Intro

The Anno games are city-builders. You start with basic resources and citizens with basic needs and both get more complex over time.

The Good

• Utterly moronic story. In the second mission a handful of weak soldiers manage to invade a city with thick walls and set everything on fire. After they are easily defeated by the guards who were just chilling in the barracks, you take the surviving citizens on your ship and just dump them on a random island in the caribbean without any supplies. Wait, what? Huh?

The Bad

• Utterly moronic story.
• Terrible, unskippable dialogue.
• Clicking on some buildings plays the same dialogue over and over again.
• Some really vague mission goals ("ignite the flame in the fire temple").
• You can't just play a random skirmish or solo game.
• Lacks the charm, humour and zaniness of the Tropico series.
• It's boring.
• Trade routes are needlessly confusing (you indicate how many acquired resources you want your ship to keep rather than drop off).
• Seemingly random pathfinding.

The Ugly

• The second mission is one of the worst missions i've ever seen. There's no building, you just control 1-4 units and make them put out fires/easily kill enemies. Easily the worst non-building mission in a strategy game ever.
• The third mission starts you out with a fully built city. Seriously, it's called a city-building game, let me build a fucking city.
• No proper indication of how many resources can sustain how many citizens, which is kinda essential in such a game.
• There is no depth to anything, no politics, no proper morale, et cetera.

Conclusion

1701 is boring and basic with awful dialogue that they make you sit through during its dreadful missions. It's not really a city-builder, more a sort of island tetris in which you have to optimally use the limited space. Go play Tropico instead.