Unknown Chemistry: Anno 2070 [Updated]

So approximately a year ago, Ubisoft released Anno 2070. A sequel to its series, Anno 2070 introduces players to a possible future where global warming has taken a turn for the worse and has caused the ice bergs to melt considerably. It's to the point where mountains are the new lands and everything else is submerged.

Anno 2070 is a city building game but also incorporates some RTS into it as you command your ships and some aircraft. The variety of units may be lacking but they are still fun to play around with. You've got standard cargo ships able to transport goods from one island to another (keep in mind that Anno 2070 takes place on islands and not large pieces of lands). Then you've got nifty warships which do battle against other warships and depending on the ship in question, it may have the armaments to attack submarines and aircraft. Submarines can't attack aircraft but they are awesome for attacking most ships as they lack the proper weapons to defend themselves against these sneaky units. Aircraft on the other hand lets you attack inland as your ships' ranges will reach only so far. Although strangely enough, there are no airplanes but instead, there are helicopters and VTOLs.

Anno 2070 is also a rather complicated game as you progress onward and build up your civilization. At first you may only need to contend with fishery for food and tea or liquor for drinks to satisfy your citizens' needs. But soon you'll be faced with challenges of getting them lobster meals, champagnes, expensive jewelry, household robots and 3D projectors just to name a few. The problem is that each of these goods requires different raw materials and other unfinished goods so you'll be jumping all over the place trying to gather all the right materials.

There's also the issue of raw materials. Each island can support up to a maximum number of 4 fertilities (provided you are playing on easy mode) so you may farm up to 4 different foods. Seeing how this game has more than four foods, you're going to have to expand to other islands and farm there as well. Other raw materials such as oil, coal, copper or uranium are also difficult to find all on one island thereby forcing you to either stay in the stone age or expand and settle in other islands. The biggest issue with expand to so many different islands is making sure that all raw materials and goods go to where they need to go. Raw materials need to go to factories while finished goods need to go to your citizens. You can put factories on the same island as your citizens thereby saving time and the trip of transporting the goods in question. But then you face the problem of eco-balance.

The biggest challenge in this game is maintaining a good eco-balance for your citizens. Those living underneath too much smog will soon start feeling unhappy and unhappy citizens means less taxes. Also, if your eco-balance drops too low (say -500 for example), you might see a natural disaster or two destroying a good chunk of your city. This encourages players to build buildings that help improve the eco-balance making it a much better place for your people to live in.

This is just a brief outline of what Anno 2070 has to offer. I know I didn't write much here but I will put up a couple of pictures just to please your eyes.

In this picture, you can see an anti-ship turret in the foreground protecting my docks from enemy attack. My (unfinished) city sits in the background.