Anno 1404, known as Dawn of Discovery in North
America, is a city-building and economic simulation
game of the Anno series, with real-time strategy
elements. Released in 2009, it was developed
by Related Designs, produced by Blue Byte,
and published by Ubisoft. Anno 1404 is the
sequel to Anno 1701 and is followed by the
futuristic sequel Anno 2070. Though the game
centers on a series of fictional events, the
overall concept of the storyline is based
upon real life aspects of medieval/renaissance
history such as The Crusades, advancements
in gothic architecture, construction of cathedrals,
and hanseatic trade involving the rise of
patrician merchants and early forms of capitalism.
An expansion, titled Anno 1404: Venice, which
adds multiplayer and other features, was released
on February 26, 2010.
Gameplay
As with other Anno games, the player, at the
will of their unnamed country of origin, creates
and manages their fief aside AI players. The
player must colonize islands, plan settlements,
set up factories and farms to meet their citizens'
needs, enter diplomatic relationships with
AI players, and engage in naval and ground
combat with others.
One of the main foci of the game in the "city
building setting" sense centers on the construction
of monuments, namely a Gothic cathedral and
an Arabic mosque. The construction phases
of these monuments are dependent on certain
preconditions which have to be met in order
to continue building. The player also needs
to stockpile building material in order to
commence such a project. The process of the
construction of the cathedral resembles very
closely the castle/palace feature that was
displayed in 1404 '​s predecessor, Anno
1701.
Trade is an essential element of forward progress.
Occidental populations can not grow past a
certain level of success without Spice, and
later Quartz, that can only be generated in
Oriental lands. Although populations generate
taxable income, it is difficult to generate
enough gold to make meaningful capital investments
without extensive trading. This is simplified
by an automatic trading process that allows
an island to make resources available to visiting
merchant ships.
As the player progresses through the game,
he gains access to naval vessels and troops
which allow him to invade and ultimately to
defeat other players. Anno 1404 features an
updated interface, bigger islands and worlds
to explore, a sandbox mode and other features
new to the Anno series.
Plot
The campaign begins when the player is sent
to administer a fief granted to him by the
Emperor, in the Occident. The Emperor is unwell
and Lord Richard Northburgh, cousin and treasurer
of the Emperor, is building a magnificent
Cathedral to pray for the Emperor's health.
Meanwhile, Cardinal Lucius is making preparations
for a Crusade against the Saracens of the
Orient, aided by Guy Forcas.
In the first few chapters of the campaign,
the player learns the basics of game-play
and the economy by assisting Northburgh and
Forcas with supply and construction tasks,
as well as meeting some of the other main
characters.
As the Crusader ships leave the harbor, Northburgh
begins to uncover clues to a mysterious plot.
He and the player travel to the Orient and
befriend the Grand Vizier of the Sultan, Al
Zahir, who helps the player to defeat a band
of Corsairs and break up a child trafficking
scheme. The plot thickens as further clues
reveal that a main character is implicated
in a sinister conspiracy to overthrow the
Emperor himself. Because he comes too close
to the truth, Lord Northburgh is captured
and the player is tasked with unraveling the
mystery.
Over the next several chapters, the player
must win over new allies, convince the leaders
of the Crusade that they are being manipulated
under false pretenses, and survive dire circumstances
in order to defeat the villains and restore
the Emperor to his rightful place.
The campaign is divided into eight chapters
and each chapter can be played on 3 different
difficulties: easy, medium, and hard. Apart
from the story elements, the campaign serves
as a tutorial to prepare the player for the
more rigorous scenarios and continuous game
modes.
All of the main characters encountered in
the campaign are also encountered in the scenarios
mode and can be selected as computer opponents
in continuous games, although the actions
of the characters during the campaign are
unrelated to their actions in these modes
apart from having similar personalities. Lord
Northburgh and Al Zahir act as mentors and
trade partners in the other modes, much like
they do in the campaign.
Gameplay
New features
Anno 1404 has several new features that distinguish
it from its three predecessors: Anno 1503,
Anno 1602, and Anno 1701. These features include:
Occident and Orient
As was the case in Anno 1701, the game world
is divided into two culturally distinct zones.
In Anno 1404, these zones are inspired by,
though not intended to be historically accurate
to, northwestern Renaissance Europe and the
medieval Near East, referred to as the Occident
and the Orient respectively. One of the major
differences between previous entries in the
series and Anno 1404 is that players are required
to build both occidental and oriental settlements
simultaneously in order for the inhabitants
of their settlements and available buildings
to advance. Despite the addition of player-managed
oriental settlements, the Occident remains
the primary focus of the game. The Orient
acts more of a trading partner in order for
Occidental people to advance in class. In
order for this to occur, Oriental goods such
as spice, indigo and quartz must be produced
and shipped from Oriental colonies.
Housing levels
There are a total of six levels of housing
including both occidental and oriental settlements.
The four occidental levels are peasants, citizens,
patricians and noblemen. The two oriental
levels are nomads and envoys. In the Occident,
the player starts by building peasant housing,
and in the orient, the players start by building
nomad housing, both of which advance when
conditions are met. These conditions include
the acquisition of goods as mentioned above,
as well as the construction of specific buildings,
such as a debtors' prison, bath house or a
cathedral.
