Anno 117: Pax Romana Elevates City-Building to Imperial Heights

The Anno franchise has set a high bar for historically grounded city-building, and its upcoming entry, Anno 117: Pax Romana, promises to surpass expectations. Developed by Ubisoft Blue Byte, this installment transports players to the apex of the Roman Empire, tasking them with erecting sprawling metropolises, forging alliances, and directing legions across land and sea. With promises of expansive Mediterranean panoramas, versatile urban planning tools, and a rich Roman-Celtic cultural tapestry, Pax Romana aims to refresh the formula without losing sight of what makes Anno so beloved.

Key Innovations in Anno 117

• True diagonal roads & sloped construction: Say goodbye to gridlock. Players can now carve roads at any angle and build on hillsides, opening up organic city shapes and more realistic terrain usage.
• Dual-region campaign: Launch your empire in sun-baked Latium or the foggy moors of Albion. Each region carries unique resources, seasonal events, and narrative threads that influence diplomacy and aesthetics.
• Hybrid warfare system: Combine classic naval engagements with legion-centric land battles. Optional staged naumachia events let you reenact mock sea fights for citizen entertainment and political favor.
• Unified progression tree: A streamlined tech-social-religious advancement menu guides new governors through essentials while offering depth for veterans to customize their civic and military strategy.
• Invoking the pantheon: Buff your economy or armies by petitioning gods such as Mars, Venus, or Neptune. Timing these divine interventions can turn the tide during sieges or economic downturns.

Expansive Sandbox and Beyond

Ubisoft asserts that Anno 117 features the largest map in series history. Players will begin with Latium and Albion unlocked, with future post-launch provinces mapped out for autumn 2025. Classic sandbox mode returns, enriched with blueprints and a “master plan” view to let patrons pre-register building clusters and supply chains in advance—greatly reducing late-game micromanagement stress.

Despite these advancements, several questions linger. Will the new combat layers distract from the core city-building loop? Can developers fine-tune difficulty spikes tied to divine buffs? And how steep will the learning curve be for newcomers unfamiliar with Anno’s trademark economic juggling?

Balancing Act: Depth vs. Accessibility

Perhaps the toughest challenge for Ubisoft Blue Byte will be striking equilibrium between depth and user-friendliness. The revamped progression tree looks impressive on paper, combining research, faith, and societal demands into a single interface. However, players accustomed to Anno’s more segmented tech paths may find the convergence of these elements initially disorienting.

Similarly, the dual-region launch allows for varied playstyles but could overwhelm those seeking a more linear narrative arc. While veteran governors might relish the freedom to oscillate between Mediterranean opulence and Celtic mysticism, novices may struggle to pin down optimal builds and trade routes across two divergent landscapes.

Game Info

Final Verdict

Anno 117: Pax Romana has all the ingredients to redefine the historical city-builder genre: flexible urban design, multi-theater combat, and a richly woven mythological layer. If Ubisoft Blue Byte succeeds in smoothing out early learning barriers and balancing its ambitious new systems, this could be the Anno entry that both welcomes newcomers and challenges seasoned architects of empire.

TL;DR

Diagonal roads, terrain freedom, and Roman-Celtic cultural depth come together on the franchise’s grandest map yet—provided Ubisoft fine-tunes its new combat and progression systems.