Try as I might, I’ve never managed to stick with series like Civilization or Crusader Kings for any meaningful length of time. Strategy games sound like my thing: following an established set of rules to see lots of numbers grow higher, represented in the form of digital nations growing before my eyes. In practice, however, my patience usually wears out before the deep strategic gameplay takes hold.
Anno 117: Pax Romana, Ubisoft’s new real-time strategy game, might be different. Its distinctly narrative-focused loop drew me in, while the logical, productivity-driven nature of building a Roman empire keeps me coming back. And that’s saying something, considering I’m not one of the legions of men who frequently think about the Roman empire.
Like many other city-building games, Anno 117 tasks you with making something from nothing. Normally overwhelmed by complex sandboxes, I eagerly took to the game’s campaign mode, which doubles as a tutorial. It holds your hand to an extent, providing specific milestones to hit, but with a reasonable level of freedom to let you find your way there.
It’s this more guided approach that I think endears me to Anno 117 more than other strategy games I’ve tried lately. Tell me a story, and I’ll happily come along for the ride.
Learning through storytelling
Like a mini serial within a strategy game, Anno 117: Pax Romana unfurls a slow-burning plot as you play. Upon hitting a major milestone, like growing your population or learning how to make cheese (very important), Anno 117 presents a brief interaction between characters, furthering the narrative.
It looks a little stilted, with awkward animations and mouth flaps that don’t match the spoken dialogue, but the heart’s in the right place. Despite the slightly rough presentation, I found each story beat charming, adding further context to your city-building prowess. I wasn’t just producing tiles for the sake of reaching an arbitrary target; I was helping my emperor build the dream temple for his wife.
Playing as Marcia (there’s also a playable male character), many of my in-game efforts revolved around proving her worth in a male-dominated society. Most other characters dismissed her as merely a woman there for a political marriage, which made it all the more satisfying when Marcia defied their expectations at every turn.
It also reflected my experience of playing Anno 117. The thought of expanding my city, optimising production lines, and defending borders against would-be warmongers was daunting. But the granular approach of the campaign saw me slowly grow in confidence alongside Marcia. To the point where we both believed we were truly capable of leading.
That’s even aside from the immense satisfaction of seeing a well-oiled city at work. Connecting all manner of production buildings to refineries, and then placing roads to see goods transported to villagers and markets: it’s gratifying work, I tell ya.
Playing Anno 117: Pax Romana on the couch
Perhaps part of my reservations about playing strategy games is how much they favour playing on a PC. Yes, many modern strategy games have console ports, but I can’t help but feel I’m playing an inferior version, irrespective of how rooted in truth that perception may be.
I’ve played Anno 117 entirely on a PS5 Pro so far. At times, I thought a mouse and keyboard would make navigating various sub-menus easier. But, for the most part, I’m impressed by how well the gamepad-based controls work.
Constructing different buildings and accessing various landscaping tools cleverly uses a series of radial menus. A quick tap of a shoulder button, followed by a control stick movement, quickly gets you where you need to go.
Navigating other menus, like the quest logs, requires a bit more effort. It’s not as easy to use the directional pad; sometimes, I thought I’d highlighted the correct item, only to make a selection and have a completely different menu appear. Some of the quest logs also wouldn’t let me scroll to read the full text within, leaving me in the dark when I needed a quick refresher on recent in-game events.
Still, after a long day spent at my desk working, I’d happily accept some friction in return for the comfort of playing a game on the couch.
Even after more than a dozen hours, I feel I’ve barely got my head around all of Anno 117: Pax Romana‘s complexities. But the most encouraging thing? I keep thinking about what I want to try and achieve with my city next.
Ubisoft provided a PS5 code of Anno 117: Pax Romana for review coverage.
