I’ve been revisiting anno 2205, infamously the ugly duckling of the Anno series of RTS games. I don’t mind so much the fact that it’s different, lacks customisation and random map generation - I’m bothered because the game is so slow to progress through on challenge settings, and it feels like a game designed just to artificially waste your time; in other anno games, you can always pull tricks to dig yourself out of economic crisis - selling off assets and surplus goods, completing quests for other parties, or taking loans. 2205 is very very confined in terms of what you can do to financially recover in the early game and forces you into a lot of military events.
Playing it rn, at chapter 3. I like how they change the scale of the events in every chapter so far. The combat for boring somewhere in between chapter 1 and 2, though - maybe because I play on Normal. But I like the setting, characters are fun, though after BG3 it feels like not enough meaningful interaction with them.
I’ve read that DLCs are good, so I’m thinking the second playthrugh with Heretic character and DLCs.
The combat never really matters. It’s more a narrative consequence rather than a mechanical challenge and it stays that way at least as far as i have played, and i can’t see it changing without the game just being insanely frustrating. Owlcat still hasn’t really learned how to make combat challenging without being overwhelming shitty, unfortunately.
That said i still much prefer everything owlcat has put out to BG3