Anno 117: Pax Romana Review

About 45 minutes after starting Ubisoft Mainz’ Anno 117: Pax Romana, I thought I’d made a huge mistake.

Having never played these games before, I was expecting a relatively familiar city management sim and strategy game with a new lick of paint.

Struggling to correctly setup even the first major resource tree – timber for those in the know – was challenging. Trying to gauge the correct ratio between a growing population and a limited capacity for resources.

It became very clear that this was not what I was expecting…

Anno 117: Pax Romana Review

Cut-scenes and animated characters add a level of quality to the narrative

There’s a level of planning and forward-thinking to Anno 117: Pax Romana I didn’t see coming.

Managing multiple population types, each with varying needs and desires, came into play. I also needed to incorporate new research and technologies into existing developments to pivot resource and production.

Now?

My only mistake is that Anno 117: Pax Romana is my first Anno game – and it will definitely not be my last.

I’ve fallen in love with everything Anno 117: Pax Romana has to offer.

Near-endless hours of relaxing (albeit sometimes frustrating) gameplay where every step – every inch of progress – always feels earned and rewarding.

As a complete newbie to the franchise, it’s pretty brutal. The controls on PlayStation 5 take a lot of getting used to; even now, I struggle finding certain menus and shortcuts.

This is not so much because of a development issue, but more because of breadth of the options available. It would be an impossible task to make the entire process fluid.

While Anno 117: Pax Romana’s tutorial somewhat helps, it almost entirely skips combat and misses many city management aspects.

Your trusted involuntary advisor, Ben-Baalion, offers tips and advice along the way

Anno 117: Pax Romana’s relatively short campaign, which clocks in between 8-12 hours, primarily serves a tutorial.

While narrative-driven, Anno 117: Pax Romana’s campaign is worthy of the journey – even for more experienced players. It introduces players to the two distinct building and cultural environments of Latium and Albion, playing the role of a Roman governor in a time of peace.

Relatively speaking, of course.

Choosing to build through the Roman or Celtic trees, Anno 117: Pax Romana feels like two entirely different games. Each requires different construction techniques, planning, and materials.

Dabbling a bit in both, I very much look forward to being comfortable exploring both avenues.

Despite its tutorial-centric approach, it misses the mark in a few select areas.

Anno 117: Pax Romana is such an incredibly complex game, complete with intricately-woven mechanics into every design and feature. It’s only natural some elements would be ignored, but it does admittedly leave a steep learning curve as a result.

The game looks incredible throughout

That’s the real beauty of Anno 117: Pax Romana…

Anno 117: Pax Romana level of depth and micromanagement completely blows me away – especially as a newcomer!

I probably put 30 hours into Anno 117: Pax Romana’s campaign mode as I set out to experiment, learn, adapt, and make things just a bit more efficient each run.

I feel like I achieved so much in Anno 117: Pax Romana – and yet I still understand next to nothing.

For the right player, Anno 117: Pax Romana is a game that offers hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of entertainment.

Especially if you’ve got friends to throw into the mix!

Attempting to manage combat in urban areas relies heavily on pathing, which isn’t always the best

Anno 117: Pax Romana co-op option was the main reason I decided to dive into Anno for the first time, and its two options available cater to every player.

Anno 117: Pax Romana’s co-op allows for multiple players to play as the same emperor as they share the same resources, research tree, and buildings.

When in play, Anno 117: Pax Romana’s co-op system allows multiple players to work together in harmony. In a game that encourages multiple settlements, sprawling cities, and important research decisions, sharing the workload between players is always fun.

Anno 117: Pax Romana’s other option – its more traditional multiplayer functionality – offers the same. However, the added twist comes with the additional choice of players controlling their own emperor and competing/working together.

Laying siege to an enemy stronghold is a lengthy process, when you only bring spears and bows

Combat is the only area of the game where this title felt a little lackluster.

Anno 117: Pax Romana’s combat follows a familiar rock-paper-scissors approach to unit strengths and weaknesses, but there is very little attention is given to formations or controlled movement.

Starting the battle with troops all positioned correctly, with spears and swords protecting long-range units can be a bit cumbersome, but once the battle starts?

It’s best just to start telling everything to attack everything else.

This title provides a satisfying system from a visual perspective. Anno 117: Pax Romana’s units are engaging in combat, and seeing the damage from a charge is always rewarding.

That being said, it does feel a bit dated.

I only looked away for 2 hours.

Anno 117: Pax Romana creates epic stories from struggles. I lost count of the times everything was smooth, with everything going my way – only for some random situation to cripple my efforts.

Feeling confident after populating my first island, I expanded to new territory to capture a resource I needed to advance my city even further.

After sending my fleet with some starting supplies, I got to building my next epic city.

About 20 minutes in, I was bombarded with notifications…I neglected to pay attention to the population growth of my first island, leaving many without vital supplies.

My fleet was so large, it left too few workers at home and half my city moved out.

Disease ravaged one quadrant, while riots started in another; needless to say, it was a complete disaster.

Restart, try again, lessons learned.

This was often my route in Anno 117: Pax Romana, but not once was that through disappointment or frustration.

Each attempt of Anno 117: Pax Romana had me eager to explore, learn more, and build better.

Anno 117: Pax Romana is a remarkable game, and one I hope to spend many more hours playing.

The depth and variety of the research tree is incredible. INCREDIBLE.

As a newcomer to the Anno franchise, Anno 117: Pax Romana has completely blown me away. I’ve sunk days into this game, and still feel like I need weeks to get comfortable, and months to get confident – and I absolutely love that.

The post Anno 117: Pax Romana Review appeared first on GamersHeroes.