Setting the Stage in Ancient Rome
Anno 117: Pax Romana places players at the peak of Roman imperial might. Ubisoft Mainz selected 117 AD specifically because this year “marks the height of Rome’s power,” according to creative director Manuel Reinher. This era of relative stability offers the perfect backdrop for the city-building series’ signature methodical gameplay.
Players step into the sandals of a newly appointed Roman governor—a more distinct character role than previous Anno titles. This position grants players unprecedented authority to shape their provinces through bold choices, from selecting starting regions to navigating the new discovery tree system.
Longtime Anno fans will recognize an Easter egg in the title itself. The year “117” continues the series tradition where the digit sum equals 9, just as with previous entries like Anno 1800. This mathematical quirk remains purely ceremonial, though Anno 1800 players might recall the hidden cave painting showing musicians worshiping a giant number 9.
The game spans three distinct provinces across the Roman world, creating what Reinher calls a “huge cultural blender” for players to govern. This setting allows the developers to tell rich stories about provincial administration during Rome’s golden age.
City Building with a Roman Twist
Anno 117 builds upon the strong foundation established by Anno 1800 while introducing mechanics that capture the Roman experience. The moment-to-moment city management feels familiar for series veterans, who will quickly master the basics of establishing sustainable colonies before expanding across the Mediterranean.
The production chains function similarly to previous titles, but with a distinctly Roman flavor. Players start by providing essential needs to their lowest social class, the Liberti, through basic housing, food production, and essential services. As settlements grow, upper-tier Plebeians emerge with more sophisticated demands, creating the series’ signature balancing act between expansion and sustainability.
This iteration adds a crucial twist: careful city planning matters more than ever. Building placement significantly impacts colony performance through varied bonus effects. Placing a bakery within dense residential areas boosts income generation but increases fire risk. Pig farms reduce happiness in surrounding neighborhoods—nobody wants to live next to “grunting poop generators,” despite their economic value. These tradeoffs create engaging puzzles when arranging city layouts.
Fresh Features from the Ancient World
Anno 117 introduces several innovations that distinguish it from its predecessors while enhancing the core formula.
The flexible needs system marks a significant change from previous titles’ linear progression. “We want to soften the linearity that has often been part of our previous titles,” explains Reinher. Where Anno 1800 forced players to expand across multiple regions at specific points, Anno 117 offers alternative paths. If olive trees won’t grow on your island, you can fulfill other food needs or establish trade routes to acquire olives elsewhere.
Religion plays a prominent role through the deity system. Players select patron gods who grant meaningful bonuses over time. Choosing Neptune, for instance, increases naval vessel speed and improves fishing operations as “fishermen become less fearful of the sea, leading to larger catches.” Religious buildings generate both happiness and belief—a new resource that unlocks divine bonuses. Players can embrace Roman pragmatism by adopting deities from conquered cultures to gain their unique benefits.
The long-requested ability to build diagonally finally arrives, allowing for more creative city layouts and efficient use of space. This seemingly simple addition excites the development team as a feature fans have wanted for years.
Provincial Management Across the Empire
Anno 117 divides its gameplay across multiple distinct regions, starting with the Mediterranean province of Latium. As players establish their initial colony and secure resources, they gain the opportunity to venture north to Albion—a Celtic-inspired territory with its own unique resources and challenges.
This multi-provincial approach mirrors Anno 1800’s regional system but adds ancient flavor through the Romanization mechanic. When expanding to Celtic lands, players choose how much Roman culture to impose on local populations. Citizens can maintain their original cultural identity rather than facing complete assimilation, creating strategic decisions that affect both resource management and political stability.
Trade forms the backbone of multi-provincial management. Ships transport goods between colonies, creating internal supply chains that allow newer settlements to develop rapidly while shipping unique resources back to primary colonies. This network becomes essential as player populations grow increasingly demanding across all regions.
The development team promises that more provinces will appear after launch, expanding the game’s scope beyond the initial Mediterranean and Celtic territories.
Economic Challenges and Trading Systems
Managing a thriving Roman economy requires careful attention to both production and commerce. Preview sessions revealed that maintaining positive income becomes increasingly difficult as colonies expand, with building upkeep costs quickly outpacing tax revenue without proper planning.
