Review: Anno 117: Pax Romana

Become a Roman governor and witness the rise and fall of the Pax Romana in the most ambitious entry of the ANNO series.

To set the mood for this review, I invite you to listen to the game’s stunning soundtrack, especially in the misty landscapes of Albion, where every note seems to breathe with the Celtic wind. We’ll talk more about the soundtrack later.

INTRO

Anno 117: Pax Romana marks the triumphant return of one of the most respected and long-running city-building and strategy franchises. For the first time, the series leaves the future and modern eras behind to dive deep into the ancient world.

Set at the height of the Roman Empire under Emperor Trajan, the game puts players in the role of a governor tasked with managing and expanding provinces under Roman control or, if they prefer, challenging the order and taking a more independent path, especially across the Celtic frontiers of Albion.

The Anno franchise is known for its unique numerical tradition: every title’s digits add up to 9 (1602, 1404, 1800, and now 117). Ubisoft Blue Byte keeps this symbolic signature intact but shifts the timeline dramatically to the furthest past the saga has ever reached.

DEVELOPMENT

The Anno series began in 1998 with Anno 1602 by the Austrian studio Max Design and evolved under Related Designs and Ubisoft Blue Byte.

Pax Romana represents the franchise’s boldest leap, leaving behind industrialization and futurism to embrace Antiquity.

Anno 117 was announced as an ambitious project combining the refined mechanics of Anno 1800 with a completely new classical setting. The team invested in advanced rendering technologies, more dynamic AI systems, and a redesigned interface built to support both mouse-and-keyboard and controller play.

A key development milestone was the decision to release full mouse and keyboard support on consoles. On Xbox Series X, the experience feels nearly identical to PC, a rarity in strategy games. This move broadens the genre’s reach, inviting new audiences previously held back by control limitations.

Behind the scenes, Ubisoft Mainz spent almost four years developing new systems for economic AI, naval simulation, and religious influence, keeping the essence of Anno intact while layering in new depth and personality.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The title draws from the period known as the Pax Romana, when the Empire reached its greatest territorial extent under Emperor Trajan. Yet the “peace” in the title is relative, as the borders with Celtic, Germanic, and Dacian peoples still pulsed with tension. This ambiguity lies at the heart of the game, apparent stability masking an empire in constant expansion.

Players experience not only the economy of a Roman metropolis but also the political and cultural subtleties of managing colonies, promoting integration, and maintaining devotion to the gods.

Divine blessings from Mars, Ceres, and Neptune are more than symbolic; they translate into tangible gameplay bonuses reflecting the syncretic worldview of the time. Mars grants military strength, Ceres enriches harvests, and Neptune ensures safe seas.

It’s one of the most elegant historical interpretations the franchise has ever produced, portraying faith and politics without glorifying empire, letting the systems speak for themselves.

GAMEPLAY

From the very first minutes, Anno 117 offers a nearly poetic learning curve. Mechanics unfold gradually and organically. The HUD and construction tools unlock progressively, letting players adapt without feeling overwhelmed, a design decision more strategy games should emulate.

As in any great city-builder, Anno 117 revolves around balance between economy, resources, and urban planning.

At the start of the campaign, you must build homes, secure wood for construction and trade, and establish sea routes connecting the islands, the foundation for understanding how every decision shapes the empire’s growth.

The top of the screen displays vital data: denarii reserves, income trends, total population, governor stats, and details of your outpost. You can also monitor workforce, productivity, and population per island, a full economic portrait of your province.

Below, time controls and construction tools allow you to pause, speed up, or slow down the simulation as needed. The map reveals rivers, rocky terrain, and fertile zones, all essential for city planning.

A particularly beautiful touch is the dynamic lighting that follows the natural day cycle. Watching your city at dawn, under the noon sun, or by torchlight at night adds a sense of living rhythm, a meditative harmony between gameplay and world design.

Once your initial base is established (villages, warehouses, supply chains), the challenge shifts toward scale and specialization.

You stop thinking merely as an urban planner and begin acting as a Roman governor, balancing three core spheres of power:

🏗️ Economic: expanding production chains with new luxury goods and fine manufacturing.

⚔️ Military/Diplomatic: disputes over islands, treaties, rebellions, and optional land and naval warfare.

