Get trading with Anno 1701 DS
Disney brings historic PC strategy game onto touchscreen
Back before eBay made selling the things you find down the back of the sofa one of the UK's main leisure activities, trading goods involved perilous sea crossings to exotic lands. And when you'd actually got there you had to barter with the natives.
The whole of Manhattan Island for a bag of beans and a couple of shiny buttons? Surely someone was robbed.
But it's this kind of commercial cunning that will be required to make your way through the DS version of Anno 1701.
Based on the PC series, which so far has consisted for Annos 1503, 1602 and 1701 (wonder what's next?), the strategy games place you in the situation of turning a desolate colony into a roaring financial success.
Starting out on an unnamed island, you'll colonise it, attracting folks such as pioneers, settlers, citizens, merchants and aristocrats in the process.
Each of these has different needs that must be fulfilled in order for your outpost to flourish. For example, citizens are boozers, who also need cigarettes and education. The more rarefied merchants, on the other hand, prefer chocolates and nights at the theatre.
To maintain these standards of living, you'll be trading with races including Aztecs, Asians, Indians and the Iroquois. Pirates also provide a useful source of hard-to-find items.
But you'll need more than Wal-Mart-rivaling cashflow to be a success. There'll be various computer controlled rivals to fight off as well, which brings us to the specialisations available in the Lodge. When unlocked, you'll get access to such nefarious agents as arsonists, spies, poisoners, revolutionaries, pickpockets, flatterers and traitors.
As for DS specific features, the game will be controlled mainly using the touchscreen and stylus, with the top-screen being used for economic updates, as well as communication with the various in-game characters.
A four-player game mode will also be available using the DS' local wi-fi connectivity.
Currently locked down inside the hold of a leaky ship crossing the Atlantic, we hope Anno 1701 will make landfall sometime in the summer.
