Anno 117: Pax Romana Final Preview - A modern city builder set in an older era

We at Gamereactor have got our hands on the eagerly awaited Anno 117: Pax Romana. Anno is, as we know, a city-building game and a long-running series that spans large swathes of history. Last time, we visited the Industrial Revolution, and now it's time to travel further back in the history books. In Anno 117: Pax Romana, we visit the Roman Empire, or rather, parts of their enormous empire. In the preview version, I got to test the first part of the campaign and also aspects of the more open sandbox mode.

In the campaign, you get to choose your main character. The choice is either Marcus or Marcia, who are tasked with rebuilding an island whose city was destroyed by a volcanic eruption. Both stories differ slightly, and if you want to see everything the campaign has to offer, you'll need to try both. If this sounds familiar, it's because the premise is similar to what we saw in Pompeii: The Legacy but the difference here, however, is that the titles are set in different locations and take slightly different liberties with the historical material. Anno has always been set in its own world, and while the characters resemble real individuals, they rarely share the same names and the locations are often fictional.

This world filled with islands is perfect for allowing you, the player, to try to build a functioning Roman society. You start by building a home for the village woodcutter, houses for the people, and a fishing harbour. Just like in previous titles, the game is about meeting and satisfying the needs of the inhabitants, growing your influence, and spreading to other islands. To meet their needs, the advanced resource system is back, and the length of these chains can vary. At the beginning of city building, the requirements tend to be relatively few before you get a final product that people can use or sell. For example, to make bread, you need to grow wheat so that you can then get flour. You need to think about how and where you build so that the city will function well. Depending on the choice of level, it can affect your experience. The Roman level is easier with more resources and usable terrain whereas Celtic Albion, on the other hand, is considerably trickier due to swamplands and less buildable terrain.

You may be wondering what the differences are compared to its predecessors. One of the major changes from previous versions is that the user interface is more attractive and easier to navigate than before. The way you unlock buildings is shown with symbols and locks that you need to click on. In addition to this, it's much easier than before to place buildings, draw boundaries for farms, and perform similar tasks that you have as mayor. There is also a land-based combat mode this time and a system for gods, which offers improvements to your community. Although I was a little suspicious about how this would work, what we have tested looks promising.

The Anno series tends not to change much over its iterations, but this is different enough from Anno 1800 and I definitely think it can stand on its own. If you haven't tried the series before, this is also a welcoming title that doesn't rush you into the game mechanics. You are allowed to take your time if you don't play on the hardest difficulty setting and from what we've tested so far, you will be offered different levels of difficulty for your opponents and the maps themselves. In the demo version, we were able to customise quite a few options as leaders, such as how aggressive or passive they are and much more. This allows you to decide how difficult or easy your journey will be and depending on the world you build your city in, it can vary how difficult or easy you want it to be.

I was drawn in by the story, the beautiful music, the tranquil setting, and the puzzle solving. There is a calmness in Anno that is difficult to put your finger on and I am also impressed by the soundscape. In addition to the pleasant music, the cities sound more alive than ever, but the only worrying aspect is the performance, which doesn't quite measure up in this preview version. At the same time, I was still able to get the title to run smoothly with a few settings and adjustments. The game takes advantage of both HDR and Ray-Tracing to render a beautiful world to behold. If you know that you don't have the latest computer, it's easy to adjust many graphics settings as needed, and there are also settings for colour blindness and other things that may be valuable to know about.

If you're interested in a modern city builder set in an older era, with an experienced developer at the helm, this looks promising. Even though you won't be dealing with train traffic, motorways, and bus routes, you will have to juggle war, logistics, resources, city building, trade, and much more. It's an enjoyable experience that we at Gamereactor will be reviewing ahead of its launch. Based on the 2-5 hours of campaign and the two sandbox modes we tested, this looks promising ahead of its arrival, with Anno 117: Pax Romana coming to PC, Xbox Series S/X, and PlayStation 5 on November 13.