Graphics are beautiful, but the interface is not at all intuitive or convenient. Coupled with the soft-focus light filters, this literally equals a headache. At some point, the number of things you have to pay attention to and incrementally adjust becomes so overwhelming that the game becomes a chore; how long that takes is dependent upon how much patience you have with civilization-building games.

The only difference between the two main factions is aesthetic; the buildings look different, and you get yelled at by different talking heads. "Eco-balance" is just another percentage you have to manage, like power supply; the ecological management and green technologies hinted at in the trailers simply don't exist in any measurable amount.

It's not a bad game, it just doesn't beat the Civilization series, Sim City 4, or even Fate of the World. In fact, Blue Byte/Ubisoft's other game in this genre, Settlers 7, is vastly superior in every aspect.

Wait 'til you can get Anno for under 20 bucks.… Collapse

I'm not usually one to do this, but I've got to throw my 0 in for good measure. This game has a 3 activation limit, which had me entirely skeptical of their DRM from the get-go. Against my better judgment, I purchased this game on 7/14/12. It wasn't a fresh release where the servers are new, or even an extremely popular title in which the servers are expected to have much of a load. Regardless, and most unfortunately, no one is able to log on to Uplay (Ubisoft's mandatory DRM gateway) today on 7/15/12, and therefore are unable to play this game. The forums for Steam and Ubisoft are filled with people unable to even launch the game they paid for. If this were a newly released title, I wouldn't be bothered. Sometimes the developer/publisher just needs time to adjust to the demand. This, on the other hand, is just unacceptable. Get a torrent or something if you want to be able to play reliably. It's an incredible shame that purchasing a title legitimately results in such a headache.… Expand

This sort of thing (ie. a build-'em-up with a bit of combat) usually floats my boat. They're a good, relatively relaxing way to spend an evening with a drink or two. Anno 2070, alas, just doesn't do it for me at all. Simply put, it feels a lot more like work than entertainment. The tech tree, such that it is, contains a staggering amount of deeply naff padding (unless, of course, you get a kick of knowing your dudes have access to vegetable sushi...), and is structured in such a way as to mean you are obliged to work through all the naff stuff in order to get to anything even remotely interesting. The whole thing feels totally contrived and arbitrary, devoid of imagination and soul. There's nothing interesting or complex about the gameplay at all. Yes, sure, there's a lot that needs to be done, but it's all a case of doing lots of simple, obvious, boolean tasks in order, then setting up some simple systems - complexity, yes, but only in the sense that doing three dead easy, boring things at once is more complex than doing one dead easy, boring thing on its own.

Graphically, it's rather pretty. That said, the lack of obvious distinction between building types doesn't exactly add to the fun. Playing "hunt the sushi factory" gets real old, real fast, especially given that the restrictions on building placement (building is restricted to a radius of certain other buildings) and the apparent disregard the population have with regards to what they live next to leads to a somewhat less than logical approach to planning.

Oh, I forgot the campaign. It's got one. It's not exactly what I'd call one of gaming's great memorable experiences. Do some linear stuff, follow the built-in advice, win. Yeah, cool.

So, to sum it up, if your idea of great night's entertainment is working as a taxi controller whilst filling in your tax returns, get Anno 2070. Actually, on second thoughts, why not just get a job as a taxi controller and take some accountancy classes.… Expand

Sadly buying this game, results in so harsgh DRM/Copyright protection meassures that those people who actually illegally download the game profit from it. Don't get my wrong, i'm absolutely against downloading games illegaly since i want good games which need money to be produced but i don't want to be forced to play online and probably send along data about my gaming behaviour. I respect every developer for his/her creativity and effort put in the developement of a game. Seeing that a publisher like ubisoft destroys all the efforts made by this stupid DRM really gets me to rage. This was the last ubisoft game i bought! Thanks! Just typed some insults but deleted them afterwards.… Expand

BS Tage DRM. Change your graphics card? That just used up an activation, and you only get three, so don't go upgrading your machine very often! Seriously, the fact that this type of crap is somehow okay with so many game buyers is really quite baffling. JUST SAY NO TO HORRIBLE DRM HELL!

I buy games to play them and have fun. As long as I am not hacking your game and playing legit, what I do with my computer after purchase is NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!

If you dont know what I am talking about read "http://www.guru3d.com/news/why-guru3d-probably-never-will-review-ubisoft-titles-anymore/"

If they gave negative scores, this would get it for that reason.

It's too bad cause I'd REALLY like to play this game but the DRM coupled with the 3 install max will assure I'll never get to. I also won't pirate it as I really enjoy supporting good developers to ensure great games, I've bought over 200 games from Steam but this one will never see one installation because I refuse to support bad business practices that screws good people from games they've legally purchased.

:(… Expand

Great graphics, nice game, you will not play for so long anyway. cons: horribly managed by Ubisoft Uplay, server down, problems with connection, user login not recognized and non existing support you cannot play ubisoft games in this way, thumb down never ever a Ubisoft game again.

