Anno 117 Pax Romana Review: You May Prefer This Over Anno 1800!

After being released for more than a month, now it is a good time to review the new Anno game – Anno 117: Pax Romana! The story’s background is set in the Roman Empire, and this time, players get to choose which characters they would like to play to proceed with the campaign story. Yet, adding the choice of main characters is not the only adjustment that Ubisoft made compared to Anno 1800. Although the core of the game mechanism is the same, the developer has changed some settings on the main modules of the game, the level design, and how its story mode takes more consideration of players’ choices. Go through this Anno Anno 117 Pax Romana review to decide whether you want to buy it or not!

Anno 117 Pax Romana Core Gameplay Is Highly Similar to Anno 1800

As the first part of the Anno 117 Pax Romana review, most of the potential buyers of this game might have this hesitation: Is playing Anno 117 just like playing Anno 1800, but with a Roman history background? As the latest game of the Anno series, Anno 117 no doubt features the major traits that already exist in Anno 1800. For example:

1. Building and population level-up system: Players unlock new buildings as they upgrade the population on the island. And the population upgrade relies on the needs to be fulfilled.
2. Building categorization: There are production buildings, service buildings, decorations, and prestige buildings (a modified form of tourist attractions), like in Anno 1800.
3. Map: There are new areas that players will reach out to. In Anno 1800, it is the New World. In Anno 117, the main character will be exiled to a remote area of the Roman world.
4. Supply and market system: If you played Anno 1800 before, you may realize the game is actually about supply chain… The same logic goes for Anno 117 Pax Romana. Players still need to manage the supply-market balance and produce different goods based on the islands’ fertility.

Therefore, it is fair to say that Anno 117 is fundamentally similar to Anno 1800. So, you won’t have a substantially different gaming experience if you are expecting something very refreshing or creative. The difference between Anno 117 and 1800 is definitely smaller than between Sims 3 and 4.

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The Research Tree: Another Option to Level Up Your Island Besides the Specialist Buffs

The research tree and the religion function are two new features. As the religion invocations are simpler than the research tree, this post will proceed to focus on discussing the research tree in Anno 117 Pax Romana.

In Anno 1800, the buildings, including production buildings and service buildings, are gradually unlocked as players upgrade their populations and progress in the campaign story. Or, for extra buffs, players need to either rescue specialists from expeditions, finish quests, or purchase them from other NPCs.

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Compared to the Anno 1800 buff system, Anno 117 adds the research tree as another way to upgrade buildings, secure additional buildings, improve armies, and others – all in all, to better your city. It is akin to the civil tree and science tree design in the Civilization series.

There are three branches in total: economics, civic, and military. The knowledge points generated by Minerva, Grammaticus, Plebeians, and others are used in conducting research. Players can check their knowledge points at the upper bar in the main gaming interface. To explain in more detail, conducting research allows players to unlock new gods, like Minerva, new legion types, and new buildings (such as wells that can help reduce fire hazards). Thus, this is definitely an important feature and plays a major role in constructing players’ gaming experience.

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Military Buildings and Soldiers for Players Who Prefer the Land Battle

Here is another major difference in comparison to Anno 1800: the way that players can take over an island. After all, what’s the fun if you can’t conquer in the Roman world! If you played Anno 1800 before, you might be able to recall that to take over an island, players need to opt for either an economic takeover or a military takeover. For the latter, players need to conquer the trading posts, so the major difficulty lies in sinking NPCs’ ships and destroying the island defence turrets. (You will know how difficult it can be if you try to defeat Anne Harlow.)

However, in Anno 117, the game requires players to equip a ship with different types of legions and to land the troops onto the island to take down the Governor Villa. That’s why the game instructs players to place the villa in a more inland area, to avoid being taken over too easily in a war.

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What that brings into play is a rich and solid mechanism for defence and soldier training. In Anno 117, players can not just build different warships at the shipyard (like in Anno 1800), but also recruit soldiers to form legions via barracks. Additionally, remember the research tree? Research tree includes an extensive branch for the military section, meaning that players can unlock more legion types through research and level up their defense or offense.

There are also defence buildings that players can place strategically on the island, which also indicates that to invade other islands, players need to take down those islands’ defence buildings and armies as well. So, if you are not a big fan of the sea battles in Anno 1800, maybe you will prefer the land battles in Anno 117.

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Highly Visual Buffs HUD: Easier for Players to Adjust the Island

Let’s continue the Anno 117 Pax Romana review to the part about HUD. The developer adjusted the HUD based on Anno 1800. Yet, there is no major adjustment in terms of the bars showing up on the interface.

However, what is truly helpful and interesting are the buffs and debuffs of each building on the residence buildings. In Anno 117, the buffs and debuffs of each production or service building include health, fire hazard, income, and so on. When players select the building, the interface clearly shows them the area of the buff it will influence, making it much easier for players to decide the best location for each building.

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Generally speaking, this design simplifies the adjustments of the city as well. As displayed at the upper right corner of the top bar, the island requires a healthy number of happiness, health, fire hazard possibility, and knowledge points generation. By hovering your cursor on top of these numbers, players can check which buildings increase or decrease the numbers. Then players can move the buildings to better areas accordingly.

One great example is how players can move buildings that give extra coins to the residential area. By increasing the population and placing the correct buildings for extra coins, players can easily be in the green without relying on any trades or quest rewards.

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More Interactive Campaign Stories: Your Choices Somehow Matter

Another thing worth noting is that the Anno 117 Pax Romana campaign mode features options for players to choose. Options certainly improve the immersiveness of the gaming experience, not to mention that players can choose the main character to progress the story with.

By choosing your main character, you will start the game differently. The graphics will be different in the cutscenes and pop-up dialogues. On the other hand, the main plot of the game remains the same. Both characters will start on a main island. They will then be exiled to a remote area and rebuild the island there. One disappointment is that the character in the street view (Ctrl + Shift + R) is displayed as Marcus, even if players choose Marcia.

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However, players should be aware that, after all, Anno 117 is not an RPG. Although there are options available in the campaign mode, most of the options are for players to get more information out of the NPCs, and the choices only change the immediate story, but not the main plot. One example is that if you ask Diana to attend the party, she will shock the Emperor to death. If Diana does not attend, the Emperor will be killed by a slave. Either way, the Emperor will die in the main plot.

As to the quests and random events, players can make more choices besides accepting and rejecting. Different choices lead to different rewards and consequences, bringing in more factors for players to consider.

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Conclusion: Anno 117 Pax Romana Review

What’s the final verdict? Anno 117 Pax Romana is 50% – 60% similar to Anno 1800 in terms of the core gameplay. They both heavily focus on population and residential building upgrades to progress the story. Supply chains and the balance of supply and demand are still playing a critical role in the overall experience.

What’s new? Anno 117 Pax Romana improves the military system and the research tree. It involves more mechanisms for economic, civic, and military improvements. All in all, the war is not just about the sea battles. The city improvement is not just about constructing more buildings anymore.

There are also more detailed features for players to explore. For example, you can literally walk into some buildings in the street view. Or, if you prefer the tranquility and calmness over the hustle-and-bustle of the 19th century, Anno 117 is the game for you!