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| Anno 117: Pax Romana places you in the role of a Roman governor managing expansion across multiple regions. |
Anno 117: Pax Romana drops you into the role of a Roman governor with a simple goal that never really stays simple. You are sent out from Rome to turn rough land into a working province. Food needs to move. Housing needs to expand. Money needs to stay steady. And every decision has a habit of rippling outward faster than you expect.
You start with a small settlement on the coast and a short list of needs. That calm does not last long. As your population grows, so do expectations. New services unlock. New goods are required. Roads that once worked suddenly feel too slow. Storage fills up. Ships sit idle. Problems rarely announce themselves loudly. They show up quietly, then stack.
What Anno 117: Pax Romana does well early on is make it clear that this is not a game about quick wins. You are not chasing flashy moments or instant payoffs. Progress comes from noticing small issues and fixing them before they spiral. Sometimes that means expanding. Sometimes it means tearing something down and rebuilding it better.
The Roman setting frames that pressure nicely. Orders arrive from Rome. Other governors keep an eye on your progress. Expectations never fully ease up. You are building a city, but you are also reacting to demands that do not care if you are ready.
After a few hours, the appeal becomes clear. This is a city builder that rewards patience, attention, and learning from your own mistakes.
Anno 117: Pax Romana Details
Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Reviewed on: PS5
Developer: Ubisoft Mainz
Publisher: Ubisoft
Genre: City Builder, Strategy
Available game modes: Single-player, Co-op, PvP
Governing Under Constant Pressure
The campaign in Anno 117: Pax Romana focuses on your role as a governor trying to keep multiple interests satisfied at once. You arrive with authority, but it becomes obvious early on that real power sits elsewhere. Rome sets expectations. You are expected to meet them.
Early missions establish that tone quickly. One moment you are supporting a public event. The next you are asked for resources or coin with little warning. These moments create steady pressure without pulling you away from building. I often found myself adjusting layouts or production priorities because the story nudged me there, not because I planned it that way.
Conversations play out through short scenes where you choose how to respond. You can stay agreeable or show hesitation when demands stack up. These choices do not radically change outcomes, but they shape how the exchanges feel. It becomes less about winning arguments and more about deciding what kind of governor you are trying to be.
Other characters cycle in throughout the campaign. Advisors bring decisions tied directly to city management, like which operations to pursue or which specialists to rely on. Rival governors arrive with their own problems, sometimes pulling personal issues or legal trouble into the mix. Helping them can smooth relationships. Ignoring them can leave tension hanging over later chapters.
Moving between Latium and Albion also helps the story feel active. Latium settles into order once things are running smoothly. Albion feels less predictable early on, which changes how you plan and expand. That contrast keeps the campaign from falling into a routine.
The story never asks you to stop playing to watch it unfold. It runs alongside your city, shaping how and why you adapt. By the end, it feels less like finishing a plot and more like looking back at how your province ended up the way it did.
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| Story moments in Anno 117: Pax Romana frame expansion through trade, politics, and growing provincial influence. |
Planning Before Problems Appear
Gameplay in Anno 117: Pax Romana settles into a steady rhythm once the opening steps are out of the way. You begin with basic housing and food production, then expand as new needs appear. Every upgrade brings new demands, and those demands push back harder than you expect.
What clicked for me early on was how quickly the game teaches you to think in chains rather than individual buildings. You are not just placing a farm or a workshop. You are thinking about where materials come from, how far they travel, and whether roads and storage can keep up. When something breaks, the cause is usually clear if you take a moment to look.
Expansion becomes necessary rather than optional. Certain resources sit beyond your starting land, which pushes you to settle new islands or rely on trade. That shift changes how you read the map. Instead of focusing on one growing city, you start managing a network of connected hubs that depend on each other.
Roads matter more than they first appear. A poorly connected district can slow everything down even when production looks fine. Upgrading routes improves flow in a way you can feel almost immediately. Watching carts move faster and warehouses clear out feels like fixing a problem that was quietly holding everything back.
Trade is where things finally came together for me. It is easy to overproduce early and let goods pile up with no plan. Once I started setting export thresholds and selling excess stock, the economy stabilized. From there, expansion felt planned instead of reactive.
Military and diplomacy stay tied to city planning rather than taking over. Defence influences where you build and what you prioritize, especially as territory grows. It never feels like a separate game layered on top.
Anno 117: Pax Romana rewards attention. The more time you spend understanding how its parts connect, the smoother your cities start to run.
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| Anno 117: Pax Romana gameplay showing early settlement planning with farms, roads, and production buildings |
Watching the City Do Its Work
Anno 117: Pax Romana is easy to read once your city starts spreading. Buildings are distinct enough that you can tell production areas, housing, and service zones apart at a glance. When something is not working, you can usually spot the issue by following roads and watching where goods slow down.
I ended up zooming in more than expected. Streets feel busy once a city gets going. Workers move between buildings. Carts roll toward warehouses. Ports stay active as ships come and go. Dropping the camera closer helped me understand how things were actually functioning, not just how they looked on paper.
Pulling back gives a clear sense of scale. Districts spread outward. Production clusters form. Trade routes stretch across the water. Latium and Albion also feel different in tone, which subtly affects how cautious or confident your planning feels.
The interface takes time to learn, but most of what you need is there. Some deeper information sits a few layers in, especially when digging into production chains and storage details. Once I got comfortable switching views, checking those details became quicker and less distracting.
Performance held up as my cities grew. Even when areas became crowded, things stayed smooth. Panning around the map and jumping between settlements never felt sluggish.
After a while, the interface stopped feeling like something I had to think about. It just became part of how I played.
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| Coastal provinces in Anno 117: Pax Romana highlight how settlements grow around terrain, trade routes, and access to the sea. |
Anno 117 Pax Romana Pays Off With Long Term Planning
Anno 117: Pax Romana is the kind of game that settles in the longer you play. Early on, you are just trying to keep food moving and money steady. A few hours later, you are reshaping districts, tweaking trade routes, and fixing problems you caused without realizing it at the time.
What kept me coming back was how clear cause and effect usually feel. A road placed poorly. A warehouse too far away. A production chain pushed too hard. When something goes wrong, you can almost always trace it back to an earlier decision. Fixing those issues feels good because the solution comes from paying attention, not guessing.
The Roman setting works because it stays in the background. It explains why demands keep coming and why expansion never really stops, but it never steals focus from the city itself. By the end of the campaign, it felt less like finishing a story and more like stepping back to look at a place I had shaped piece by piece.
There is early friction while you learn where information lives and how multiple settlements interact. That fades once everything starts making sense. After that, the game becomes easier to manage without losing what makes it satisfying.
Anno 117: Pax Romana rewards patience. If you enjoy city builders where progress comes from understanding and fixing small problems, this one stays interesting for a long time.
Anno 117: Pax Romana Review Summary
Liked
- Clear cause and effect tied to city planning decisions.
- Trade and expansion reward careful pacing.
- Campaign pressure stays connected to gameplay.
- Cities become easier to manage as understanding improves.
Didn't Like
- - Early hours can feel busy while learning information flow.
- - Managing multiple settlements takes time to settle into.
Overall Assessment of Anno 117: Pax Romana
Gameplay: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ (4.5 / 5)
Graphics: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ (4 / 5)
Sound: ⭐⭐⭐½☆ (3.5 / 5)
Replayability: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ (4.5 / 5)
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