With Rise of the New World, not only does the fourth season of Anno 1800 come to an end – it is even the last big DLC for the building giant. So what does the finale have to offer and does Anno really feel finished with it?
Whenever someone asks “Who wants to take over the New World?” in my co-op round of Anno 1800, I pretend to drive through a tunnel. Yes, along with my desk and my floor PC. Because if I”m honest, the New World has always felt to me like mopping the floor – kind of okay when there”s good music playing and unfortunately necessary, but also not really fun.
That”s why I had enormous hopes for Season 4, which was supposed to finally whip the New World into shape. And here we are. Standing at the gates of the big main attraction of Season 4. And also at the same time … the end of Anno 1800. Wow.
Actually, we had already celebrated Roofs of the City as the big Anno finale. But then Season 4 came around the corner like a battle cruiser. But that won”t happen again, as the developers announced just in time for the release of Rise of the New World. This is indeed the end of the main development of Anno 1800.
So can the final major DLC Rise of the New World even withstand this pressure? Does Anno 1800 now feel “finished” after the completion of Season 4? And what do the new population level, the new monuments, the numerous production chains and the larger islands really have to offer?
To answer this, join me on what is now really the last test voyage for Anno 1800. Ahoy! (Really really the last one? Follow me on this journey to the end and you”ll find out.)
Table of Contents
Artistas: The New Population Stage
The face of Rise of the New World is the Artistas, who finally offer a whole new population level once again. And while the New World has so far consisted mainly of overworked field hands slaving away for fur coats in the Old World (an implication I”ve always found rather alienating), the Artistas finally have a purpose in life all their own.
They love football, good food, cinema and samba classes. In one fell swoop, the sometimes bleak new world is full of life and exciting construction projects! With 1,000 Obreros I unlock the new level. With 11 needs and 6 luxury needs, the Artistas are almost the most demanding population level in the game (apart from high-rise investors), but together with the newly composed samba soundtrack they also spread a good party atmosphere. You shouldn”t expect any big story moments from Rise of the New World, but in terms of atmosphere it plays in the upper league.
I”m beginning to feel a very unexpected love for New World here. In one fell swoop, it”s no longer a sad decal of a nondescript South American country, but finally offers just as much culture and little stories as the Old World.
The only downer is that the artistas basically “only” give money – and there”s usually plenty of that in the endgame anyway. No comparison to the research projects of the scholars from the Land of Lions, from which even fully developed island kingdoms could still profit massively.
On the other hand, the artistas offer indirect advantages. Their goods can be used for the quality-of-life needs of other population levels and thus create new labour in existing dwellings. And with the new production chains, they are worth much more than any additional income.
The new production chains and buildings
The electric scooter is the pool table of the South Seas, they say. Don”t they? Well, now at the latest it will catch on. Because what was the billiard table with 5 required raw materials and 3 production steps in Roofs of the City is now the electric scooter. It offers an impressive 7 raw materials plus electricity and 4 production steps.
But this mega-project is not all, of course. The artistas also want footballs, mezcal (a Mexican spirit), jalea (a Peruvian seafood dish), ice cream, perfume, fans, costumes for the samba school and films for the cinema. In addition, they demand access to the beach – a new functional building for the harbour area, which fortunately brings a respectable range and also my personal highlight as a beau builder: new beach ornaments such as boat houses, ice cream stands and deck chairs.
The troublesome fire brigade and police building, which previously had to be placed on every corner, can also now be upgraded and supplied with fire extinguishers and police equipment in both the New and Old Worlds for much greater coverage.
For the production of all these new resources and consumer goods, I am of course pounding out some new factories. There are also new buildings for the intermediate steps, such as the herb garden (for mezcal) or the orchid farm (for perfume). But also the already known tree nursery now lets me produce coconut oil for the perfume factory, for example, and the cattle farm additionally produces milk when I supply it with electricity.
Yes, that”s right! The inhabitants of the New World are finally allowed to use their rich oil reserves for electricity themselves, instead of just shipping it to the rich snobs of the Old World. And this not only helps with the production of just milk and other secondary goods – it also makes my New World many times more effective if I cleverly place my electricity plants near factories!
In this massive resource battle, any help in terms of effectiveness is welcome. So here”s my best advice for Rise of the New World: Make sure you combine this DLC with Germ of Hope. In our test, the latter seemed to make the New World far too easy – but with Rise of the New World, it shows its true value.
The hacienda not only provides much more space for much-needed jobs and in some cases massively reduces the amount of land needed for farms, it also helps out with fertility. It is impossible to find all the crops you will need for the new productions (sugar cane, maize, cocoa, cotton) on one island, which, without a seed of hope, will lead to conflicts with the AI even faster than it already did in the New World.
With the hacienda farms you trick the fertility and need fewer different islands and less space. Unfortunately, the new orchids and the herb garden are also dependent on island fertility and it is precisely these two that cannot be planted on a hacienda farm. But that would perhaps be too easy.
Besides electricity and the hacienda, however, there is another help for this production madness: the new islands.
The new islands
Rise of the New World unceremoniously enlarges the map towards the northeast and northwest. The original islands are thus somewhat compressed in the thumbnail view. This may not be the clearest option, but at least I save myself the annoying switching that I had to do with Cape Trelawny and the Old World.
And speaking of Cape Trelawny: The new giant island of the New World – Manola – is about half the size of Crown Falls. But it does without the annoying rivers and has several beach areas. The other new islands are also much easier to build on due to fewer or no rivers and also have the new fertilities at the ready.
