1503 A.D.: The New World

aka: Anno 1503, Anno 1503: De Nieuwe Wereld, Anno 1503: El Nuevo Mundo, Anno 1503: Il Nuovo Mondo, Anno 1503: Le Nouveau Monde, Anno 1503: Nowy Swiat, Anno 1503: The New World
Moby ID: 7613
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Description official descriptions

1503 A.D.: The New World is, like its predecessor, a 2D-strategy game where the player colonizes a new world. The first important part is the constructing of several buildings which are used for different means, e.g. residences or plant facilities. There he needs to ensure a logical arrangement to reach short production cycles and the population's satisfaction. With preceding time there demands grow which force the player to expand and build more respectively more effective buildings.

As the game knows 46 resources it is unlikely that the player finds all on one island. This also results in the need of expansion which may be against the interests of the up to three AI opponents or one of the nine neutral factions. These problems can be resolved with trading or military action. The latter is still a small part of the gameplay but is noticeable more complex than in 1602 A.D., now the player has a few formation and behaviour orders to his disposal and the 14 military units gain experience. Other innovations are a research function where the player works on upgrades, four new climates and more production cycles.

Besides the free playing mode with randomly generated islands the game also features ten scenarios and, also new, a campaign with twelve missions.

Spellings

  • 1503美麗新世界 - Taiwanese spelling
  • Anno 1503: העולם החדש - Hebrew spelling
  • 纪元 1503 - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

205 People (188 developers, 17 thanks) · View all

Character Design
Character Modelling
Character Animation
Background Modelling
SpecialFX
Add. Character Modelling
Add. Character Animations
Line Producer
Assistant Producer
Marketing Manager
Product Manager
Public Relations
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Mastering
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 78% (based on 39 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 24 ratings with 5 reviews)

OK game, but lacks map editor

The Good
The game's petite fun. I mean, it's kinda fun to explore the game world, meet other players and Natives, and watch your cities grow from simple pioneers to aristocrats rich in wealth. The graphics aren't 3D but still high in detail level. And the music is nice and easy for a game around the time of Christopher Columbus.

The Bad
There is no multiplayer mode in the game. Money is earned from shops and not taxes, this makes it hard for new players and at the start of the game. Unlike 1602 AD there's no map editor, which stinks because I liked the map editor for 1602 AD it was fun to make your own ideas for missions come to life in that game.

The Bottom Line*
A fun mix of RTS and city-building during the time of Christopher Columbus. If you like 1602 AD you'll probably like this game even more!

Windows · by Jacob Larson (4) · 2013

Excellent Game. Deep and involved. NOT for twitch gamers

The Good
This game definitely encourages exploring and tinkering..
The tutorial gives you enough information to have a grasp on what you need to do in the game, rather than holding your hand for the first 1/3 of the game (Or, like Stronghold, the first 95% of the game). If you're confused about something, there's a comprehensive help system which explains most everything else.

The economic system is uncommonly complex..
Notice that this is under "The Good". I enjoyed Company of Heroes. The removal of economic management allowed you to focus on tactics and troop management, which was the point of the game. This game is not Company of Heroes. 1503 is not an RTS with economic management; It's an excellent city builder with an integrated combat system.

The setting..
It's unique. Most city builders take place now-ish. So, juggling a society with 16th century technology is interesting.

Ships..
This game incorporates ships into gameplay in a way I've never seen before. Ships are usually way out whack with the rest of a game, if they're included at all. In addition to the war ships you will build, you also will maintain a merchant fleet, responsible for moving goods between your cities, and trading with your allies.

Trade..
In AD 1503, trade actually happens. You find out what the needs of your neighbors are and ship it to them. On a ship; Not by transferring 350 tons of lumber through thin air. You don't select your market and click the "Sell Wood" button 38 times. Who exactly was buying all those bows from me in Stronghold anyway?

Civilization levels..
Pioneers are happy as long as they have a few basic needs. Add a few more things, they become Settlers. Give those Settlers some new stuff and they'll become Citizens. There are 2 more degrees above that and each degree improves the look of the houses and allows them to fit more people. Moving up the degrees is also how you unlock new technologies. It's sort of like researching a new age in Age of Empires... you know, without the whole awkward "researching" part. In this way, your technological advancement is based on your actual advancement, rather than by spending some arbitrary lump of stuff to enter a new era. Furthermore, if you cut off your Citizen's spices (for example), they go back to being Settlers. You get to keep using the new technologies, but your population just took a huge hit and so did your income. And though you get to keep using the techs you have, you're going to have to get the spices flowing again to open any new technologies. You don't just pay a bunch of food and wood to enter a new stage, you have to maintain it.

