Season Pass/DLCs

[Palooon]

Just bought the game, I see there are 4 season passes but they all have mixed rating. Why?
Are there some DLCs that I should buy to have good time?

[Averagedog]

unless they changed anything for the 4th season, basically if you have the DLCs activated they will all become available in the game "too soon" for the average player. As the DLC activate in game, your competitors will generally start colonizing the better islands quicker than you can colonize them without jeopardizing your own enterprises.

However, there is ALOT of content. Each new region features their own resources and production chains so the fun is in the challenge really.

[ValhallasAshes]

It's a bit hard to rely on steam ratings sometimes. Especially for any Uplay based games because a lot of people hate the uPlay launcher (with good reason), but kind of go overboard with review bombing every game, even good games and content simply because they hate the launcher. On the one hand I can easily understand the sentiment, but on the other, it seems really unfair that legitimately good content gets disproportionately hit with negativity by users who simply can't see past their immediate short-sighted frustrations. Lets be clear here. uPlay is an abomination. But Anno 1800 and it's subsequent DLCs are all excellent. Some DLCs are better than others, but all are worthwhile additions to the game that make Anno 1800 one of the best Anno games ever made. Up there with Anno 1404 and 2070, surpassing them in some ways and giving them a run for their money in others.

As for which specific DLCs I would prioritize for enjoyment.

My must haves:

Sunken Treasures - The sunken treasures mechanic is fun and adds a new way to get certain items, but where sunken treasures really shines is with the addition of a new massive island called Cape Trelawney. If you like to build big, or you feel the regular islands become too cramped, too quickly, this DLC is your must buy.

Land of Lions - This DLC adds a new region to the game and the mechanics and story line in this region are fun and enjoyable. But in my opinion, where this DLC shines is with the addition of Scholars and research to main gameplay loop. Allowing you to research and craft bonus, items and special citizens for use on your various islands that opens up a much more direct means of obtaining items that would otherwise only be obtainable via expeditions, exhibitions and lot of RNG. If you find RNG mechanics tedious and prefer more direct ways to earn the items you want/need, this is a must have DLC.

New World Rising - Much like Sunken Treasures did for the Old World, New World Rising does much the same for the New World region. Expanding the New World populations, building upgrades and adds a huge island like Cape Trelawney for the New World. Fleshing out what was for a long time, a really underdeveloped area.

Seeds of Change and Bright Harvest - I consider both of these the same type of content but specific to their regions. Bright Harvest for Old World. Seeds of Change for New World. Adding new mechanics like fertilizer and tractors to significantly boost resource output for your production buildings. Haciendas in the New World, etc. These two DLCs boost the main gameplay loop in a meaningful way.

Seat of Power - This is a rather tiny DLC, but I would argue that Seat of Power offers more to the player than the sum of it's parts would imply. For example, if you boost this building enough, it's actually fairly easy to drastically reduce your workforce requirements on every island where you build a branch office. Which I've often found to be more useful than the workforce docks. It's a tiny DLC, but I find it so useful I can't imagine not having now.

As you've probably noticed, Season 2 as a whole for me, is a must have. If you can save a few bucks buying it as a season rather than separate, season two is probably the only one where I can recommend just buying the whole season. The whole season is just plain excellent.
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Tier 2 (Great content, but not high priority)

Docklands - This one was hard. Some people really love this DLC, and it does have it's uses. Very good uses. But it's a bit of a one trick pony, so I can't put in my high priority list.

Tourist Season - Tourist Season almost made it into my must have list. But it's clearly side content and all of it's content is pretty specific to itself. Unlike the content I recommended above where all of my must have content have far reaching impacts, benefits and gameplay mechanics. As good as it is, I just can't say the same for Tourist Season. If you want to focus on learning the core of the game first, you can safely wait before buying this DLC.

High Life - Let me be clear. This is excellent content. Adding a whole new tier of building upgrades and a whole lot of new production consumables to support the tier. The reason I don't put this in my must have list (especially for beginners), is because it's extremely late game content with advanced mechanics. As such, I can't put this in my "must have" list. You can safely put this content on hold until you get late enough into a gameplay session where you feel ready for the next level of challenge.

