Anno 1602: Creation of a New World 1998

Is it still worth playing?

Max Design's 1998 real time strategy and city building game for Windows. You control an unnamed European nation in 1602 that colonizes the islands of an archipelago, managing resources, exploration, diplomacy and trade. Its economy climbs with its people. Colonists move through four social classes, Pioneers, Settlers, Citizens and Merchants, each demanding more advanced goods such as cloth, alcohol, tobacco and spices. Each step is earned: meeting those demands unlocks buildings, while unmet needs can cause decline, riots or lost tax income, and every building has a continuous money upkeep. There is military conquest too, with musketeers, cannons and warships, though peaceful, economy based strategies are common. Demands that keep rising, with trade between islands holding it together, still drive the economy today.