Recently, my evenings have been spent wasting away in front of my computer monitor, slowly but surely sacrificing what free time I have to the world of videogames. It's not too drastic a change from the norm (if I'm completely honest), but rarely do I spend so much time fully engaged with one single game - yet for the past week or so, my mind has been transfixed entirely on Anno 1404; even as I write, I'm still thinking about how I can expand my settlement to exploit the rich, untapped resources on the southern region of my colonised island and trying to figure out how I'm going to get the materials I don't yet have access to in order to manufacture those goods that my settlers need to advance. You see, once this game hooks you, there's very little chance of you becoming immersed in anything else.

There's something immediately inviting about Anno 1440 and that's probably its looks. While on any other day and with any other game I might like to take the position of authority and pretend that good graphics do not make a good game, here it's difficult to ignore just how beautiful Anno 1404 is; right from the beginning you are presented with a virtual world that's so lush and bright and green that you wouldn't mind seeking residency in one of your own settlements yourself. The sweeping landscapes are full of little incidental details that all combine to create a fully formed, living, breathing world. Every building bustles with life as workers go about their daily tasks, mining resource deposits or harvesting crops, while throughout your settlements the townsfolk wander the streets, visiting the local churches or getting drunk at the taverns as seagulls swoop lazily over your ports and trees sway in the breeze. When towns grow and new civilisations are discovered, you just can't help but take the time to stop and marvel at just how everything works.

The jewel in the very attractive crown has to be the water effects, though; given that it occupies much of the maps you play on, it's no real surprise that this aspect of the aesthetics has benefited from a greater facelift than anywhere else. The way that the ocean constantly reflects the sunlight whilst waves crash against the hulls of passing ships and upon the shores of the numerous islands is always impressive; they're some of the most convincing effects I've seen all year and are just one of the myriad features that make this such a special looking game.

They complement the gameplay too, which welcomes you with open arms rather than shoving you away with a steep learning curve and difficult controls. The main story-driven campaign tasks you with using your city-building skills to help Lord Richard Northburgh in his attempt to construct a cathedral in order to aid your sick emperor, a job that is cut short by the arrival of a sinister individual who, upon the orders of an even shadier cardinal, puts you both to work building a fleet of warships for a crusade against the newly discovered Orient faction. Together with a series of challenging objectives to complete and some superb voice work, it's a story that is likely to keep your interest throughout.

Perhaps most importantly though, the single player campaign acts like a prolonged tutorial mode, as each new objective teaches you another of the many various aspects of running an island community. As with Anno 1701, everything begins with a port and a marketplace; the former allows you to store the various tools and resources needed for the construction of the numerous buildings you require, while the latter allows you to begin building peasant housing and slowly increase your population. When a certain population cap is reached and you've attended to the peasants' needs (such as building a church in close proximity or providing them with adequate food and drink) they evolve into the next tier of citizens, at which point you can increase your taxation of the population but are also greeted with a list of new demands that might require you to expand your tiny settlement a little further.

Most of the time this means the need for a little exploration; the islands hold a limited amount of resources, so you often find yourself hurling some wood and tools on board one of your ships and setting sail for one of a number of uninhabited isles that might contain the materials you need. This was one of Anno 1701's best features and remains yet another highlight here, giving you the ability to set up a huge empire that can span multiple islands - but not all remain empty; some might have already been claimed by other civilisations and if these people aren't ready to trade with you then the chances are that the only way you'll see those resources you desperately need is to wage war, which is sadly when the game starts to disappoint.

Combat has never been Anno's strong point, and although a generous helping of troops, warships and military buildings are offered, there's absolutely no tactical decision-making required. It usually just boils down to who has the biggest army, with no actual need for any kind of strategy; the way to win in direct combat with a rival is to simply ensure that your army is larger than theirs. This extends to naval warfare as well, with ships simply broad-siding one another until one of them sinks. Despite the campaign mode gearing you for war, it's just as well that this part of the game isn't forced and only rears its head occasionally; nevertheless, if combat is to continue playing any part in the Anno series, it really is in dire need of a overhaul.

For now though, the combat remains the one weak link in otherwise very sturdy chain - and one you'll likely end up just forgetting about once the task of running your settlements takes over. Watching your small towns flourish as they develop into rich and prosperous cities of stone buildings and cobbled ground, setting up trade routes as you sell off excess resources for huge profit, the once empty islands now teeming with life after rapid colonisation, is hugely enjoyable and will cement your experiences with Anno 1404 firmly in your memory; sitting back just to take in how massive your civilisation is can be awe inspiring - even though getting there isn't as difficult as it initially looks.

However, it would be wrong to call Anno 1404 an easy game; although it lacks the unnecessary and unwanted difficulty spikes of some city builders, there's a generous helping of challenges thrown at you at on a regular basis. Throughout the game you encounter objectives given to you by non-player characters who request certain items for honour points that can be spent buying special items, and these come so thick and fast that you very rarely run out of things to do. Even when you do have a huge number of objectives stacked up though, you're often left to complete them at your own pace; there are no strict time limits working against you and nobody butting in to pressure you into fulfilling the criteria that has been set.

This time you also have the opportunity to set up colonies for the newly discovered Orient faction. This Middle East inspired civilisation requires much the same care and attention as their European counterparts, but can only settle in desert regions and have their own sets of demands for you to adhere to. These often require exploiting the inhospitable deserts to create exotic items that you can't find anywhere else but, unlike their neighbours, the Orient can't progress through the social ladder until you've bought diplomatic ranks from the local Orient trader, meaning that you must keep on his good side of you will be forced to rely entirely upon trade to acquire the items that you need.

This is about the only remarkable new feature in the game; in fact, as far as any new or noteworthy changes go, Anno 1404 is sparse. If you've played Anno 1701 then - pretty facelift aside - it's actually quite hard to tell the difference between 1404 and its predecessor. Usually this would be the part where I'd tear into the game for its lack of any new or worthwhile content, and certainly I often leave Anno thinking that it's about time the series moved on in some way, but ultimately whatever disappointment I might have felt about the lack of any substantial changes was eroded away by the hugely enjoyable and very addictive game that it still is. That isn't to say that it's without flaws, though; as well as the tacked on combat, there have been occasions where I've been completely stumped as to how I'm meant to complete certain quests. The problem is that your objectives are occasionally a little too vague either due to poor phrasing or a lack of elaboration upon vital details. At one point I even had to completely restart after wasting hours in my attempt to get one quest completed and progress the story. Incidents like this are rare, but when they do crop up they can spoil what is for the most part a hugely engrossing game.

The lack of multiplayer support may also disappoint some. Although you do get the option to share profiles and scores with other players online, you can't actually play alongside or against other gamers, which given the size of Anno 1404 and the scope for online play, does seem like a wasted opportunity. Still, with some games lasting for hours at a time, it might just be as well that Anno 1404 remains a single player affair - and certainly there's plenty of content here for the solitary gamer; as well the story-driven single player mode, there are also several scenarios to test your skills on and the extensive Continuous Play mode, an open-ended sandbox where every facet of the game can be customised to your own specific requirements.

Much like its predecessor, Anno 1404 is an entertaining and friendly city building game with astonishing looks and enough content to last long into the winter months; and, again like its predecessor, its combat still lets things down. With a lack of any real new content in terms of gameplay mechanics, it's also a difficult game to recommend to those who have played Anno 1701 to death and are looking for some new challenges. Providing that playing what is essentially the same game with vastly improved graphics doesn't bother you - and given that Anno 1701 was so superb, it's likely that it won't - Anno 1404 is a worthy with the last Anno game being so superb anyway why should it, it's certainly worth a look.

Reviewed by Kieron Giacopazzi for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).