Every year, there seems to be one single game released that manages to fly well below my proverbial radar and happens to be of incredibly high quality.  This year, that game is Dawn of Discovery (also known as Anno 1404) made by German developer Blue Byte, a studio owned by Ubisoft.  Dawn of Discovery is the “spiritual successor” to Blue Byte’s more famous city building/strategy game series, The Settlers, and the sequel to Anno 1701.  You are given control of a fief by the Emperor and soon turn a small, sparsely civilized island into a sprawling empire of your own.  Aside from a campaign mode, there is a “continuous play” sandbox mode, but no multiplayer.  But who needs multiplayer when you end up playing Dawn of Discovery for ten hours straight and not realize it?

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