E3 2001 Hands-on: Anno 1503

One of the many games in Electronic Arts' booth at this year's E3 is Anno 1503, the prequel to 1602 A.D. It's obvious that the development team has put forth a strong effort in making Anno 1503 stand out from other games by incorporating intricate graphics and more dynamic gameplay. Anno 1503 has been designed to borrow elements of both real-time strategy games and empire building, and as such, you must concentrate not only on building your empire but also on worrying about expanding and defending when it becomes necessary.

The first thing you'll notice about 1503 it's much more detailed than its predecessor. All the structures and units have been rendered in full 3D, making it possible to rotate the camera on an axis to get a better look at all the smaller details--and there are plenty of them. Windmills cast real-time shadows as they slowly turn in the in bright sun, and waves from the realistic ocean lap up against the shores of various islands, occasionally spraying clouds of mist as they hit the faces of rocks. People walk through the European villages and go about their business, while zebras and elephants mingle on the scorching plains of Africa. It's difficult to convey how much detail is in these maps because there's so much--there are 250 different types of buildings alone. Needless to say, Anno 1503 is visually impressive.

There's also a surprising amount of visual variation due to the four different environments you encounter while exploring other parts of the world. As mentioned before, there's an African environment complete with appropriate animals and plant life, giving it a very distinct look. There's also a map in the Americas, complete with cacti and other obligatory icons from the North American southwest--though the developers have chosen to populate the American maps with Aztec temples, which look somewhat out of place against the western scenery. Of course, you spend most of your time in the European maps, which feature contemporary structures such as windmills, as well as townspeople who are dressed appropriately for the time. The last environment in Anno 1503 showcases the arctic, where Eskimos have settled in their igloos amongst the penguins and other arctic creatures.

Most of the 250 structures you see on the map serve more than simply an aesthetic purpose. In fact, some structures are absolutely necessary for constructing a successful empire, but there are some structures that serve secondary purposes as well. An example of an important structure would be the sheep farms, which are obviously useful for harvesting wool from sheep. This wool can then be used as barter for trade with other cultures. One of the less important structures is the bar, which townspeople will actually enter and exit as the game progresses. At this point, it's not clear whether or not structures like bars increase morale among the populous or if they have some detrimental effect to your empire.

How you interact with these new environments and the eight cultures in the Anno 1503 universe is completely up to you. One way to interact with another culture is to establish trade with it by offering certain goods that it doesn't have access to. For example, any cultures living in the arctic areas aren't going to have grapes or any kind of valuable vegetation because the environmental conditions are too harsh. However, you can easily offer the arctic culture these things in exchange for a resource that you may want, like whale oil. Conversely, you can take a militaristic approach and use any one of the 15 different types of military units--including swordsmen, bowmen, and catapults--to conquer new lands and take the additional resources by force.

Anno 1503 is a vast improvement upon 1602 A.D., even in its pre-alpha state. The graphics--especially the water effects--look fantastic, and the different types of strategies you can use make the game much more interesting and dynamic. Thankfully, the development team also plans to include support for both cooperative and head-to-head multiplayer, but the number of players that these modes will support has yet to be determined. Anno 1503 is currently scheduled for a fall release.