Anno 117: Pax Romana is a beautiful and refined city builder, but its simplicity might disappoint returning fans

Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2025 17:00:00 +0000

Anno 117: Pax Romana is a marked return to simplicity for the long-running city-building strategy game franchise. Some returning fans might find what it offers a little basic, but for others, the more relaxed progression will be a welcome, more relaxed change of pace - especially paired with the countless quality of life features that are available from day one.

Review info
Platform reviewed: PC
Available on: PS5, Xbox Series X and Series S, PC
Release date: November 13, 2025

In contrast, its forbear Anno 1800 is one of the most complex city builders that Ive ever played. The act of constructing a civilization is an intricate dance of lengthy supply chains that has you micromanaging the production of resources across two continents (or more with all the downloadable content) while simultaneously juggling a wealth of overlapping effects generated by
the buildings in your town center.

It was incredibly rewarding to master, but doing so required plenty of
YouTube tutorials, and a fair number of panicked searches on the community wiki.

Anno 117: Pax Romana is much more approachable for newcomers, an area that
was clearly a key concern for developer Ubisoft. This is especially evident
in the campaign, which is one of the most engaging in series history.

Dont get me wrong, the story mode in Anno games has always been little more than a glorified tutorial - basically showing you what you need to do to get started in a safe environment before setting you loose into the wider sandbox
- and thats no different here, but the choice to have you playing as a named character does add an extra layer of narrative detail. Best bit (Image
credit: Ubisoft) Anno 117: Pax Romana is absolutely gorgeous, and will
delight true history nerds. Its Roman setting is recreated wonderfully with intricate details that lead to stunning and life-like streets. There are even some authentic painted statues, which is always great to see.

Out of the two options, I picked Marcia Tertia, a wealthy Roman daughter who has been married off to a troubled governor whom shes never met. After a
series of events in Latium (the games Roman region) that I wont spoil, she winds up banished to Albion (Celtic England), where she ends up acting as the governor in secret to try and get back into the emperors good books. In
typical Anno fashion, dialogue is comedic throughout, and I found myself enjoying some of the twists and turns.

This is a much shorter campaign than 1800 's, lasting just over six hours rather than about 15, though its tightly paced and doesnt overstay its
welcome as a result. I couldnt resist diving into my own sandbox games once I hit the end, though Im still eager to try the story as the other protagonist
- Marcus Naukratius. There are a handful of narrative decisions and some side activities that I wouldnt mind going back to for a replay, too.

The best thing I can say about the mode, though, is that it does a very good job of telling you what you need to know. I finished the 1800 story with more questions than answers, but a new player here would feasibly be fully
qualified to dive into sandbox or even online multiplayer.

But what exactly is it that youre doing exactly? Anno fans will know the
drill, but for everyone else, this is a city-building game thats all about constructing supply chains to collect the resources that your citizens need
to level up. Anno 117: Pax Romana lets you choose whether to start your game
in Latium or Albion, and each region plays out in a slightly different
fashion.

In Latium, there are four population tiers: Liberti, Plebeians, Equites, and Patricians. Needs become more complex as you move between the levels, with citizens that initially required porridge and straw sandals eventually demanding access to running water for communal baths, education through libraries, flashy jewellery, and even yummy bird tongues in aspic to nibble.

The map is split into multiple islands, with each island only capable of harbouring specific resources. No one island will offer every resource that
you need late in the game, so at some point, you will inevitably need to load up a ship and start settling them. Funnelling resources back to your main
city center becomes a game in and of itself, as you set up trading routes
and, on higher difficulties, deal with the disruption caused by frequent attacks from raiders.

Its the same formula that fuelled 1800 , but importantly, in 117, you dont actually need to fulfill all of a specific groups needs to progress.

If youre struggling to get enough fine glass, for example, you can ignore it and focus on olive oil instead. It cuts down the complexity massively, and while you are rewarded for meeting all needs at once, so less confident
players dont need to worry about overwhelming themselves with too many types
of resources to manage.

You shouldn't take all this to mean that Anno 117: Pax Romana feels
incomplete, though. Theres plenty here, including a wealth of quality of life changes that long-time fans will love.