Civilization class ratios
In Anno 1701, every residential structure
could be advanced to the uppermost class,
so a city could be entirely made up of Patricians
by the end of a game. In Anno 1404, a number
of peasants are required to support a moderate
amount of citizens who in turn support a number
patricians and noblemen. There are several
other factors that can impact the ratio of
lower class to upper class, however. For instance,
the number of envoys settled in the player's
oriental settlements will satisfy a sum of
the peasants and citizens required to support
patricians and noblemen in occidental settlements.
New goods
Since the game takes place in the year 1404,
the range of goods available is significantly
different from the goods available in the
previous games, which took place later in
history. Some of the new goods include spices,
bread, meat, candlesticks, leather jerkins,
and brocade robes for the Occident and dates,
milk, carpets, pearl necklaces, and marzipan
for the Orient.
Quests
Although quests are not new to Anno 1404,
both it and its expansion, 'Anno 1404: Venice,'
feature far more quests than previous games
in the series. Quests are given at different
intervals to the player by neutral powers,
mentors like Northburgh and Al Zahir, and
from various people living in the player's
settlements. Computer opponents, if they become
allies through diplomacy, will also offer
quests to the player. Quests offer rewards
such as honour points, ships, gold, goods
or upgrades for settlements or ships. There
are several quest types, including fetch quests,
reverse fetch quests, sinking enemy ships,
or finding specific individuals in a settlement.
Some quests of these quests can be quite complicated,
with multiple smaller quests in the chain.
The 'Anno 1404: Venice' expansion adds 300
new quests and two new types of quests: trading
race and ship boarding.
Achievements
Anno 1404 and its add-on Venice add the possibility
of rewarding achievements to the player. Those
achievements can be seen as 'milestones' and
vary from quite easy to extremely hard, since
a lot of them are 'hidden'. The achievements
are divided in 5 categories: diplomacy, setup,
economic, military and general. Quite a few
of the achievements are interlinked, being
part of another 'bigger' achievement. In the
base game there were 206 achievements to be
had, the Venice expansion added another 110
of them, totalling 316. However, as of patch
2.1/1.3 not all achievements are reachable,
as syntax errors in the games' xml files are
still present. Trying to correct these game
files will result in the achievement not being
awarded as the game recognises this as modification.
This has been addressed by an unofficial user-made
patch, about which see below.
Development
Digital rights management
The game has a rigorous digital rights management
system based on Tagès. It forces users to
activate their game online once by submitting
an activation code after each installation
on a different computer or a significant hardware
change. The activation can be performed on
any PC with an Internet connection. It can
only be activated three times by default and
unlike many other DRM systems, it does not
support revocation of already used licenses.
Further licenses can be requested free of
charge by contacting Ubisoft.
The copy protection has been completely removed
with patch v1.1 for the DVD version. Digital
download versions retain the copy protection.
Patches
Version 1.0 of the game was shipped with a
number of bugs in it and although patch 1.1
addressed some of them, a new patch was released
with the release of the 'Venice' add-on, updating
the base game to 1.2. On November 25, 2010,
a third patch was released to address a serious
save game bug, patching the base game to version
1.3 and the 'Venice' expansion to version
2.1. The 'Gold' version of the game that includes
both the original game and the 'Venice' expansion
was also patched in November 2010 to version
3.1, which combines all the changes of the
version 1.3 patch of the base game, and version
2.1 of 'Venice'.
Ubisoft never released North American patches
for the final version 1.3 patch for the base
game and the version 2.1 patch for Dawn of
Discovery: Venice. However, the North American
game can be manually patched to version 1.3
and version 2.1 by simply downloading the
already unpacked European patch files.
An unofficial user-made patch was made available
in September 2011. The patch addresses issues
with broken quests, fixes spelling and grammar
errors, adds proper English localizations,
adds English translations for over 1,000 quests
which only had description text in the German
version, and fixes countless other issues.
The patch is created in such a way that the
game will not detect modding and therefore
fully allow unlocking achievements. The patch
can be installed and uninstalled at will since
it does not affect saved games.
Anno 1404: Venice
Anno 1404: Venice was released on February
26, 2010. The expansion includes 15 new scenarios,
an espionage system, volcanic islands and
an added third non-player power known as the
Venetian dignitary Giacomo Garibaldi. Garibaldi
enables the player to sabotage other player's
cities and/or buy them out. Originally, there
were also three new computer players planned
but these were scrapped for unknown reasons.
The venice expansion also allows the player
to play the original 6 scenarios of the base
game but with all the added features and improvements
of the Venice addon.
Many new buildings were added:
A multi-part personal mansion
New ornamental buildings such as Saint Mark's
pillar
Two new quest type were added: ship race and
privateering.
Furthermore, the player now has the option
of requesting a quest in order to gain more
honour points and/or gold coins/goods.
Reception
IGN gave the game an 8.2, saying it was "a
worthy successor to the Anno franchise." D
Critic praised the game, saying that "with
up-to-date graphics, a great soundtrack, and
great gameplay, there’s a lot to love about
this game." CVG gave the game a 6.1, saying
"The Anno series has been delivering solid
if unspectacular city-building and strategy
for a few years now. Imagine a straight-faced
The Settlers and you're getting there."
References
External links
Official US site
Official UK site
Official forum
