Video game preview – Anno 117: Pax Romana is a real-time city-building epic
I have spent hundreds of hours on Civilization and its sequels, but I haven't played many other strategy games beyond Amplitude Studios' works, such as Humankind and Big Huge Games' Rise of Nations.
When I had a chance to preview Ubisoft's Anno 117: Pax Romana, I did not know what to expect aside from it being a historical strategy game, but with a more focused era. I was expecting something Civ-ish, but I was wrong.
Anno 117 is different to anything I've played before. The coming PC game puts players in the role of a new Roman governor during a relatively peaceful 200-year span.
Players start with a single settlement, but they'll have to expand and build a network of eternal cities. They'll start in Latium – the area around Rome in today's west-central Italy – with a Mediterranean climate and ruins from the past.
The 'world' map from Anno 117: Pax Romana. Photo: Ubisoft
Further into the game, the governor's domain expands to Albion, a different environment with harsh cliffs, misty marshland and a new culture.
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