This ranges from small things like a day and night cycle (which wasnt
available in 1800 at launch) and the ability to play using a keyboard and
mouse on consoles, to substantial changes such as the option to place
buildings diagonally for the first time and a planning mode that lets you visualize your city with blueprints.

Some major DLC features from past games are also included for free. Your governor villa, for example, is effectively identical to the Palace from 1800
s Seat of Power expansion, allowing you to buff parts of your island with well-placed Specialists. Once built, the villa is also the primary target for invaders because land combat, a feature entirely missing from Anno 1800 , is back too.

Fighting has always been the weakest part of any Anno game in my eyes. It largely boils down to clicking on enemies, and battles are usually won by whichever side has more soldiers. Unfortunately, there havent been many
strides in this regard, though I hope the fact that ground combat is back
will prove a good foundation for some combat-focused DLC or updates in the future.

There were also some weird bugs that I hope will be addressed. The most annoying of these was with my islands fire safety rating, which would
randomly decrease a few thousand points without warning. Hovering over the
icon told me that this was due to City Status", whatever that means, and
there was seemingly very little I could do to remedy it.

I tried moving all my most flammable buildings, like bakeries and kilns, to a separate island, making sure that they were well spaced to avoid their areas
of effect, and filling every street corner with Vigilies (the Roman fire department) in vain.

Actual fires didnt even seem that much more frequent, but this big red number did cause some frustrations with diplomacy as other leaders looked down on my apparently highly combustible settlement.

That aside, Ive been very much enjoying my time with Anno 117: Pax Romana . It's a more relaxed take on the Anno formula than 1800, and while not as complex, its still easy to lose track of the hours as you watch your city
grow.

Should I play Anno 117: Pax Romana? Play it if

You want a high-quality city builder
Anno 117: Pax Romana is more polished than lots of competing city builders like Cities: Skylines 2 . It also offers significantly more content in the
form of a single-player story and online multiplayer.

You love the Roman setting
Both Rome and England are beautifully recreated in Anno 117: Pax Romana ,
with plenty of details that will delight history nerds and lovers of the
past.

You were overwhelmed by 1800
Anno 117: Pax Romana is much easier to manage than 1800 , with fewer complex supply chains needed to progress. If you love the idea of an Anno game but bounced off the last entry, then this is the perfect time to come back.

Dont play it if

You expect even more complexity
If you go into Anno 117: Pax Romana expecting a game thats even more complicated than Anno 1800 , then you will be disappointed. Stick with that past entry and wait for some new expansions to up the difficulty.

Accessibility features

There is no dedicated accessibility menu in Anno 117: Pax Romana , which is a bit of a shame given Ubisofts leading track record in the area.

There are still some useful options in the settings, though, such as the ability to rebind your keys and increase the scale of the UI. Dialogue
features subtitles throughout, with the option to use only sans-serif fonts
for reliability or to remove italics.

How I reviewed Anno 117: Pax Romana

I played close to 20 hours of Anno 117: Pax Romana on PC using a copy
provided by Ubisoft, with a small amount of time spent also trying the PS5 version, including testing its mouse and keyboard support.

My system is a 5070 Ti-powered model from retailer Scan that features a
compact Corsair 2000d RGB Airflow case, Asus ROG Strix B860-I Gaming Wifi motherboard, Intel Core Ultra 7 265K CPU, a 2TB WD Black SN770 SSD, 32GB of DDR5 Corsair Vengeance RAM, and an Nvidia 5070 Ti manufactured by Asus.

This setup allowed me to play the game smoothly on its highest graphics settings with the use of Nvidia DLSS . For peripherals, I relied on my trusty Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro mouse and Cherry XTRFY K5V2 keyboard, plus an Astro
A20 X PC gaming headset for audio.

Throughout my time with the game, I constantly compared my experience with my significant experience playing other Anno games, including 1800 , 2205, 2070
, and 1404.

First reviewed November 2025 ======================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/gaming/anno-117-pax-romana-review
$$
--- SBBSecho 3.28-Linux
* Origin: Capitol City Online (42:17/1)