Anno 117: Pax Romana review

As the sun rose over the cobbled market streets that stretched from the bustling docks on the vibrant waters of the Mediterranean to the New Forum high on the hill, Anno 117: Pax Romana filled me with joy and a sense of civic pride. It's taken a long time, but I feel like I'm finally loving a series I've had a somewhat rocky relationship with since 2205 came out a little late and at an awkward time. Its complex economy can still seem to go badly off-axis, sending you into a horrific spiral of failure, but brilliant trade mechanics, naval battles, and cultural fusion offer opportunities to turn things around.

If you've played other games in the series, the basic routines in Anno 117 are familiar and effective. You started building modest dwellings to house hardworking people freemen, or free people —a somewhat obvious avoidance of Roman slavery. When their needs are met, they can rise all the way up to snobbish aristocrats who demand all kinds of exotic delicacies from around the world.

Part of what affects these promotions is just access to merchandise, which is a citywide thing. But another component is living near high-prestige buildings like theaters and shrines…and away from unpleasant or polluting buildings like charcoal stoves. I like the way it naturally creates upscale residential areas on important market streets, gradually branching out into more industrial, working-class neighborhoods. It adds to the feel of an authentic, vibrant city. Since paved roads extend the reach of these buildings, this is an upgrade that you can see the positive effects of immediately.

It was a joy to zoom in and watch my little toga-clad citizens go about their business. From grand villas to idyllic lavender farms, each building is filled with detail and character. Even the untouched green fields and tranquil blue waters teeming with marine life create a strong sense of place. The role models of leaders and advisors are probably the one thing that doesn't wow me. They're full of character, but especially in some of the campaign cutscenes, there are some obvious lip-sync issues that make it look like an old game or a poorly dubbed movie.

Latium's summer paradise isn't the only place worth exploring and discovering. Eventually, you'll gain the ability to sail to the misty, rocky Albion, Britain, with its own resources, aesthetic, and population. I was a little concerned that Anno would lean too heavily into other stereotypes of the “mystical Celtic” because of some of the marketing, but it's actually a very valid and reasonable description. Your really interesting choice in this area is whether to stay true to Celtic tradition or completely Romanize your new theme. Both have their own pros and cons, and you can ultimately mix and match for powerful synergy.

However, Anno 117 really comes to life with its detailed trading system. In order to truly satisfy the needs of the nobles in these two regions, you have to build luxury production chains that may extract resources from two or three different islands and then transport them from one region to another on the world map. Each delivery requires a separate ship assigned to the trade route, so I can see exactly where the next delivery of cheese is and even reroute it somewhere else.

It's all fairly easy to set up and adjust thanks to a well-organized interface, and there's a natural incentive to build smaller villages to complete a specific mission as well as warehouses and waystations to speed things up. My cheese island is quite far away, so I noticed that my merchant ship was traveling through Albion half the time. But if I build a colony close to it, which is basically just a cheese warehouse and some subsistence fisheries, I can constantly ship cheese there with intra-regional trade ships and then collect it all at once at the edge of the map. I love this kind of logistics.

“Anno 117” is also a pretty good RTS. I particularly enjoyed its naval combat, which I had to master quickly to protect my trade routes from increasingly evil pirates. Steering the ships felt heavy and realistic, with varying maneuverability depending on whether they relied on sails, oars, or both, and I ended up getting pretty good at maneuvering, like trapping a sneaky little pirate ship in an inescapable bay.

Ground combat is still possible. It does its job, with a small selection of melee, ranged and siege units that can fulfill a number of different roles. If you have a good navy it's possible to be successful without engaging in land battles, but on the few occasions I've done so I've found some interesting strategies to mine. At least it feels like a real RTS rather than a half-baked mini-game, which I really appreciate.

Diplomacy is very basic stuff, one interesting thing is that the emperor works a little differently. You can't actually make a treaty with him, but he will make demands on you, and success, failure, or rejection will affect your reputation in Rome. When he likes you, you get a bonus. If he doesn't, you'll be punished. But both ends of the scale can lead to some very powerful rewards. Either you behave well and are made consul, or you rebel against his authority so effectively that you grant yourself the authority of a consul-general, Caesar-style.

There's a nice story campaign, but it's really more of an extended tutorial. It took me less than 10 hours to complete, and I've only scratched the surface of the mechanics that are playable in endless mode. You can play as Marcus or Marcia, the latter of which is a kind of crazy “Weekend at Bonicus” scenario where you take on the governorship duties of your totally-not-dead husband. It's hardly Shakespearean, but there's some interesting intrigue going on and some memorable characters. Canaan Ben Balion is a particularly lovable companion who gave me an emotionally satisfying choice in the end.

While you can continue playing for as long as you want from the end of the campaign, I spent most of my playtime in the endless mode, which lets you start in Albion or Latium and offers a variety of difficulty options. You can even choose from a set of rival governors with different personalities and play styles. However, I don't think they necessarily follow the same rules as you as a player. Look at some of the late game cities they built… I honestly have no idea what's going on. But they can still become compelling adversaries or valuable trading partners.

There are still some classic epochal problems, such as the fact that very large economies can become unwieldy and susceptible to death spirals. If the food supply is disrupted, the population will decrease, resulting in underemployment in food buildings, resulting in less food and less population. One time I had to start over because I accidentally changed the patron saint of a large city, which instantly bankrupted it and made it almost irreversible due to the loss of farming bonuses. But again trade is the hero here, because setting a buy order for whatever you're short of can help you get out of a lot of sticky situations as long as you have the cash. Setting up a lot of different transactions in a lot of different ports was a bit tedious the first time, but the interface is easy to use and once set up I found I didn't have to mess with them all that often.