By the way, I can also be a bit unlucky, because the island deposits are simply random – and not having any clay on the new main island can be annoying at times. That”s why the hacienda farms are all the more important here, at least so that you don”t have to worry about cultivation. By the way, the oil deposits on the new main island are clearly arranged in a heap in all variants – but also on the ar… m of the heath. So pack enough steel for rail construction.
The new islands also help enormously with the conversion anxiety that divides the minds of Anno fans. Some of us love to tinker, but I personally get a rather bad feeling when I have to tear down my lovingly decorated city again to make room for new factories or railway tracks. I didn”t have this worry at all in Rise of the New World, because I can directly experience a new start on a large island with the New World at its best.
Football Stadium and Dam: The New Monuments
I know what you”re absolutely not thinking right now, “But that doesn”t sound like much work, just 12 new production chains and 8 new islands? How boring.” But don”t worry, there”s even more. We haven”t even talked about the monuments yet.
The first monument I unlock is the dam on Manola, which you already know from the scenario “Eden at the End”. As usual, it eats up a lot of resources, but afterwards it also supplies – brace yourselves – the entire island with bioelectricity.
The much more exciting monument, however, is the large football stadium with a population of 6,000 or more artistas, which is not only a real feast for the eyes, but also remains interactive after construction. I can spend money and resources here and call a local, regional or worldwide championship – the reward is not only attractiveness but also influence points.
The new scenario: pride and market share
The DLC again includes a new scenario that starts independently of the main game and brings its own mechanics and challenges. This time I play as the well-known trader Madama Kahina and accordingly the challenge also revolves around bartering and lots of money. The Artista Collective of the New World asks me to help them return treasures from the Old World to their homeland, where they rightfully belong.
So I need enormous wealth to buy back three extremely valuable artefacts from the Old World at the end of this scenario and display them in the New World Museum. The special feature: there are no taxes in this scenario and I have to earn all my money by mass producing valuable goods and selling them. There is also no military.
As a reward, depending on the bronze, silver or gold badge (depending on the amount of money donated and earned at the end), there are new skins for the museum modules.
Game Update 16
With all these challenges, the included free Game Update 16 turns out to be a real blessing. For it brings something I hardly dare to say …. are you ready? A multi-move tool! Goosebumps.
I can now actually mark entire island areas, production areas or settlements and push them across the entire island. With all the new puzzling and crafting, I couldn”t have asked for anything nicer.
In addition, the building menu is now much tidier and more attractive. This is most evident in its own ornaments tab, where the ornaments are now sorted either by seasons, special ornaments and cosmetic DLCs – or by function.
And the latter now looks much more logical! Could it be because I complained loudly in my Schönbau guide that Christmas bar tables are sorted under city flooring? At least I want to believe it!
Does Anno feel finished now?
Rise of the New World is a DLC that has done the impossible for me: I ignored my Old World for over 20 hours and got completely lost in samba, perfume and herb gardens. Since this can happen to you too, let it be a warning to you: By the time you awaken from your delusion, your Old World may be plague-ridden and impoverished. So the DLC is most likely to be fun if you can afford it – that is, if you find yourself in the endgame with a lot of money.
But then Rise of the New World feels like a reward for all my hard work. A new sense of purpose for all the resources and money I”ve accumulated. A new project that really challenges me again. And I fall into a building frenzy that I have never experienced in the New World in almost four years of Anno.
The atmosphere is simply unbeatable: New Samba music, burned into my brain forever after a 10-hour session. The beach where people lie in the sun or swim happily in the sea. The mezcal bar that is so full of atmosphere that I would love to order an after-work drink here myself. The beautiful football stadium, where people scurry around and sweep the stands even at quiet times.
And yet, Rise of the New World is not a land of lions or rooftops of the city. It doesn”t feel quite as much like a final fireworks display due to unspectacular quest design and an exclusive focus on the New World as Land of the Lions would have with its new exploration branch and map, or Roofs of the City with its incredible scope. So perhaps loosely based on Batman, it”s not quite the finale Anno deserves, but it”s the one it needs.
Because the New World is finally fun to play completely independently of the Old World – and I won”t be faking a dead zone in the future when building on the New World in co-op.
For me, there are certainly still a few things I would have liked for Anno to feel “finished”. A free blueprint mode (which the developers say I”ll probably never get), a commuter dock in the New World even without airships, a new map with an Asia setting … And while some features might still make it into Anno with updates or small DLCs, they are very likely saving the Asia setting for a new part.
So we say goodbye to the Seasons for Anno 1800, at least up to this point, because we still have one last score to settle with Anno 1800. For decades, it has been a GameStar tradition to test an Anno again as a King”s Edition – that is, how well the version that really includes all content plays. Well, then Anno 1800 came along and torpedoed this nice tradition with a four-year DLC constant fire.
So the journey may be over for Anno, but not yet for us. So it”s only goodbye for now, we”ll read each other again next year.
I stand on the pier with one laughing eye and one crying eye, waving a white handkerchief. And whatever may come, I am sure the future will be exciting. Thank you Anno, it”s been a wonderful journey.
Editor”s conclusion
If it were up to me, Anno 1800 should never end. And Rise of the New World will delay that end for many of us for a long time to come, too. For it rekindles a new love for a map that has been neglected for far too long, and has me once again drowning in a quagmire of tasks, tweaks and building projects.
Does it feel like a worthy Anno conclusion? In a way, yes, since it brings almost everything that the New World was still missing. But somehow not, because in terms of scope and quests I”ve seen better in almost four years of Anno 1800.
But I”m willing to forgive that in view of the great atmosphere, the exciting production chains and the lovingly designed artistas. So my tip for Rise of the New World: treat yourself to the Hacienda from Germ of Hope beforehand, make sure your Old World can manage without you for a while – and throw yourself into the samba party.
