| Title | Anno 2070: what lies beneath |
| Author | Tom Chick |
| Posted in | Game diaries |
| When | December 6, 2011 |
One of the new additions in Anno 2070 is underwater gameplay. My concern at first was that an entirely new layer of gameplay could be more trouble than it's worth..
Read the full articleGame looks so fun. Too bad Ubisoft of course filled it with unnecessary DRM. :(
Mr. Poster, I can definitely appreciate that you want to take a stand against Ubisoft's DRM, and I applaud that. You cannot play Anno 2070 offline, which is going to be really disappointing for some people. Although the front-end offers an offline option, you can't boot up the game without signing into your account. Which is a pretty lousy offline option.
But unlike some of Ubisoft's other games, I feel they've at least made an effort to add some value to the always-online system. For instance, the meta-game includes global stat tracking, so you can check things like how which factions and resources are most popular. Furthermore, you get ingame bonuses based on how the community has voted in a set of periodic elections. Anno 2070 is very achievement driven, and that includes some achievements and "career point" rewards that unlock profile options and even ingame rewards.
So while Anno 2070 is definitely an example of always-online DRM, it's not without some corresponding value. This doesn't excuse the way it's implemented, of course. It's a shame there's no actual offline mode. But at least it's not as absurd as some of Ubisoft's other DRM systems. For instance, I was playing the other night and when I quit out, I had apparently lost my internet connection. Anno 2070 didn't kick me from the game when that happened, and it seems I didn't lose any progress towards achievements.
Rock paper shotgun says that its only a 1 time activation and no online play required. "
As it’s Ubisoft, you’ll want to know the DRM. It’s a one-time online activation, then can be played offline after that.
Really? How do you play offline?
If I click "offline mode" from the front end, I still get the sign-in screen after that, even when I've unplugged my computer from the internet. As near as I can tell, there's no way to actually start the game without signing in, and you can't sign in if you're not online.
sorry I wasnt arguing with you. I was just reposing (quotes are missing) what I read somewhere else since there seems to be a conflict of info. Yer article got me interested in the game but I wont buy if it requires online verification every time.
Ah, I thought you knew something I didn't. I just tried it, and as near as I can tell, there's no way to play without signing in, and no way to sign in without being online. I'd love to be wrong about this, and I may very well be given that the front end suggests an offline mode. But it looks to me like you cannot get into the game without an internet connection.
Haven't seen much of an ability to carry over Ark modules between missions despite having picked up a few during the campaign. I think you can take them along onto continuous type games but not the single scenarios that have a win condition such as building your faction's monument. It'll be nice to finally start using those as the 3 modules I've researched in the scenario missions have massive bonuses.