Anno 1800 has a demo, but only for one week
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Ubisoft have launched a week-long demo for Anno 1800, the latest in their city 'n' empire-building game. You've got until Monday to play a Victorian coloniser, wearing silly hats and ruthlessly exploiting resources and people for capital gain. And in the game. It is weird for a demo to be limited in both quantity and time, given how many week-long full-game trials we see these days, but Anno 1800 is a worth a look.
Ubi say that the demo "includes the first three tiers of the sandbox mode along with the multiplayer mode." It also includes, because reasons, the pretty day/night cycle that won't come to the full game until a free update due on September 10th. Having started last night at 9pm, the demo week will end at 8am on Monday the 26th. The download is 15GB so it's a fair lump for slower or capped connections, but the game is a good'un.
"Anno 1800 is the most impressive city-builder I've ever come across," our Old Nate declared in his Anno 1800 review back in April.
"I say that as a serious fan of the city-building genre, too. But I'm going to stop just short of saying it's the best city-builder I've ever played, because I'm not sure yet. It very well might be, but I'm going to have to put in many more hours before I know whether its idiosyncrasies will make me fall hopelessly in love with it, or drive me away entirely. In that sense, it's a bit like a brooding moneylord from a nineteenth century novel. Which is appropriate, because that's pretty much what you play as in Anno 1800."
Head on over to Ubi's site to register for the demo. You'll need their Uplay client to play it, and can also grab it directly in there. There's no Steam version because Ubisoft signed one of those there Epic Games Store exclusivity deals, though there's no Epic demo either.
If you want Anno 1800 for keepsies, Ubi have given it a 33% discount in the Gamescom sale on their store, bringing it down to £33.49. Or it'll be free to play in full for weeks during the Uplay+ trial starting September 3rd.
Ubisoft have also used Gamescom to wham out a vid showing off the free update and paid expansion due September 10th:
