Anno 117: Pax Romana Review – Expand the Empire

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City-building games aren’t as widely popular as they once were, mostly thriving now in the indie game scene with the notable exception of the Anno franchise, which has successfully stayed current. The genre includes everything from open-ended, creative games like Manor Lords and Farthest Frontier, to goal-driven experiences such as Frostpunk. The Anno series strikes a balance between these approaches, offering engaging storylines in its campaigns alongside the flexibility of sandbox gameplay.

The newest installment in the Anno series, Anno 117: Pax Romana, takes players further into the past than ever before, focusing on the Roman Empire at its peak. This historical setting isn’t just for show; in Anno games, the time period heavily influences how the game is played. The core of the series is building and managing production and trade routes to keep your population content, working, and thriving.

Similar to earlier games in the series, the beginning of this campaign acts as an extended tutorial. It tells a story while slowly teaching you the new gameplay mechanics.

Playing Anno 117: Pax Romana feels really different from Anno 1800. In 1800, I was all about building massive factories and sprawling production lines, constantly chasing resources across the map. But 117 starts much smaller. I’m not rushing to explore new islands right away; instead, I’m focused on building up local farms and workshops – things like bakeries and pottery workshops. It’s not that the game stays simple, it definitely gets more complex, but it eases you in nicely. The way it introduces its systems is really smooth, making it easy to learn as you go.

The beginning of the game acts as an extended tutorial, gently introducing you to its features through a story. You’ll begin by creating your character and aligning with a powerful Senatorial family. Your first major task is to rebuild a settlement on an island recently devastated by a volcano. You’ll start by constructing basic homes and improving them to attract residents, then move on to producing essential goods like food and clothing to keep your population happy and thriving.

The game features brief moments of courtroom and political intrigue in ancient Rome, eventually leading you to manage your own household. But the real highlight of Anno 117: Pax Romana is its sandbox mode, which gives you complete freedom and throws you directly into the heart of the action.

Set during the peak of the Roman Empire, Anno 117: Pax Romana is the earliest point in history explored in this game series.

Set in 117 AD, the game presents unique challenges, particularly for players used to more modern conveniences. Pax Romana not only offers a look at everyday life in ancient Rome – including its different social classes and the development of its culture and industries – but also features gameplay inspired by how the Roman Empire managed its conquered territories. You can develop cities near Rome itself, or expand outwards to settle islands. While the core city-building mechanics remain familiar, the Roman setting introduces new elements to diplomacy and citizen management, addressing their needs for things like education, sanitation, and public spaces.

While these features sound impressive, they don’t fundamentally change what you’d expect from the series. In fact, Anno 117: Pax Romana doesn’t explore the potential of its Roman setting as richly as older city-building games did. The arenas, for example, only offer a small boost to citizen happiness. Though there are some improvements over the last game, it’s strange that so many compelling elements of the Roman Empire seem to be saved for future expansions.

I’ve been really getting into the trade and building aspects of the game, but you can also build up a pretty impressive army if you want! You can create forces of different sizes and equip them with all sorts of weapons. Combat is based on a simple but effective system – spears beat cavalry, cavalry beat ranged units, and ranged units take down spears. Honestly, I didn’t even plan on building an army at first, but some of the maps throw raiders at you who try to steal your stuff and wreck your buildings, so I had to! The military gameplay isn’t super complex – it gets the job done, but if you’re looking for a really in-depth, strategic war game, this probably isn’t it. If you’re a big fan of Roman military tactics, you might want to check out games that focus more on that side of things.

However, that’s not to diminish the fact that Anno 117: Pax Romana is very strong when it comes to city building. It improves on many aspects of Anno 1800, and few games can match its stunning visuals. The sound design and music are also excellent, creating a truly immersive experience with peaceful music, lively townspeople, and the sounds of a working economy.

Pax Romana features interesting gameplay inspired by how the Roman Empire governed the people in its conquered territories.

Let me tell you, this game looks good, and it runs beautifully too. I was playing on a pretty solid setup – an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, 32GB of RAM, and an RX 7800 XT – and I consistently got over 60 FPS at 1440p, even when my cities were really bustling with activity. Honestly, the only time I noticed anything was a tiny bit of stuttering when I zoomed way out to manage my ships’ exploration – it was barely noticeable, though.

Anno 117: Pax Romana delivers the smoothest and most refined city-building experience in the series yet, while still offering plenty of strategic depth. While the previous game has more content overall, thanks to its many expansions, Anno 117 excels at capturing the unique atmosphere of ancient Rome and how that influences familiar gameplay elements. It’s a solid foundation, and like the city it’s based on, it has the potential to become even greater with future updates.

This game was reviewed on PC.

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2025-11-14 22:12