There is a good chance a game in the city-building genre is a game I will like. I have put hundreds upon hundreds of hours into several games in the genre and this one is no different. In fact, 'Anno 1404', which goes under the name 'Dawn of Discovery' in North America, is likely only behind one other game in this regard, further on in the list.
As a city-builder, or more accurate, as a "construction and business-management simulation" game, the objective is to create a city that's as prosperous as possible. Like the other games in the series, the game revolves around producing goods by managing production chains and trading to further your settlement. In a first for the series, the player must build two distinct settlements, balancing resources and different goods for each type of settlement while both benefit from the advancements of the other.
Besides the solid gameplay, which we've come to expect in this series, graphics to this day look absolutely amazing, and there's a very wide variety of buildings to build, especially with the 'Venice' add-on installed. Some buildings, like the harbor and the palace, can be build piece by piece and together with the plethora of decorative objects, your 15th century cities can look exactly like you want them to.