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Preview: Anno 117 has me hooked first try

1.9.2025

Translation: Jessica Johnson-Ferguson

My first two hours of city building in ancient Rome feel familiar yet refreshing. I’m just not entirely sold on the graphics. Starting 2 September, you can give Anno 117: Pax Romana a go yourself.

There’s no other game I’m looking forward to as much in 2025 as Anno 117: Pax Romana. The series from Ubisoft Blue Byte is one of the best the strategy city-building genre has to offer. At Gamescom, I got to play the latest instalment for a total of two hours, and I’m sure I’ll be spending many days in the Roman Empire this winter.

I feel right at home

Pax Romana has kept the basic principle of the Anno games. Namely, you’re plonked on an empty island and have to build a magnificent city on it. The first steps are simple: you build a few logging camps, sawmills, fisheries and houses.

Two fisheries, a small wood production facility and a handful of cottages. If you’re familiar with the Anno series, the beginning of Pax Romana won’t come as a surprise.
Source: Samuel Buchmann

However, my Liberti – the inhabitants of the first stage – soon want more than just fish. To bring more variety to their plates, I start growing oats and process them into porridge. I have some tunics made from hemp made for them, so that the poor guys don’t have to walk around naked any more. And to make their hard life as farmers more bearable, I build them a tavern.

As has always been the case in Anno, it’s not just the needs that grow rapidly, but also the complexity of production chains for individual goods. For simple hats, you only need a sheep farm and a hatter. But if you want to bake bread, you need a wheat farm, a mill and a bakery, which requires charcoal to operate. Goods routes should be kept short, so you have to think carefully about where to put what.

Less than an hour into the game, my little town has grown to just under 1,000 inhabitants – and my plebeians (the second population level) are already quite demanding.
Source: Samuel Buchmann

One hour into the game, I already feel slightly overwhelmed because my residents are developing a thirst for olive oil. The thing is, I can’t grow it on my main island, the soil’s not fertile enough. This means I’d have to colonise a second one. In addition, I haven’t planned enough space for new residential buildings, which means I have to demolish and rebuild productions. This «next time I’ll know better» feeling is an integral part of the Anno games.

New mechanics are a breath of fresh air

Anno 117: Pax Romana may feel familiar right away, but it’s more than just Anno 1800 in a new guise. The development studio has come up with new mechanics so that old hands don’t get bored. These are the four main ones:

1. Area-based effects: many buildings have an effect on their surroundings – either positive or negative. For example, the income of homes will increase if they’re within a certain radius of a weaving mill. The risk of fire damage increases in the vicinity of a charcoal-burning plant. Houses close to my governor’s mansion are more prestigious. You get the idea. These additional factors force you to put even more thought into where to construct buildings.

A Grammaticus not only fulfils a need of my inhabitants, it also increases the production of knowledge. The smarter I position it, the more buildings are under its influence.
Source: Samuel Buchmann

2. Gods: the ancient setting is perfect for gods and temples. In Anno 117, you can worship deities and accumulate devotion. In return, you receive buffs. Ceres increases your agricultural production of goods, for example.

3. Research: collect knowledge about special buildings. By doing so, you can unlock various technologies. The discovery tree is pretty big. It’ll probably take a very long time before I reach the lowest branches.

After one hour of playing, I’m only just starting my research.
Source: Samuel Buchmann

4. Military: the Roman Empire wasn’t only about construction, but about fighting too. After the last Anno games did without battles, Pax Romana features legions you can command. I can’t tell you exactly how that works, as I wasn’t able to test it in the demo. The studio behind the game also points out that military conflicts will remain optional. So if you prefer being a peaceful settler, you can.

Two regions at the start and an announced DLC

Unlike in Anno 1800, you can choose between two regions at the start in free play mode. You can either start your career as the governor of Latium, a fictional version of Italy, or civilise the barbarians of Albion, closer to Celtic Britain.

Both regions function independently and don’t necessarily need goods from the other region. However, they do look very different. While sunny Latium has a summer holiday vibe, mystical Albion is a mix of fog and rain. In Albion, the game feels more difficult right from the get-go. Some buildings can only be constructed on bogs, where access needs to be enabled by constructing footbridges that cost wood.

Bogs pose a challenge. If you Romanise Albion, you get to drain it later on.
Source: Ubisoft

Once you allow your Celts to move up a level for the first time, you also have to decide if you want to impose Roman culture on them, or honour their own customs? Presumably, both have their advantages and disadvantages, but I can’t say for sure after the short session at Gamescom.

In addition to Latium and Albion, Ubisoft has already hinted at another province in a preview of the first Season Pass. Looks like there’ll be an Egypt DLC within the first year. As a fan of Caesar and Pharaoh, this pleases me to no end.

Pretty, but gaudy

I’m not entirely satisfied with the graphics and the user interface. I’m not saying Anno 117 is ugly. On the contrary, the buildings and landscapes are lovingly designed and full of detail. The streets are bustling with residents realistically going about their business. The times of day and changing weather provide variety. You can now also build roads at an angle, and not just a 90-degree one. However, this all feels less organic than in Manor Lords, for example. That’s why my city always ends up looking like it was designed on a drawing board.

What bothers me more is the colourful paint job. During sunset, the glow of my city looks unnatural and borderline gaudy. At night, fires flicker everywhere, the meadows are still green and the sky’s dark blue. At times, this looks almost like a comic book and doesn’t really fit the historical setting.

The same goes for the interface. It’s just too minimalist for my taste. No artwork winding around the logos, the font has no antique flair and the buttons are backed with plain-coloured surfaces. At the same time, the user interface takes up a lot of space. At the bottom, the multi-level menus protrude far into the picture. However, I may have played the demo in 1440p, but I’m not sure, as I didn’t have access to the settings. The problem may disappear with a higher resolution.

Menus, dialogues, info boxes – the interface feels a little overloaded. Just like the colour saturation of the sunsets.
Source: Samuel Buchmann

Either way, these issues are minor. In terms of gameplay, the first few hours as a Roman city builder drew me in completely. I can hardly wait to expand my empire and rack my brains over complex supply chains.

If this appeals to you, too, you can get a taste of it from 2 to 16 September 2025 in a demo with a one-hour time limit. It’ll be available from 12 noon on PC via Steam, Epic Games Store and Ubisoft Connect.

Anno 117: Pax Romana, a Bethesda exclusive, will be released for Xbox Series X/S and PC on 13 November. Watch this space for a detailed review.

Header image: Ubisoft

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Samuel Buchmann

Senior Editor

Samuel.Buchmann@digitecgalaxus.ch

My fingerprint often changes so drastically that my MacBook doesn't recognise it anymore. The reason? If I'm not clinging to a monitor or camera, I'm probably clinging to a rockface by the tips of my fingers.

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