I had the wonderful opportunity to do an early preview for the latest in Ubisoft’s city builder franchise, Anno 117: Pax Romana, which finally brings the series to my forebears – the Roman Empire.
While the majority of the Anno franchise is set after the fall of the Roman Empire and in the late Middle Ages through the Colonial era, Pax Romana finally takes the builder series to the greatest empire that ever existed: Rome.
Let’s get something clear from my initial time with Anno 117, this game is absolutely gorgeous. Resplendent. Jaw-dropping. If you thought Anno 1800 was a pretty game, be prepared to soil yourself over how absolutely mesmerizing Anno 117 can look.
I found myself constantly changing the camera angle, taking screenshots, zooming in to see the insane detail with citizens and buildings, and even changing the time of day (which doesn’t affect your actual game time) to take sumptuous photos.
The previous entries within Anno start you with your main map, your starter ship and dock, and have you eke out a living in an untamed new world. Anno 117 has the same beginnings though it splits progression and tech into two trees and distinct cultures, depending on which path you choose.
Though colonial powers in previous games established settlements and traded with the old world, Pax Romana has you establishing new cities within the heartland of Rome, or on the fringes of its northernmost frontiers. Eventually you’ll develop the two provinces by expanding to the other, benefitting from both distinct regions.
For anyone not familiar with city builders, your homes and people are your main source of income, through the inevitable taxes. You’ll only get those taxes rolling in if you satisfy the needs of your people, though, and you get more taxes as their class upgrades higher. This brings demand for even more goods, though, and more production chains.
Anno 117 changes revenue up by introducing the ability to boost the income from a house via putting various production buildings near or in your residential areas. You’ll also be able to boost happiness, health, and other citizen stats in the same way. Conversely, if you put certain production buildings with negative effects (like a charcoal plant) on citizens it’ll make them unhappy and possibly even unhealthy.
City builders have always introduced resource development paths that introduce unique challenges but the Albion route in Anno 117 is very interesting. The ancient Britons apparently ate lots of eels and cockles, though they eventually domesticated cattle for cheese production, which is very important.
The two development paths couldn’t be more different. For beginners or those wanting a more authentic Roman experience, you can settle down in Latium, the progenitor of modern day Rome. The more challenging path is Albion, the old Greek or Roman designation for what became Great Britain.
Both regions and tech trees are so distinct – ancient Rome is an idyllic paradise of rolling hills while ancient England is a wet a miserable place, rife with marshlands. This visual distinction between the two regions is so clear and convincing it makes me wonder what actual Roman legions thought when they first marched into Albion.
When I first sat down to play Anno 177 at PAX West, I was very torn because I wanted to honor my Roman ancestors – but I really love cheese. As far as I know, the only path to cheese in this game is with the Britons, so pursue the cheese I did. I ramped up my cheese production so much my peasants didn’t know what to do.
Going down the path of the Britons has you balancing traditional city building and planning with building your marshland industries. This is a trade off where you need the marshes for those eel-gatherers and those marsh cattle, the latter of which is once again pivotal because it eventually produces cheese.
Some resources and buildings will be the same on both the Roman and the Briton paths like timber, though the Britons need more of it to develop those marshlands. This creates a bit more stress on your production, and creates more potential bottlenecks as you’ll have to essentially juggle two halves of your settlement.
Anno 117 introduces another interesting mechanic in that you play as a Roman governor, your rule over the Britons will directly influence their way of life. Do you choose to Romanize them, drain their swamps, and make them wear togas? Or will you be sympathetic to their tastes, and boost their culture?
If you choose to do as the Romans do, you’ll start by feeding your populace sardines and porridge, eventually making industries for bread and the legendary Roman garum, a fermented sauce made from fish. Everything looks and feels distinctly Roman, all of which is visually stunning. Anno 117 is so very pretty.
The path you choose for each tier of people will not only affect your research but the buffs the people get towards things, too. Pushing more Roman culture onto the Celts will see them not only prefer more imperial food, but they’ll be better at getting formal schooling. Retaining the old Celtic traditions will see them get more buffs from faith.
These two very distinct paths can apparently be changed up with each tier as you can upgrade your individual houses and people to adopt Roman or Celtic culture, though it remains to be seen how much you can double-dip into both tech trees. Theoretically, you could settle a separate island and go all Roman while keeping your main island all Celtic, maximizing the benefits and unique goods from each.
Though my time with Anno 117 was tragically brief, I was left completely floored by how fun and masterfully crafted the latest in Ubisoft’s city builder franchise turned out, so far. Everything in Anno 117 feels like it has been looked at and thought about by people that not only know but love the genre.
Some builder maniacs may feel like this entry doesn’t do enough new stuff but I think it does just enough to keep things fresh while scratching that classic builder itch. Anno 117: Pax Romana already feels like the most robust and fun builder I’ve played in a long time, and I’m dying to get my hands on the full release when it launches this fall.
Anno 117: Pax Romana is set to launch for Windows PC (via Steam, the Ubisoft Store and the Epic Games Store), Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and Amazon Luna on November 13th.
