Review

I spent some time this weekend looking through games I’ve had but not yet played and this popped up reminding me that I did poke a bit at the expansion, Rise of Venice, but never spent any time in the base game itself. So I decided I would take some time to play through the initial campaign and perhaps learn the ropes a bit better than when I just dove headfirst into Rise of Venice earlier on.

The campaign teaches you well, though it breaks once you achieve the goals of the scenario, starting you back up on the same islands, but with a default setup, not the one you left. I didn’t realize that at first and couldn’t figure out where all my surplus production had gone. Opps… Once I realized that, I didn’t spend as much time on extras and just aimed to get things done quickly to progress. That’s a little less fun, but it does help keep me focused.

It is 9 years old now, but it doesn’t really feel it. I’m fine with the quality of the graphics and the game play is fun. The story of the campaign is a little cheesy, but that’s fine too. There are no surprises when the creepy looking war advisor turns out to be spurring on a crusade not at the dying emperor’s bidding but at the evil cardinal’s, but the story serves it’s purpose well enough - teaching you how to play the game.

I don’t expect this to be a game I remember fondly years down the road, but it is a lot of fun. I can see getting many good hours of enjoyment out of it. This is a pre-cursor to the later Anno games, but I haven’t found them to be as enjoyable as this one for whatever reason.