Empire of the Skies - I have not played this content yet, but I have a feeling it's going to be tier 2 quality, based on reviews I've watched. I admit, I am making a bit of an assumption, so I could be wrong on this one.
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Tier 3 (Good enjoyable content, but don't do enough to be graded higher in my opinion)

Botanica - This is good content, but its rather small, not far reaching and once completed, is more for decorative flavor than anything else. Although some of the set bonus effects from collecting all of a certain group of plants is interesting. And it does synergize well with the Seat of Power DLC by boosting the attractiveness level of your island which in turn boosts the effects of your Seat of Power bonuses if they are both built on the same island.

The Passage - I like the Passage. I like the region. I like the unique gameplay it offers. But I just don't think it offers enough to benefit the rest of the game. Plus as other reviewers have noted, it's become overshadowed by the similar mechanics offered by the Empire of the Skies DLC. Unfortunately, this DLC has so little impact on the bigger game "as a whole" that if it was missing, you probably wouldn't even notice. It is good content. It just didn't do enough to assert itself as an essential part of the experience.

The Anarchist - Honestly, I haven't played it yet. Some people really love it, but I've been so enamored and distracted by all the other content, that I just haven't gotten round to trying any of the related Anarchist content yet. That's not to say it's bad content by any means, just that I haven't tried it yet, nor have I felt something was missing from my experience for not having played it. It's probably good content, but I have to put it in Tier 3 until I get round to playing it.

And finally, at the very bottom, I would put all of the decoration packs as not necessary, and purely nice to have. I have all of them and I use most of them to varying degrees. But they're all purely decorative. I would focus on acquiring these only after the main content DLCs listed above as the mainline DLCs will offer far more value to the gameplay than the comparatively small decoration packs.

If you'd like more information about the various DLCs, their content and which ones might interest you, I would recommend watching the videos done by ReviewGen on youtube. He's generally done a really good job of breaking down, explaining and reviewing the various DLCs and Season Passes released over the years. Even if he and I differ slightly on what we consider the "must have" DLCs, we mostly share similar opinions.

Here are links to the Anno 1800 videos he's done that I think are worth watching if you're debating which DLCs to get:

The Definitive DLC Tier List: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73DKTq_h-aM
Anno 1800 - Year in Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmgHzAjBVa0&t
Season 2 Pass Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a9ZeYVvPVI&t
Season 3 Pass Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7IeIF302aI&t
Season 4 Pass Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWNFFoDj-DM&t

Hope this helps.

[Babo]

Originally posted by ValhallasAshes:

Hope this helps.

Thank you for the detailed info. Do you know what I should buy to get the base game and ALL DLC?

[ValhallasAshes]

There isn't an option that buys "all" the DLC. The closest you can get to that description is the "Complete" edition.

The Season 4 Gold edition only includes the base game and Season 4.

The Complete edition includes the base game and all 4 seasons of DLC (which includes all of the mainline gameplay DLC), but as far as I'm aware, it does not include the Cosmetic packs. Those will still need to be purchased separately.

If you want to buy all the Cosmetic Packs, the cheapest route to getting all of them would be to get the Cosmetic Bundle, and then buy:

Seasonal Decorations Pack
Old Town Pack
Industrial Zone Pack
Dragon Garden Pack
separately.

In my opinion, I think the Year 4 Complete Edition is worth it's asking price at 55% off (45 pound). At full price, I struggle to recommend any game at 100 quid, even with all DLC and especially for a game that's 4 years old now. But at 50 quid, I think Anno 1800 Complete Edition more than justifies it's asking price, even today. And offers far better bang for buck than the Gold Edition. The Complete Edition has everything the Gold Edition does, but also includes Seasons 1, 2 and 3 for effectively 5 quid each. Even at half price, buying those additional seasons separately would cost you twice that. So "bang for buck", I would highly recommend the Complete Edition over the Gold.

The Cosmetic packs though, I feel are over priced. They're nice and you will use them in game, but each one is small and expensive for what they offer. And even when they're sold as a bundle, even with a 20% discount, they still feel overpriced. I would recommend not feeling pressured to buy the cosmetic packs. Get them if you want and when you feel able. But don't feel like you "need" to buy them now.

[Someone]

I would not trust those ratings most of the reviews do not even talk about the actual DLC