Graphics..
Though not 3D, the graphics are still very good. There is a high level of detail and accuracy. Buildings look like they ought to, down to minute details, and when you rotate the view around a building, you see the back of the it (not a magically spinning building as in some games). The city is very well animated, with villagers making trips to the market and church, little sheep milling about the sheep farms, and so on.

Music..
Beautiful. Good enough to be interesting, subtle enough to not get irritating. The one exception is "Scarborough Fair". Being so recognisable, it gets old quick. Fortunately, the game lets you add and remove songs from the playlist. I recommend removing that one early. Furthermore, as you move forward technologically, later styles of music start playing. From light Renaissance minstrel tunes, to full blown orchestral pieces.

The Bad
The combat system has some shortcomings..
You can't double click a soldier to select all troops of that type, though you can drag boxes around clusters of troops, and the game supports hot-grouping (ctrl-1, ctrl-2, etc). Still, it can be difficult to control your army during battle if you've had to do a lot of reinforcing (e.g.: New troops won't be in your hot-groups.) Mortars are way overpowered. Considering the limitations of a bell filled with gunpowder, it's amazing that these things never miss. They do nasty splash damage, but don't hurt friendly units. This means that you can fire a dozen mortars into a mass of troops and devastate the enemy with no loss to your troops... which also means your enemy can do it to you.

The economic system is uncommonly complex..
I have to list this under "The Bad" too, for the sake of those who believe it should be here. In a city builder, a complex economic system is a very good thing. Micromanagement is the heart and soul of a well done city builder. In an RTS, it has become a dirty word. If you're looking for a game with simplified eco-management, this game is not for you.

The answers aren't handed to you..
The help system will answer most of your questions, and the tutorial explains the basics and some of the quirkier game mechanics (like setting up an automatic trade route). However, if you're not interested in discovering the game as you go and gradually gaining a deeper understanding, your play style is probably better suited to Medal of Honor, Counterstrike Source, or maybe Company of Heroes.

The Bottom Line
As detailed above, 1503 is a really well done city sim with a built in combat system. The economic system is simple enough early on to be approachable, and complex enough later on to stay interesting. The graphics are highly detailed and quite good for 2d. The music is well done and, even if the combat system is kinda simple, it's plenty. In my opinion, the real meat of this game comes from eco-management, which this game does very well.

If you're continually disappointed by simpler and simpler economic systems in strategy games, then 1503 is for you. I can't recommend this game enough. It is complicated, which is a GOOD thing, but it is definitely NOT aggravating or boring, as a fellow reviewer believes. It's very rewarding to successfully manage a system of islands comprising a few thousand citizens, and (frankly) surprisingly soothing watching those cute little cows and sheep grazing. ;)

Windows · by Eloquius (4) · 2008

It’s complicated, aggravating, and boring, without a whole lot to offset that.

The Good
Well, the music's nice and some parts of the game seem interesting. It's got an interesting starting cut scene, and interesting little interludes between missions. Wolves hunt deer, even though the deer just sort of stand there while they're doing it, which is a nice touch. Also, animals seem to have some sort of lifecycle, and suddenly drop dead at random times.

The Bad
It's extremely complicated, but terrible at explaining that complication. It has a bare-bones tutorial and an even smaller manual that comes with the game. Then it's got an in-game "help" section that just gives a line or two about the topic, like "Gold coins are the currency used in 1503 A.D. Mining gold doesn't give you gold currency". How that's supposed to help, I really don't know. But I do know how aggravating the game is. In my first two tries at the game, I ran out of Tools before getting the necessary level and buildings to get more tools, and with no one to Trade with (you're supposed to trade with someone, but you end up just giving them Salt in return for nothing), I got caught in a catch-22, unable to continue with neither Tools nor the means to make Tools, and had to restart. On the third try I finally got Tool-making buildings, and things were looking up. Then I ran out of money. I loaded a game just after I started making Tools, but for the life of me, just couldn't stop my money from slowly trickling down to nothing. Not even shutting-down, then destroying all non-essential buildings requiring upkeep money stopped the downward flow of money. Worst part is, I didn't really know what to do. There's no Money Flow screen, like you might have in Civilization or Age of Wonders that shows what's draining money and where you're getting money from, and the tutorial, manual, and in-game help doesn't even mention money beyond simply that Gold Coins are the in-game money, so I really didn't know what to do. And all this is just on the first level! I'd hate to think what later levels might be like.

