This is a blog post about the Anno 1800 PC game trial, a review and has answers to frequently asked questions.
Please note: This isn’t a sponsored post and nobody from Epic Games or Ubisoft contacted me.
Introduction
I had been aware of the Anno series for a while, but hadn’t played the Anno 1800 game due to price, but also because I own so many other games and I’m wary of the time this type of game can take up.
When I found out that Epic Games and Ubisoft were doing a free trial, I didn’t hesitate to try it out. It is a massive download and I did run into a problem getting the game to run, which I’ve documented here to help others.
I won’t hesitate to mention I enjoyed playing the game. I showed it to my fiancée who then also joined in and played the trial with me using the multiplayer option. I also told a friend about the game. For me, the trial has been worthwhile and I appreciate the opportunity.
I will provide a review below, but what a lot of people might find helpful is the FAQ I’ve written further down. I hope you find this blog post helpful.
Anno 1800 review
To me, this game feels like a mixture of Age of Empires, Sim City and Windward. You build a town and industries on islands, go on small quests, trade with others and have some ship battles. Perhaps there is more to it, but I was only playing the trial and for me, that was enough to get me hooked!
To me the graphics feel painted, the music and sounds are excellent and on my old Quad 2 Core PC, the game play was smooth. Even the artwork when the game was loading was excellent!!
You’re able to adjust the view, but most of the time I was zoomed out. Zooming in and you start to see people, their carts and animals. Double clicking on one of your ships takes you to its location. To me it all appears well thought out with nice attention to detail.
It’s a time hog and I found myself up well past midnight still playing a game, eating late meals and neglecting other activities! Thankfully for the most part, my better have joined me for the trial period and sat side by side on our own computers we had a lot of fun.
I was around for the original Sim City on DOS and have been playing PC games for decades. I’ve played a lot of games over the years. This game stands out and I’m glad I played the trial.
Frequently Asked Questions
I was running the Anno 1800 trial, but I still decided to write a FAQ as I spent a considerable amount of time on the game within a short period of time! However as the trial has now ended I can’t review some of my FAQ. There are a few instances I’ve given a non-precise answer that should be helpful.
Q. How do I change the camera position in Anno 1800?
A. You can hold down the middle mouse button and then move the mouse.
Q. Where is the screenshot folder location for Anno 1800?
A. On my Windows 10 PC, I found the location in \Documents\Anno 1800\screenshot\. The images were jpg and titled screenshot_year-date-time.
Q. Can you resume saved multiplayer games?
A. Yes, my fiancée and I were able to resume the game we had been playing together. My fiancée loaded Anno 1800 and then I invited her to join the game.
Q. When I build a farm, why can’t I fill the circle or up to the boundary?
A. You can be either hold the shift keyboard button at the same time as planting a field to build additional farms.
Q. What is the minimum computer specification for Anno 1800?
A. I don’t know, but I can tell you what I was using! I was using a Quad 2 Core 9400 2.66GHz with a SSD for Windows 10 and the game files were installed on a mechanical SATA hard drive. My computer has a NVIDIA GeForce GT 730 graphics installed and I’ve got 8GB DDR2 RAM on the motherboard. I have an old and slow PC, but during the trial, the game ran okay.
Q. How big are the Anno 1800 game files?
A. I installed a trial in September 2021 and the ‘ANNO1800Trial’ folder on my PC is 64.3GB in size! It did take a while to download the game files.
Final thoughts
My fiancée and I really enjoyed our time playing this game and I’ve added it to a wish-list and I will monitor the price. I am now considering buying some of the other Anno games, but the 1800 is what currently interests me most out of the series.