Preview | Anno 117: Pax Romana: ‘We're all going on a Roman holiday’

Nothing quite scratches an itch for me quite like an excellent city builder. There’s something so cathartic about watching your civilisation grow from a single hut to a sprawling metropolis. For those who like a good deal of layered economics and a careful balancing act, be prepared — Anno is back! And from what I’ve played, Anno 117: Pax Romana is doing everything right.

The Anno titles have often danced with the time period right around the Industrial Revolution. The transition from coal to steam and beyond has always been synonymous with the franchise for me.

I’m happy to say that through the first few chapters, Anno fits together with ancient Italy like pizza and garlic bread.

You can almost feel the salt coming off the waves

Are you not entertained?

While playing through the first few chapters of the story, I loved how Anno 117 blends narrative and gameplay. It shifts easily between cutscenes and more interactive storytelling across the map with your citizens and patrons. It’s a challenge to be a governor of a whole metropolis and still feel like you’re embodying an individual. But the campaign so far does this very well.

Marcia doesn’t want to be married to a stranger a world away, I wonder why?

The story I played through followed Marcia, married off to a Roman governor on the other side of the world. You then have to navigate politics and statesmanship, while keeping your followers happy and healthy. It’s a great start to this fish-out-of-water story, and I’m excited to see where it goes.

Though I haven’t had the chance to play it to spot the differences, there is also an alternate campaign following Marcia’s brother Marcus. I’ll look forward to giving that a go as well.

Keeping your people happy is as important as keeping the neighbours happy.

Being patrician about the whole thing

Anno 1800 players will notice many visual similarities to that title, particularly in the UI and overlays. In fact, city building itself is almost identical to Anno 1800. You will begin by placing basic housing for your people. Followed by the first industrial and food buildings. In this case, porridge, woodcutters and fishing.

Every type of citizen needs access to basic materials to advance to the next tier of citizens. This is the constant push and pull of every Anno game — growing your city and attracting higher-tiered workers, while making sure that your cottage industries keep chugging along.

There’s also a new system where you can dedicate your city to the worship of one of a handful of Roman gods, such as Neptune, Minerva, Ceres or Mars. These all come with passive bonuses for each island, such as agriculture, fishing or military boosts. It’s a great little addition that builds to the vibe of a god-fearing Roman culture.

Here’s hoping we don’t run afoul of any volcanoes.

*The constant reminder of previous failed cities is always looming.*

Over the horizon

There’s a bit of a departure from the traditional Anno formula here, which took a little while to click into my brain. In previous titles, you needed to fulfil all needs for each citizen tier for them to level up. However, in Anno 117: Pax Romana, you only need one or the other of each category. So your basic citizens need either hats or tunics, and they should have a market or a tavern, but don’t need both.

Putting aside the image of drunk citizens wearing nothing but hats, it’s a great change that means you can specialise your city further without bottlenecking production.

*The new Celtic cities are very intriguing, if not quite as pretty.*

Though this preview only included the first few chapters of the story, I was able to mess around with the Sandbox mode. This included the new Celtic settlments that will certainly be a story point. The two already feel very different and unique. While Roman townsfolk want sandals, wine and garum (see fermented fish ketchup) — townsfolk from the Celtic settlements are more into long pants, thatch huts and pork sausage.

This dual focus on two cultures has me very excited to see how Anno 117: Pax Romana evolves into the later campaign and the full Sandbox mode.

All told, my first few hours with Anno 117: Pax Romana have been engrossing. The little tweaks to the formula have thus far made the game feel fresh and new. Any concerns I had about the earlier historical setting have been cast into the sea.

Keep an eye out for a full review when Anno 117: Pax Romana is ready to set sail on November 14th. There’s also a demo available on Steam now.