Oh, the graphics themselves are much improved – the game is downright beautiful – but it’s still houses and factories, roads and flying cars. Those expecting the intervening time to have significantly changed the look of the game will be disappointed. Players are again put on an island and tasked with building the futuristic city of their dreams. The world is still recovering from its near-drowning in 2070 and every action must be balanced against the risk of total environmental collapse. While 135 game-years have passed since the last entry, not much has changed. It’s almost impossible to talk about Anno 2205 without referencing its direct predecessor, Anno 2070. It’s not the perfect sequel because there are some problems, but this is truly a triumph – exceeding my expectations for where the series was headed. Games like Age of Empires 2, Grand Theft Auto 3, Tie Fighter (the sequel to space shooter X-Wing ) or even SimCity 2000 didn’t just take the original game and make it better, they redefined their entire respective series.Īnno 2205 does all of this: it keeps what was good, mostly fixes what was bad, and adds all sorts of potentially smart new ideas. In other words, the new game is so good, it renders the original basically unplayable. To borrow a term from my advertising life, truly transcendent sequels “cannibalize” their predecessor. The best sequels, though, do one other thing. Change too many things and fans will be alienated from the franchise – remember when XCOM: Enemy Within was going to be a first-person shooter? Was anyone happy with that? Make the new game too similar and you get the Madden series or Assassin’s Creed – a game that feels more like a full priced expansion pack than a new, unique release. At the same time, the sequel must also improve on the previous installment, evolving the gameplay so that the new experience feels like it’s worth a fresh investment. It has to look and feel like its predecessor, but also fix all the problems that held back the previous iteration. The new game needs to be similar to the first, but not too similar. Making a quality sequel is almost a more challenging endeavor in some ways than crafting the original entry, itself. Anno 2205, Ubisoft Blue Byte’s sequel to Anno 2070, has just been released and while it’s not my favorite sequel of all time, it definitely comes close.

Anno 2205 revolution mod