Anno 117: Pax Romana Review - Strategic Excellence in Ancient Rome
When I was growing up, my father had a saying that he loved to use, and it has stuck with me for my whole life. That expression was “prior planning prevents piss-poor performance” or, if he was feeling lazy, ” the 6 Ps.” It is a handy saying that really does sum up a lot of situations I have come across in my life, from work to financials to home life. Well, now, I have come across the ultimate version of the expression in video game format. That game is Anno 117: Pax Romana, a title where prior planning is the supreme difference maker.
As I stated in my earlier preview, the Anno series is one I don’t have much of a history with, making Anno 117 the first that I have really sunk my teeth into. I have to say, I am glad I finally did, because I have discovered a wonderfully deep and addictive strategy title that really made me lose track of time in the best ways. But the real key to Anno’s success is the way it teaches, the way it guides, and the way it instructs players in its complex, deep and satisfying systems, pushing them towards mastery with every step. This all starts with a story.
Most games of this ilk don’t have much in the way of story, yet here it is front and centre. A tale of Roman backstabbing, family secrets and good old regicide, the tale has all the elements of a classic period drama. Players take the role of either the son or daughter of a wealthy family who, through a couple of early twists, find themselves in charge of a small island. Building up this small settlement is your first goal, all the while having to navigate the Roman political intrigues going on around you. The campaign then unfolds across several different maps, one set in Rome and another in Albion, aka Britain. Each area has its own units, buildings and resources that need to be harnessed, gathered and traded, all the while protecting your colonies from aggressive forces while occasionally getting aggressive yourself.
This story, in a lot of ways, serves as a tutorial on how to play, but the key learning, the real cornerstone of success, is playing it once and then playing it again. This, more than anything, taught me that the prior planning I mentioned earlier is the key. When playing through the first time, I fumbled my way with a spralling settlement that, quite often, was barely hanging on. The second time through my settlement was well-organised, efficient, and successful from the get-go. This has to do with the placement of buildings, how they are connected to important services and thinking ahead as to how they are going to be upgraded over time. Having a plan before going in, knowing how your units and buildings evolve and placing the appropriate amenities in key areas will make a huge difference in how your settlement performs.
The UI, which is quite daunting to begin with, makes a lot of sense, with appropriate buildings and units grouped in logical, production-associated tabs. So, for example, all of the buildings required to make clay tiles are accessible from the tiles tab. It is a smart move, and it means players will not have to remember endless buildings and their relationships with other buildings. There are some other smart features that make life easier as well, things like the option to automatically place roads around buildings and the ability (depending on your difficulty selection) to relocate buildings that are in a less-than-ideal position to somewhere better suited. This is undeniably a complicated game, and these steps make diving in that much easier, especially for players new to the franchise or even the genre.
There are some slight weaknesses to the gameplay that bear mentioning. Both trading and combat can be quite fiddly. Lots of menus, mouse clicks and commands need to be navigated, and it comes across a little clumsy at times. I feel like there is some room for automation here that hasn’t been explored, especially with regard to combat, because as it is, there are so many things going on in the late game that it can be really hard to keep track of everything. Once again, the process of playing, failing and then trying again will solve a lot of this, but I still feel like there could be some streamlining there for those that want it.
From a looks perspective, the game is quite beautiful. There is an amazing amount of detail, especially considering the type of game it is. They have really captured the bright and lush feel of Rome, along with the bleak, damp and uninviting ancient Britain in-engine and exploring these maps will find some stunning islands and cities that really capture the timeframe. It all ran beautifully as well. I was running the game in ultrawide resolution, and there was barely a stutter. On my much weaker laptop, the game still ran wonderfully, with plenty of scaling and frame-gen options to ensure that this will run on a huge range of systems. Considering the detail and complexity, that is quite an achievement.
When the story is all said and done, players are left with the classic endless mode, where they are free to choose how their settlement unfolds. It is here that building-sim purists will have the most fun. Conditions are free to be set how you like, adjusting things like factions, difficulty, resources and rival aggression, so the experience can be tailored to your personal preferences. It is in this mode that I can just get in the zone, whiling away the hours as I try and build the perfect colony, without any story elements pushing themselves to the fore. It is also this mode that I see myself coming back to for some time to come. Tropico has always been my city-builder of choice, especially for a slow Sunday afternoon, but it now has some serious competition with Anno 117.
With only minor faults and a strategic depth to rival anything that is in the market, Anno 117 is positioning itself to be a leader in the genre. The satisfaction it provides when all the moving parts come together and your settlement is running like a well-oiled machine is undeniable, and learning the ways of a Roman governor is an absolute joy. This is a game with almost no tech issues, a deep and addictive gameplay loop and a story that is well worth playing to completion, so it is really hard to fault. But the real joy, for me at least, was getting the planning right, getting my structure in place, learning from my mistakes and making sure I adjusted the next time around. It brought me a satisfaction that few other games have, and for that reason alone, I can easily recommend Anno 117: Pax Romana, a game that really highlights just how engaging this genre can be.
Anno 117: Pax Romana was reivewed on PC with code kindly supplied by Ubisoft Australia.
