Anno 1503
Bigger, prettier, better?
Anno 1503 was in all respects a successful sequel to its forefather Anno 1602 and set in motion the numbering of the series with the sum of 9, which continues to this day. With polished gameplay and, at least it felt, less difficult than its predecessor, the game impressed in the early 2000s with more beautiful graphics, more chains of goods and more features. That's why I spent many afternoons playing the settlement simulation and proudly managed my small island empire - on an easy difficulty level, of course. In addition to the expanded game content, there was also a thick soundtrack in the form of almost 70 files in the game folder. So it's not directly an OST, but a gamerip.
The score
Alexander Röder, back then an employee of developer studio Sunflower (today at Dynamedion, the German creative company that has been orchestrating the soundtrack since Anno 1701 ), took on a difficult legacy in my view. Even though Markus Pitzer, as far as I know, now offers walking tours and sound samples, the soundtrack from Anno 1602 gets almost nothing but top marks from me - due to nostalgia. Perhaps my taste in music was a little more differentiated four years later, or perhaps the pink of the romanticization glasses had faded more. In any case, I still like many of the tracks here very much, but in direct comparison much less.
Yet the composer does everything right. The year is 1503, we are in the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Fittingly, we hear mostly feudal sounds that are somewhat reminiscent of the Stronghold-series or The Guild-games: brass and percussion, plucked instruments and sometimes strings. The mix works well, the quiet pieces fit in pleasantly with the laid-back building and planning. As with its predecessor, pieces by classical composers such as Lacrimosa or Requiem were used here (somewhat paradoxical when you consider that Mozart was only born 200 years later) as well as sea shanties such as Scarborough Fair and Capture Trip, the lyrics of which are known as "All who go on capture tour with us". They are joined by their own creations, all of which fit harmoniously into the overall picture.
In my research on this, I found out that the track Peaceful was probably removed from the game later. If you listen to it, you can imagine why the developer was probably afraid of legal consequences... The fight tracks, on the other hand, fall a little short: with good, upbeat melodies (Buccaneers) and uninspired hero fanfares à la Back to the Future (The Campaign), they unfortunately don't come close to the dramatic piano pieces from Anno 1602 . What I do like, however, is the frequent use of the bagpipes, which on the one hand serves well to instrumentalize the feudal, but on the other hand also establishes a connection between the discovery of unknown islands and the seafaring nation of Great Britain.
One of the new features, which is also noticeable in the soundtrack, are the various indigenous tribes that we can encounter. Fittingly, there are stereotypical tracks, sometimes with native American war howls (On the Warpath), sometimes with guzheng plucking (The Khan), which is almost synonymous with Asian culture. Venice, on the other hand, sounds beautifully aloof and aristocratic (Rondo, Venice etc.) and there was even room for a pirate shanty (Honky-Tonk). The Raindance of the Aztects reminds me of a battle track from Heroes of Might and Magic II, and Village is a homage to the main theme of its predecessor. In short: relaxed medieval music? Check. Bagpipe-heavy battle music? Check. A bunch of unnecessarily short, stereotypical cultural tracks? Check. And a lot of nostalgia that makes the whole thing come off far too well? Definitely check!
