Anno 117: Pax Romana will be set in Italy and Britain, include more than city-building

Sounds like a gameplay shake-up
Ubisoft

After a trip into the Victorian Age with Anno 1800, which is widely regarded as the best entry into the iconic city-builder series yet, Ubisoft is taking the franchise to the place every road eventually leads towards: Rome.

Anno 117: Pax Romana is the furthest the Anno series has gone back in time, but it’s a fantastic setting for the game. In 117, the Roman Empire reached its largest extent with Trajan, who was the emperor at the time, leading a magnificent campaign against the Parthians in the east. This means that Ubisoft will be able to access the greatest possible pool of regions for expansions in the future – from Portugal in the west to the shores of the Persian Gulf in the east, from Britain in the north to Egypt in the south. The Romans traded plenty with India and China, so things could really get exotic.

Britain has already been confirmed as one of the two regions players can settle when the base game comes out sometime in 2025. Italy will be the other area players can establish towns in. Granted, those two areas sound relatively basic, but that’s what makes them a great choice to start with, giving players plenty of opportunities to learn the ropes.

What’s interesting about Anno 117: Pax Romana is that the official descriptions make it sound like there’s a lot more to explore than just the city-building and resource management the series is known for.

“Anno 117: Pax Romana features a unique mix of traditional city building, a deep economical simulation and 4X features like diplomacy, military and a solid narrative layer,” the game’s official website states. “It follows the series’ tradition by merging the creation of huge metropolises with the setup of complex logistic networks and production chains, as well as the exploration of the world and the interaction with other characters and competitors.”

Previous attempts to integrate a military layer into Anno haven’t been met with massive success and the entries focusing on pure economy management are generally regarded as much better than those splitting their attention. Of course, militarism and expansion are so ingrained into the culture of Rome that it’s certainly more authentic to include these elements.

Anno’s creative director, Manuel Reinher, certainly sounds ambitious when it comes to the title’s goals: “We will not only deliver the fantasy millions of strategy players are waiting for: to govern one of the most iconic ancient empires, we will push beyond that, and change how people see the Roman Empire in games. Explore different provinces and embrace the local or Roman way. The cost of peace is yours to decide.”

Anno 117: Pax Romana is set to become available in 2025 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.


Published
Marco Wutz
MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg