The Anno series is a city-building game with a little Caesar and SimCity thrown in. Your basic goal is to create a profitable town or several towns, managing your economy and keeping your population happy. It's definitely a tricky balance since you have to meet the growing populations' demands, but you can't spend too much on them because your resources are limited. It's certainly rewarding to find yourself in charge of a thriving community. If you enjoyed the previous games then do get this - it's perhaps the best Anno game yet.

While it took a while to get the serial key issue worked out over the special package for this game, I have thoroughly enjoyed playing it ever since. The economic modeling is impressive and I believe the graphics stand out more so than in other games in similar genres. I have always been a fan of the Anno series, so I wasn't 100% sure what to expect with this. I especially enjoy the random missions that appear!

If you're new the series, certainly go through the tutorials. If you're comfortable with these types of games, you should be able to figure it out without too much trouble.

this is one of those games that has 3 great things of gaming. good graphics, its fun to play, and it has the addiction factor. you will have moments where you will be "One more minutes" just to finish whatever it is you are doing. only to realize it is 3 in the monring.

This is one of the best economic city-builder strategy games since Settlers II. And that wouldn't be a long list.

There are a lot of different products you have to produce in order to evolve your cities, unlike in other games where you would only need a few different things from basic categories. The war aspect of the game is not very detailed, this one is more about economy.

The graphics, the sound and voiceover quality is very good, although loading times may get a bit long for larger maps if you set video settings very high.

It's not that easy to get this game in Europe, but keep a lookout for this one, as it is definitely worth the price.

Pros: Hours of trading and building.

Game start up is quick and easy.

Cons:

In the Dawn Of Discovery Venice, you have too look for spies and enemies. Also you have to wait wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too long to get any ground troops.

You don't have any class to really chose from.

One of my new all time favorite games, Dawn of Discovery takes the standard set by the Anno series of games and refines it to perfection. The graphics are beautiful, the soundtrack is very good, and the gameplay itself is the best of the series. Similar to previous games, Dawn sees you setting sail to colonize an island in the new world and make your fortunes, building an empire that will have to defend itself from pirate attacks and other opposing nations.

This game is different than most of this premise, however, because combat plays a backseat to the city building aspect. You build a trade empire that supplies your settlements with what they need. One settlement will begin needing tools and stone for their structures, but as you build it up, it will be able to produce specialized goods on its own. Each island is best at supplying certain resources, which makes it important to pick and choose islands that are capable of growing the crops you want before other nations do. Once you do, you will establish a network of islands, one producing tools to send to new settlements, others producing food to send to the hungry masses, all connected by patrolling trade fleets, while you try to fit all your citizens' needs and attract wealthier inhabitants to your towns.

While combat is secondary to the incredibly deep diplomacy and city-building aspect of the game, it is much improved from previous titles, allowing you to truly lay siege on your enemies if need be, and establish a foothold on their islands.

This game is really good, and I recommend it heartily as a fan of old world lore, city-building games, and more importantly, coop multiplayer games. The Anno series has always allowed people to play together, but Dawn of Discovery goes one step further and allows multiple players to play *on the same side.* Multiple players gather under one nation's flag and act as one, being able to draw from the same resource pool to build structures, manage towns on various islands, control fleets and otherwise take care of tasks other players are too busy to handle. It results in a joint effort to build up the most powerful empire you can, and it's brilliant, especially when you consider 4 players can play under each nation's flag, resulting in 4 sides with 16 players total for a completely cooperative experience.

This game is worth it. It's the best of the series and truly sets itself apart with its attention to detail and sheer fun value.

Despite the problems with the Tages DRM a little while back, this game is amazing. A city builder with a hint of a strategy game makes this one game that you won't soon forget. Beautiful graphics that fit the genre just right, and depth that you're left saying to yourself that you couldn't quite ask for much more. Love this game, and I would definitely recommend picking it up.

I recommend DoD (aka Anno 1404), really one of the best City Builder ever and IMHO best part of "Anno" series. Excellent gameplay, graphics and sound :-)

Dawn of Discovery/Anno is a mixed bag. Graphics and execution is excellent. But somehow gameplay is flawed. You set up a settelement and develop it. So far so good. The problem is that gameplay is repetitive as hell. Your citizens develop from peasant to burgher to noble to ... to ... etc. The problem is that on every stage you have to do exactly the same things. So in the end it gets boring fast. Excellent technical execution though. 3 stars.

I really like this game. I've played Anno 1602 years ago for hours and then kind of lost track of the series. 1503 received bad reviews and didn't really interest me. I bought 1701, but it bored me really quick. This time it's just the right mixture of the base game offering a campaign that's nicely told and acts as a good tutorial for newbies and then the classic endless game in the Venice expansion and some scenarios on top that offer a long-time motivation. You can even download custom scenarios if that somehow isn't enough for you. Technically Dawn of discovery offers some really nice graphics and lots of details to discover so you can really get lost inside your world. Great game!

Excellent game with what seems like endless hours of fun. Build up your settlements while managing resources, setting up trade, and discovering new islands on which to expand. The scenarios in the game are fun to play. Would recommend to anyone who enjoys a good strategy game.

Beautiful graphics and art design, charming atmosphere and relaxed pace. Unfortunately, this only describes the Venice expansion, because Tages DRM refuses to validate the activation code for Dawn of Discovery. While you can still access scenarios and continuous play, the original campaign remains locked. It seems like two different activation codes are required for this Gold Edition, but only one code is supplied.

This is a great civilization type game, It gives many options and a different focus on how to win scenarios than most city building games. I like the quests/campaign, as one way to win it's unique to the Anno (Dawn of Discovery) games as far as I know.

This Gold Edition has the expansion which adds more options for your cities which increase replay, as well as some new scenarios and items. The sandbox mode is very well done, giving you a lot of control to enable you many hours of game play.

This is definitely worth picking up, I believe there's a demo out there should you be interested.

This is another wonderfule strategy game. While I typically stay with Paradox Ubi did a great job with this game. If you like management this is an awesome game. The battles are not much to speak of and that is not is strong suit but overall it is an awesome game.