisoft I despise you.

Dev's updated the game to ensure it still remains playable. God tier.