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.
The utter absurdity of this game makes it fun regardless of the bugs and balance gymnastics. I’ve never felt as satisfied to reign down absolute madness on friends and foes alike as I have playing this game.
this is the really tragic part to me, you can tell there’s all the bones, all the structure for a genuinely amazing game; and I believe this is why so many people picked it up and made it a hit and stayed for so long through all the bullshit, hoping it was just growing pains. The only thing truly holding it back is the developers constantly stepping on rakes. (Frequntly, rakes they themselves set down in their path!)
Like, it’s still fun, but it could be so much better than it is.