On top of that's the extreme nonsense of the game. You supposedly sailed to the Caribbean. You're in this area with a bunch of islands. But for some reason, it's snowing on the northern islands and it’s desert on the bottom ones. Near the bottom are Africans, not slave Africans but wild ones, and most boggling of all, to the east of your first colony is a colony of Mongols. And not just Native Americans mistakenly referred to as Mongols. I'm talking the steel-using horseback-riding Chinese-killing juggernauts that forged the largest empire in the world while Europe was in the High Middle Ages, and then disintegrated about 2 centuries before the game takes place. What the bloody heck are Mongols doing in The New World? And why are they allowed to take my Salt and give nothing back?

Ship cannons are unrealistic, the cannonball slowly exiting the cannon well after the cannon's fired. Increased number of cannons on ships simply decreases the delay time until your next shot, instead of being able to fire all the cannons on one side of your ship at once. To top that off, the cannonballs explode when they hit the other ship. Cannonballs of that time period were all solid shot cannonballs, not shells, and designed to just splinter and punch holes in the enemy ships. Then there are other little things, like the deer and wolves walking around your town like they own the place. Plus the time scale is really out-of-joint. During a mission supposed to take a few weeks, maybe a year at maximum, you see the lifecycle of trees, crops, and animals cycle over and over. By the middle of the first level, you should have died of old age, which would save you some aggravation anyway.

The music, while very good, is sporadic. It sort of just starts up and stops willy-nilly, even when you’re just looking around your town. It’s even worse when you get near another settlement, and music keeps switching between the music of the natives and your regular music. Plus, though it looks like there’s a good selection of music, the game is so long and slow it soon gets repetitive. I’ve probably already heard the Scarborough Fair song a dozen times, and I just started playing last week.

Finally, in the start cut scene, someone gets splashed by water, but it looks like someone dumped a bucket of mineral oil all over their head. Such is the state of this game's starting 3D animation.

The Bottom Line
It’s very overrated game, not worth the $10 you'll need to buy it. It's got a few nice things that at least whet your appetite for a pretty cool game early on. Then you realize how needlessly complicated and nonsensical the game is, not to mention its slow pace. After spending 10 minutes waiting to get enough wood, bricks, and tools to build what you want, building it, then realizing your money's going down now because of the upkeep, and there's no way to speed up or slow down the game, you start to realize how boring the game is. Nothing happens very fast, and nothing gives you a sense of accomplishment enough to offset the slow pace and the terrible aggravation this game gives you. If you were in a waiting room, and had to choose between playing this game and reading a Sears catalog, I'd suggest the Sears catalog. At least that would be simpler, more exciting, and more entertaining than this game.

Windows · by kvn8907 (173) · 2012

[ View all 5 player reviews ]

Trivia

Multiplayer

When Anno 1503 was released, there was no multiplayer-mode included - officially... In fact, they placed a file in their /data directory which enables it. The mode was not finished. It lacked a lot of features, balancing and so on. But they wanted to get some feedback from their fans without starting an official beta test. So they hoped a small group of people found out and offered feedback.

Source Code

The Anno 1503 source code is about 400,000 lines long - almost everything coded by just two coders. And the graphician, Ulli Koller, has studied architecture - thus the very detailed buildings.

Awards

  • 4Players
    • 2002– Biggest Disappointment of the Year
  • German VUD (Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland - Entertainment Software Association Germany)
    • 2002 - Gold Award for selling more than 100.000 units in Germany, Austria and Switzerland
    • 2002 - Platinum Award for selling more than 200.000 units in Germany, Austria and Switzerland
    • 2004 - Special Award for selling more than 500.000 units in Germany, Austria and Switzerland

Additional information contributed by Xoleras

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Felix Knoke.

Additional contributors: Corn Popper, JRK, lobo rojo, Sciere, jaXen, Aubustou, Crawly, rrrr hhjjh, Patrick Bregger, Evolyzer, 一旁冷笑, Zhuzha.

Game added October 28, 2002. Last modified February 17, 2024.