In the late 90s and early 00s, I played a lot of games like Age of Empires, and while I knew about the Anno series, it would not be until Anno 1404 that I gave it a go. While it did not grab me then, I have kept an eye on the series, if only because it was the only one that was still making new games. Now Anno 117: Pax Romana is on its way and thanks to Ubisoft, we were able to live out our dreams of being an island governor. Was this an island paradise or more island nightmare?

From the outset the game offered me two ways to play, there was the campaign mode and the freeform mode, or sandbox if you prefer. I was wary about jumping into the latter, as I figured there would be no handholding or tutorials, so campaign it was, and this is where I got my first surprise. The first decision I had to make was which member of the family I wanted to be, the son or the daughter. This is not something I was expecting and while I saw nothing in my few hours with the campaign, I would imagine that the game would do something with that later on. After arriving in the town of Juliana, it was up to me to start making decisions about where things needed to go, though I did have an advisor to help me.

What I liked about the advisor was that he did give helpful advice, but at the same time often left me to my own devices. This was a double-edged sword as there were times when I was left stumbling around to find the right option and it annoyed me when I did eventually locate it. The game was willing to give me the room to discover things, which I like, but it seemingly has no reason to help you out if you can’t find something, which I don’t like. This is likely my biggest issue with the game, the lack of proper tutorials, because there is a lot to manage early on and it only becomes crazier as time goes on. Lack of those aside, I did manage to get my first woodcutter down and then houses, wood processing and fishing hut, which of course meant I needed roads to connect them all.

Roads are one of the most Roman things you can build, and I was happy to see that in effect here. Placing down roads was as easy as dragging your mouse along the terrain in the direction you wanted them to go and if you came to a valley or river, the game would adapt accordingly. That also worked with the houses and other buildings, at one point, I needed a second woodcutter and where I had placed it, was towards the top of this hill. Of course, production of anything often requires a nearby warehouse to be built for storage and the closest place I could find for this was on the side of the hill. I actually spent a bit of time looking for some terrain manipulation tools but could not locate them. In trying to find another place to plop down my new warehouse, I had moved the mouse over the place I thought would be great and the game said it was fine. What it did was actually build it on the hill, by raising one side up with supports, so that it was level. Upon seeing this, I went looking at the houses and other buildings I had thrown down and noticed that some of them did the same. It was also at this time that I noted that many of the houses were unique, with around a half-dozen variations.

Of course, I was not building in a void, I had an emperor to listen to, and did they make use of that ability. The game often had my advisor pop in with hints and such, which is fine, but even the emperor and his wife would keep popping up and talking about things. Which was confusing as they were across the sea, but it did mean that they could make requests of me. This is the part that I was concerned about, because while the emperor wanted drapes for his wife’s birthday, it seems that I was the one required to get them. Thankfully, I need not have worried, as while I had sent my ship out to collect them, I was able to focus on my town and work on what they needed. The game also did not give me a timer to work to, so when the next crazy request came in, I was able to just focus on my town until I was ready.

This is perhaps a good time to talk about the games UI, as there are good points and bad points. The good is that the main UI is easy to understand, you have a few common items on your main bar at the bottom, like roads and houses. Your map to the side can help highlight important land elements, as well as control game speed. The top of your screen shows you the key details about your city, the number of people, the amount of denarii you needed to keep your city thriving and the amount you had to spend. All of that made perfect sense, but once you jump into the stats screens, things are much harder to track. Long time fans might be ok with it, and I was, but that is because I am a data and reporting person by trade, for those without either of those backgrounds, good luck. There is nothing bad about what is displayed, but the game just does not show anything in an easy-to-understand way, so there is a learning curve that some people might just not bother with.

Eventually my time in the campaign came to an end, but I won’t say why, but that gave me a chance to check out the sandbox mode. Here instead of the Roman inspired Latium region I jumped into the Celtic inspired Albion. This was quite a bit different, not just in looks with more green than blue, but the game offered up new citizens to deal with, buildings and resources to manage, along with a hose of traditions for the land. A lot of what I was doing here was just throwing down random buildings and seeing how crazy I could get, and it turns out, that was fine. A lot of what I was doing here was replicating what I did in the campaign, but just without the empiric overlord. This mode did feel faster, but that could also have been due to my having an idea what I was doing, and I quickly unlocked tier 3 residents, something that I did not do in the campaign. But that is where I was told to stop playing, so stop I did.

Anno 117: Pax Romana is an interesting game; it is taking the foundation of the series and others of the genre but adding a more personal interaction to everything. Having the citizens ask for things, that is standard but having an emperor pop in and demand 5,000 denarii, that is new. What I liked about the game was that I was not pressured into doing something the moment I was asked. Not having a timer on the requests means that if you are focusing on something, like production of an item, you can just focus on that. Don’t get me wrong, there are times when you need to split your focus, but if you have set your city up for success, it won’t be that often. If you have any interest in games like Age of Empire or even Starcraft, then when Anno 117: Pax Romana arrives this November, you should check it out.

Anno 117: Pax Romana is set to release on November 13 for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.