Trade emerges as the essential solution to economic challenges. The game offers both automatic and manual trading options, though hands-on management proves vital for success. Ports can be configured to auto-buy or sell resources below or above certain stock thresholds, but many foreign traders won’t perfectly match player needs. This necessitates building dedicated trading vessels and establishing routes to distant ports.
One preview session demonstrated these challenges when the writer’s economy collapsed after aggressive expansion without proper trading infrastructure. With empty coffers, the game questioned their suitability as governor. Only by rearranging the colony to maximize building bonus effects did they recover from economic disaster.
Resource management adds another layer of complexity. Overproduction strains warehouses and logistics networks, while underproduction leaves citizens wanting. For example, planting too many lumberjack huts creates a timber surplus that crowds storage capacity without generating proportional income.
Economic, Civil, and Military Branches are Just The Beginning
Anno 117 enriches the city-building experience with a substantial research system and ambitious engineering projects that capture Rome’s technological prowess.
The discovery tree divides into economic, civil, and military branches, offering a wider range of options than Anno 1800’s Land of Lions DLC research mechanic. Players unlock everything from building-specific bonuses to substantial upgrades and enhanced ships. Knowledge generation comes from specialized buildings that produce research points within their sphere of influence, creating another strategic element in city planning.
Aqueducts stand as the most visible engineering achievement available to players. These massive water transport systems bring fresh water from mountains to settlements, preventing fires, improving agriculture, and enabling advanced public buildings. Construction requires substantial resources and careful planning, especially when aqueducts intersect with existing road networks. These projects mark a turning point in colony development, similar to embracing the Industrial Revolution in Anno 1800.
Modular ship building adds customization options to naval vessels, allowing players to adapt their trading and military fleets to specific needs. While not heavily detailed in early previews, this system promises to enhance maritime gameplay.
Land battles return to the Anno series after their absence in Anno 1800. “A feature we believe is essential to fully deliver on the Roman fantasy,” explains Reinher. This mini-RTS layer adds military conflicts beyond naval engagements, though the developers confirm players can disable this feature to focus exclusively on city management if preferred.
Visuals and Events
Anno 117 continues the series tradition of meticulous visual detail and lively environments. Preview builds showcased cities bursting with activity, from busy marketplaces to laborers constructing new buildings. The Mediterranean setting provides a vibrant backdrop of blue waters, green fields, and classical architecture that captures Roman aesthetic without sacrificing gameplay clarity.
The user interface builds upon Anno 1800’s streamlined approach, with clear menus and helpful tooltips guiding players through complex systems. Early previews noted the ease of use for building tools and overall menu navigation, even in work-in-progress builds where some tutorial elements remained incomplete.
Random events and quests add variety to the management experience. Players receive requests from other governors or face citizen disputes requiring resolution. One example involved workers unhappy with their overseer, offering players the choice to compensate them and appoint new management (gaining a temporary happiness boost at financial cost) or accept a bribe to ignore the situation. These moments present meaningful choices that impact both economy and population satisfaction.
The development team emphasized these events help prevent Anno 117 from slipping into monotony during later gameplay stages. By introducing unpredictable situations alongside the core management systems, players face fresh challenges even in established colonies.
Anno 117 Available Across All Platforms
Anno 117: Pax Romana expands beyond PC exclusivity, targeting PlayStation 5, Xbox Series consoles, PC via Steam, Epic Games Store, and Ubisoft Store, plus Luna later in 2025. This multi-platform approach marks a significant shift for the traditionally PC-focused series.
Ubisoft and developer Ubisoft Mainz recently released a six-minute gameplay showcase trailer highlighting key features while announcing an upcoming developer livestream. Scheduled for May 21 at 8:00 a.m. PT / 11:00 a.m. ET, the stream will feature game director Jan, art director Reiko, and community developer Oliver presenting direct gameplay and answering community questions. Viewers can watch the presentation on Twitch.
