"Forget F.U.B.A.R., this one is F.A.B.A.R.!"
F.U.B.A.R. : F*cked Up Beyond All Recognition, this one is:
F.A.B.A.R. : Freaking Addictive Beyond All Recognition.
(FUBAR comes from the movie Saving Private Ryan)
About the game,... well,... this one definitely caught my grip. Its almost sickening even. I can easily say that there hasnt been any other game for me in the past, that I can remember, being so strongly addictive and captivating than this game.
Graphix:
Are very good. Nicely done! Nothing to comment but positive.
Music & SFX:
Music is a very good choice. Fits the medieval atmosphere perfectly! SFX are good too although I get annoyed by the repetitive comments by the host 'Lord Richard Northburgh' sometimes when lacking goods and all.
Game play & Controls:
I love the game play. I grabs you cos you just want to keep extending your cities and have it all! Get rich and become very powerful in order to start a few little wars there. And thats where a little lack comes up for me. I think 'Command & Conquer' still has the best way in creating armies and such. By keeping things, 'Plain and Simple'. If there was a way to fit that sort of game play into 'Anno 1404' I think that might give the game the little more action it needs in my opinion. Building and extending is great but you also want to kick some butt (or bot) too without constantly watching your tax-incomes.
One thing that kinda annoyed me sometimes is that they didn't use Double-Tapping in order to move your camera to the designated unit. This is something C&C was always good at. I number my units, like ships in case they need shelter at a armoured harbour when being under fire. For this I only need to press '1' (for instance) to get that ships control and lead it to safety. Just by hitting 1, the camera automatically jumps towards the unit. They should have made this camera action only by Double-Tapping it. One click should select the unit, double-tapping 1 should place the camera over it.
Besides this little issue here I think it's a great game and definitely worth playing it!