🕊️ Cultural/Religious: temples and cults that affect productivity, happiness, and regional influence.

The introduction of gods as gameplay mechanics reshapes everything, choosing to honor Mars means forgoing Ceres, and vice versa, forcing trade-offs between prosperity and security.

Territorial expansion is meticulously strategic, conquering means more than occupying, it’s about balancing trade routes, supplies, and morale.

Warfare (or peace) stems from political choices, not scripts, a rare achievement in modern strategy design.

Architectural freedom has also evolved, diagonal roads and rotatable buildings make cities more organic, contrasting with older Anno titles’ rigidity. Your city feels alive, adapting, growing, and breathing with the land.

SOUNDTRACK

Composed by the German studio Dynamedion GbR, the soundtrack delivers pure immersion, solemn calm at sunrise over Latium, subtle tension when the Senate demands reports, and the distant echo of drums when Mars is invoked.

It’s so serene and natural that it gently pulls you toward creation, to build, to exist, to be within that world.

ACHIEVEMENTS

Instead of collectible grinds or artificial challenges, achievements emerge naturally through gameplay, earning command ranks, hosting amphitheater events, defeating specific foes, or resolving economic crises.

Nothing feels forced; everything flows from playing well. It’s a design philosophy few strategy games execute with such elegance.

BETWEEN GLORY AND BOTTLENECKS

Behind the pomp of the legions and the splendor of the Roman villas, Anno 117 also carries the weight of its own empire, that of gears that creak under the weight of ambition. The logistics system, the heart of the franchise, remains vibrant, but sometimes pulses irregularly. The new automated routes alleviate some of the micromanagement burden, but do not solve the slowness in transport between warehouses, which now share inventory, but still depend on traffic that becomes congested when the city reaches maturity. It's the old dilemma of the series: efficiency versus aesthetics.

Visually, the game maintains its characteristic splendor, cities that look like animated mosaics, detailed down to the last brick. However, when the empire grows too large, the engine shows its strain: the intense use of individual citizen simulations and trade routes weighs on the processor, resulting in small pauses and frame rate variations. They are brief, almost discreet, but remind us that even Rome has cracks in the marble. The interface, now redesigned, is an improvement in appearance, but not in clarity.

There are fewer icons and cleaner menus, but the hierarchy of information still demands patience, especially in longer production chains. It's the kind of refinement that impresses at first glance, but in everyday use, it shows that modernity hasn't yet conquered Roman bureaucracy. Even so, there's honesty in how the game reveals itself: grand and flawed in human terms, like Rome itself, which it tries to rebuild.

MY IMPRESSIONS

Playing with mouse and keyboard on Xbox Series X feels flawless. Few city-builders offer native control support on consoles, and Ubisoft deserves full credit. This choice opens the genre to new audiences while preserving the precision strategy demands.

During the campaign, merchants appear with moral and practical dilemmas, seize their goods or negotiate. Consequences are immediate. These small choices build a real sense of responsibility for your empire.

The character interactions and dialogue are of exceptional quality, authentic Roman tones, idioms, and accents. Watching your city glow under torchlight as markets buzz and citizens debate in the forum is an experience that transcends genre.

Maritime exploration feels almost poetic, sailing through fog-shrouded islands, unveiling the map as if parting a divine veil, one of the series’ most beautiful and meditative moments.

TRAILER OFFICIAL

SUMMARY

Anno 117: Pax Romana is the meeting point between the series’ past and its future. It doesn’t reinvent Anno, it perfects it. This is the most mature, thematic, and ambitious game the franchise has ever produced.

With historically rich setting, sublime soundtrack, and unparalleled art direction, it delivers one of the most engaging management experiences ever crafted. Every city built, every trade route planned, every political choice under Rome’s uncertain peace reflects design that rewards intellect and patience.

Not everything is flawless, even on Xbox Series X, the game’s technical weight reveals its PC roots. Yet this never breaks immersion, it reinforces the ambition behind a title that dares to push its genre’s boundaries.

Anno 117 isn’t for those seeking instant action. It’s for those who find beauty in slow decisions, in every purposeful street, every temple raised to the gods of balance. A tribute to patience, intellect, and the timeless art of civilization-building.

Review by Gamertag: Scoulz

SCORE: 90/100