The team plans to showcase more of the Celtic Albion province in upcoming months, revealing additional gameplay mechanics specific to northern territories. While the exact release date remains unconfirmed beyond “later this year,” preview builds demonstrated a highly polished state suggesting development progresses well.
Early Impressions Show the Roads are Paved with Promise
Preview sessions with Anno 117: Pax Romana left journalists optimistic about the direction Ubisoft Mainz takes the series. The game strikes a careful balance between familiarity and innovation, using Anno 1800’s successful formula as foundation while introducing enough Roman-inspired mechanics to create a fresh experience.
One previewer described their three-hour session as passing remarkably quickly, with engaging systems that created “dangerously compulsive” gameplay. The challenges presented felt substantial without becoming frustrating—even economic failure taught valuable lessons about city planning and resource management.
The depth of systems impressed across previews, with multiple writers noting they had only begun to understand the interconnected mechanics during their limited sessions. From religious devotion to building placement effects, each element adds meaningful layers to decision-making without overwhelming players.
Early builds displayed polish unexpected for in-development software, with one writer noting Anno 117 has “the polished gleam of a game that’s already out.” Minor issues appeared with trading systems and some tutorial elements, but these likely represent unfinished aspects rather than fundamental problems.
Based on these initial impressions, Anno 117: Pax Romana appears poised to continue the series’ renaissance that began with Anno 1800, delivering a city-builder that captures both the grandeur and challenges of managing provinces during Rome’s golden age.
Anno’s Roman Future
Anno 117: Pax Romana represents an ambitious evolution for the long-running city-building series. By moving to the Roman era, Ubisoft Mainz found fertile ground for both historical authenticity and engaging gameplay mechanics.
The game appears to address criticisms of linearity in previous titles through its flexible progression systems and multiple paths to success. Players who prefer focusing on specific aspects—whether trade, military conquest, or pure city design—should find viable strategies to match their playstyle.
Early hands-on impressions suggest Anno 117 maintains the measured pace and thoughtful challenge that fans expect from the series. While the addition of consoles marks a significant expansion of potential audience, previews indicate no compromise in depth or complexity to accommodate new platforms.
With its late 2025 release, Anno 117: Pax Romana faces competition from an increasingly crowded city-builder market. However, its distinctive setting, established pedigree, and promising early builds position it well among strategy enthusiasts. The Roman Empire may have fallen centuries ago, but in Anno 117, players get the chance to write their own chapter in its storied history.
Key Takeaways
- Anno 117: Pax Romana launches on PC, PS5, Xbox Series, and Luna in late 2025
- Set during Rome’s territorial peak (117 AD), players govern provinces as a Roman official
- Building placement creates strategic puzzle elements through bonus effects
- The flexible needs system allows multiple paths to colony advancement
- Religion plays a major role through the deity system, granting specialized bonuses
- Multiple provinces (Mediterranean Latium and Celtic Albion) offer varied gameplay
- Land battles return as an optional feature alongside naval combat
- Long-requested diagonal building makes its first appearance in the series
- Trading networks prove essential for economic sustainability
- Preview builds show high polish with intricate, interconnected systems
Frequently Asked Questions
When will Anno 117: Pax Romana release? The game launches later in 2025 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PC via Steam, Epic Games Store, Ubisoft Store, and Luna.
How does Anno 117 differ from Anno 1800? While building on Anno 1800’s foundation, Anno 117 adds Roman-specific mechanics like the deity system, more impactful building placement, diagonal construction, land battles, and a more flexible progression system.
Can I play without military conflicts? Yes. The developers confirmed options to play purely peacefully, allowing players to disable the reintroduced land battles feature if preferred.
What regions will be available at launch? Two confirmed provinces are available initially: the Mediterranean region of Latium and the Celtic territory of Albion, with more regions planned post-launch.
Do I need to play previous Anno games to understand Anno 117? No. While sharing core mechanics with earlier entries, Anno 117 works as a standalone experience with its own tutorial systems and mechanics.
What’s the significance of “117” in the title? Beyond marking the historical setting at Rome’s peak, the digits add up to 9, continuing the Anno series tradition where title numbers always have a digit sum of 9.
Will the game include modding support? No information about modding support has been revealed in early previews.