I got this game on a Steam sale for $30, I had been wanting to try this out for awhile and took the change to get it at a discounted price. Boy was it a waste of $30 though. This is a classic example of why graphics don't make a video game - the graphics in this game were spectacular, but the story and the game play were seriously lacking. The story mode was awful, the characters are so utterly annoying and unbelievable, the only dialogue is basically some whiny liberal bickering with some d-bag conservative, which, I assume, was just a pretty poor attempt at social commentary. Building your city was awful as well. You need to build your workers some homes - do you want to perhaps build a nice line or houses, or perhaps a high rise apartment building, or how about a group of town houses? NOPE! There is one kind of house to build and one only (per faction). Sure, it upgrades, but you really have no choice of building the city you want to build. All in all, the only thing this game did for me was make me want to pull out SimCity again, which is imo the standard of the genre upon which all others should be judged. Spend your $50 on that instead I implore you.… Expand

To play this game: Launch Steam, Launch Anno 2070 which starts a UPlay account signup box, you create an account but it still denies you access until you log in online, this is where I gave up.

This is like Kafka's The Trial, there is no game it is just a long sequence of account creation and password management tasks; maybe that's what 2070 will look like? The people who gave this game high reviews were probably driven insane long before the game actually launched so don't trust them.… Expand

Disappointed to discover this game features an overly restrictive DRM system that means (1) you have to have an internet connection to play and (2) if your hardware changes more than three times your game is permanently disabled and cannot be reactivated. My review score reflects the fact that Ubisoft don't care about making the game unplayable for some of their own paying customers.

Ubisoft's wicked DRM strikes again. I can't be arsed to rant about it. But I'm sure if you dig through the zeros you'll find something similar.

To people giving 10s to offset zeros, if the game is broken to the point of unplayability that's a zero; don't try and drag the score back up again.

Layers of DRM earn this a 0; Ubisoft fails again. Imagine the multiple layers of DRM involved after you buy on Steam...now that was a slap in the face.

The game may be good, anyway the draconian ubisoft DRM makes it no buy for me and many other players. **** you **** you won't get my money. I own 500 games on steam, yet i still prefer to pirate your games instead of buying them!

Reviewed at 0 until future plans are announced to remove the DRM at some point in the future. Thank you for ruining this game Ubisoft. Only able to install on three computers, so it is stuck on my laptop that can't run it, and my current PC. One more install or reformat and I won't be able to play it anymore, this is stupid. I can understand leaving this in for a year, but this really does ruin the game because the audience is a long term one, at least those are the pre-tenses under which I bought the game.… Expand

I understand one time online activation DRM, but being forced to create Ubisoft account to be able to play game in offline mode is just big scam for me. And i thought that all those Ubisoft DRM stories were exaggerated, stupid me. I feel so bad for buying game that i will not play single time.

In the light (or dark) or Ubisoft's draconian DRM which not only limit you to 3 activation, but also 3 hardware changes. Meaning, you upgrade graphic cards or RAM 3 times and you're forever locked out of your game! It's not simply 3 installation anymore, no sir! I'm throwing in 0 to offset all those attempts at ramping up the user scores.

I registered with Ubisoft using my email address and by mistake, used the same password that I use for my Gmail address. After about 2 hours, I receive a notice from Gmail that my account had been accessed from an IP address overseas and they recommended that I change my password immediately. In my 7 years of owning that Gmail account, that has never happened to me. USE CAUTION when registering with Ubisoft, as your information is obviously not safe. As for the game, it was a total waste of 50.00. Calling this game a RTS is a crime. If you want to plant tea and rice fields for hours, this game is for you. The tiny amount of combat in this game is laughable. If you are looking for a RTS, move on, nothing to see here....… Expand

DOUBLE POST : Due to a problem with CHROME not release the score meter when I move the most, I placed a 10 when I first wrote this when I wanted to select 0..

Ubisoft's dranocian DRM will make sure I'll never buy or play this game. Who knows, one day they'll wake up and see just how many sales they are losing because of this. Like so many people have said, WHAT I DO WITH MY PC AFTER I BUY THE GAME IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS..… Expand

While the visuals are pretty good this game was a sore let down. a "story driven campaign" that is painfully buggy, massively hand-hold-y, and frustratingly dumb downed.... kings quest had the courtesy of killing me when I didn't do things the way the game designers wanted me to. I spent 2 hours trying to figure out why my town would not feed itself despite 4 roads to a overflowing warehouse of the correct food- when restarting the game and minimally building allowed me to build the farm people would actually use... . If I could get a refund on my steam account, I would. play sim city instead.… Expand

I must say that I was a bit ambivalent on buying this game but when I saw it on sale, I gave it a try.

Unfortuanlly so far the only thing I have learned is that I have to register an account on a server that does not responds.
I find it it Highly unacceptable not to be able to use a product I have bought and paid for.
I understand that an account can be needed for multiplayer purposes, but if it is made a requirement for playing then It has to work… Expand

Don't buy this game from Steam. It will load Uplay then crash. Maybe when I am able to play this I will be able to do a full review, but wanted to warn Steam Customers.

