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City builders with RTS elements always tend to land on the “highly addictive yet extremely overwhelming” spectrum. You’re thrown into a giant map where you need to manage your civilization, make the inhabitants happy, and eventually see the red income numbers turn white—it isn’t an easy feat. As someone who’s usually wary when jumping into these games, Anno 117: Pax Romana did the impossible and hooked me faster than I could get my tier 2 residents. If what I saw during this preview is a glimpse of all that’s coming to the full game, then we’re about to have a premium city builder on our hands.
A City’s Ode
During this preview of Anno 117: Pax Romana, I had the opportunity to try the campaign, which offered not one but two protagonists. I was able to pick between Marcia and Marcus, but with their own compelling plot and different objectives. While I tried both, Marcia’s story is the one that hooked me, as she travels to Latium to marry someone. However, the husband is absent due to a mysterious illness, leaving Marcia to fend for herself.
Without spoiling much, Marcia’s story adds a lot of intrigue to its narrative as she tries to discover why her husband has been in the sick wing for so long, while also slowly building a colony and becoming a proper ruler. In terms of storytelling, Anno 117: Pax Romana delivers once again a high-quality campaign that no other city builder has been able to replicate. And yes, it might be a tutorial for many players out there, but that’s the cherry on top of an excellent character-driven narrative that lets you get your feet wet before delving into the depths of what Anno is all about.
While the sandbox mode was also available, with both Latium and Albion being available, I spent most of my time in campaign mode, as my city-building and RTS knowledge was pretty rusty. Fortunately, Anno 117: Pax Romana is extremely approachable and might be the best entry point to the Anno universe ever. Its UI is terrific, explanations don’t occupy half of your screen with text clutter, and the difficulty is still something you can tailor to let you create your ideal civilization.
Brick by Brick
Leaving the campaign aside, the actual city-building part is top-notch, and one of the best I’ve seen in recent memory.
Regardless of the mode you pick, you’ll start with your character, a couple of resources, and some population. From there, it is up to you to follow a goal and try to reach those higher population tiers to unlock new buildings for your colony.
Using the campaign as an example, I started with my trading post and gradually built houses to attract more people. I also placed a few sawmills here and there to get the timber rolling. After that, I realized I wasn’t meeting my population’s needs, so I added a few taverns and markets, and then built some buildings to provide them with proper clothing.
One thing I absolutely love about Anno 117: Pax Romana is how easy it is to see what the next step is for your new venture. For instance, if you want to craft some sandals for your citizens, which increases your income, you need to create a building that produces pigs first, a salt deposit, a tannery, and then the place that crafts the sandals. You can see all of this in a neat UI that’s easy to understand, which is something I wish other city builders had. Often, city builders tend to clutter gameplay options behind multiple layers of menus, making the process of creating something extremely tedious. Fortunately, that’s not the case for Anno 117.
Increasing a household’s happiness or meeting their needs is also easier than ever, as there are clear indicators of when a building affects your residents. Let’s say you have a neighborhood that is well fed and has enough clothing, but there aren’t any public services around. When placing a tavern, you’ll see green arrows pointing upward that show the buildings it will affect. The same happens with buildings that provide negative attributes, such as decreasing the safety hazard of an area or decreasing a neighborhood’s happiness levels.
And while all of that visual feedback is superb and makes the intricate city-building aspect feel less overwhelming, it doesn’t take the challenge away. Often, I went all trigger-happy and built refineries as if there were no consequences to it. Then, I discovered that I didn’t have enough workforce, and my income was in the red. I slowly turned the situation around by increasing my population, producing more goods to sell, and slowing down the frenetic building. This allowed me to improve my colony, but not without its consequences.
An Empire to Stand the Test of Time
There’s still more to see in Anno 117: Pax Romana, but from the small glimpse I got, I’m convinced that I will, once again, lose myself in the intricacies of its city-building and management mechanics, which I frankly love. On top of that, it is surprising to see just how approachable this new entry of the Anno universe can be, without taking away that heart-racing challenge of making one wrong decision that could cost you time and resources to fix. In truth, I couldn’t be more excited to dive fully into this game, which is shaping up to be the ultimate city builder of the year.