I'm an early 30s gamer and I love simulation games: Capitisim II, Simcity (All of them), Civilization Series, Tycoon Games, Flight Simulators, Cities XL. I've even tinkered with the Supreme Ruler games. With that in mind, I looked forward to this game. After playing it, all I could think was how much I hated this game. Going through the tutorial I had a few feelings: 1. I was bored 2. I felt the urge to drink
3. I felt the urge to slit my wrists and uninstall.

All this after having to enter the CD Key twice and set up a Ubi-whatever account even as a pre-existing Steam user. Compound that with the fact Steam still insists on selling this turd that's unfit for firing at your enemies via catapult for a handsome price of $79.95. I've yet to see it discounted, let alone sold for it's true value: $17 from Ubisoft and 2 hours of your life back.… Expand

I've enjoyed a few of the Anno series, and if you want more of the same, this game might give it to you. Unfortunately, it also has annoying DRM and requires an Ubisoft login, doesn't offer much of any flexibility in how you complete missions, and it's also buggy enough that I couldn't finish it. The beginning of the campaign was too easy, while simultaneously taking a long time because there were poorly-explained requirements to finishing quests---sometimes, just because I had finished them before they were offered, and I had to reload to try again. If it's like the other Anno games, it will get much harder by the end, but I don't expect it can make up for the poor experience I've had playing so far.… Expand

Wasted so many hours in this game hoping to get something in return for my 10$ but received nothing. Everything in this game except graphics is terrible. Interface is an unintuitive mess. There is no tutorial. Campaign is buggy and boring. Quests are simplier then in any free MMORPG. I had to repeat two missions because of bugs. Gameplay is repetive, linear and overcomplicated(resources and trade routes!) without a reason. I I do not recommend this game to anyone because there are far better games out there like civilization or total war.… Expand

I love strategy games, unfortunately I bought this thinking that it was one. Anno 2070 is dogs balls boring, dont waste your cash, the pretty graphics and eco sound track are nice but there is no game here to be had hence the score of 2. Despite being patched to the very latest version of the game there are still bugs like a strange warning about running out of memory when I can alt tab and see there is easily 1.5GB left on my machine. You cant even buy a unit to defend yourself until you have ascended to level 3 which takes about 3 hours! The original civilisation or starcraft games kick this game for six and they came out like 10 years ago.. ok rant over with ... YOU WERE WARNED.… Expand

Bought it on Steam but apparently Ubisoft wanted to try their own program to invade our privacy. These idiot companies will continue to push us with the assumption they can do whatever they want. I had to log in 3 times with different logins only to find out that Steam screwed their customers by allowing Ubisoft to do this. Now Ubisoft has never heard of me despite the fact I have a key. This game gets a zero because even if I could find it on my system, I refuse to do this. Ubisoft won't refund my money so Ubisoft gets no more of my business. Ever.… Expand

I feel very let down by this game. I expected high-end economic simulation, with some military elements here and there. What I got was simplistic game, with economic elements dumbed down and dialogs and missions on the mental level of a 12 years old kid.
The campaign is pain to go through, mainly because of childish plot and annoying dialogues. The free play, supposedly a most important mode of the game, is only a bit better. The most important problem is, that there is no mechanic that would make you want develop your city. Your citizens always seem to be happy with the level of goods you provide them and only by your initiative you might want to push them forward. There is no needs chain like in old Caesar games, where satisfying one requirement creates another. On top of that, your citizens serve absolutely no purpose (apart from maybe production of money that you don't seem to need that much). The factories/farms/etc don't seem to require any kind of workforce, which dumbs it down even more. On top of that, UI takes time to get used to, and tutorial doesn't seem to cover it well. There is also no way to check the rate at which your resources are used/produced so organizing of your industry takes a lot of boring observation and counting.
It might seem that economic elements have been simplified in order to make room for more of a military game, but the amount (4?) and usability of battle units doesn't seem to support that at all.
The MMO aspect of this game is not as fun as it might seem occasional vote over certain matters only seem to provide small bonuses in the game, or lack of them. Interesting idea, but it doesn't really have any real impact on the game.
As a merit I should probably mention beautiful graphics and seemingly large amount of elements. The game might be entertaining for the first game, and seeing through possible buildings for construction might be fun, just for exploration of possibilities. It is not a bad game in general, it just doesn't seem to have any strategic thought in it other than "how should I put my building around in order them to fit in on my island(s). If you're a big genre fan sure, give it a try, if its on sale. If not look for other game, it's not worth your money or time.… Expand

This game has the worst DRM system ever!
I have gone to the store to obtain two copies of this game already and still cannot get into the game.
The stupid login screen asks me to activate the game and it keeps telling me the CD KEY is already in use!
From all the other reviews on this game looks like I'm going back to the store to get a refund and avoid all Ubisoft games!