Unfortunately I have to leave a negative review due to the state of the campaign. It ends very abruptly, without even telling the player, and moves to random quests. Based on the game files it has been confirmed that the whole last third of the story was cut from the campaign prior to release, thus missing a proper end to the campaign and a resolution to the conflict that is used as hook in chapter 1.

Review will be changed / removed should the missing campaign content be patched in.

I’ve had two runs in Pax Romana: First, the main campaign, and then a run on endless. The core of what’s here is wonderful.

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I love all the tiny details they stuffed into the game. Citizens wander around the cities you make for them, going for a swim in the baths, attending to their religion in temples and shrines, and so on. You can encamp your military units, and zoom in and find that the camps actually differ based on what type of unit is encamped. Ships’ appearance reflects their capabilities, featuring arrow towers or shields or rows of oars.

As a city building game, it’s exceptionally complete. There are all sorts of things you can build: lots of different fields (hemp, grain, lavender), manufacturies (soap, garum, amphorae), and all sorts of urban buildings (temples, aqueducts, shops). You can make a visually splendorous Roman city, and live that fantasy brewing in your mind since you walked the streets of Pompeii. (Or perhaps that’s just me?)

To cap it all off, you can build the Colosseum, that humongous ancient amphitheater that you absolutely should not write on if you visit Rome. It takes tons of resources and several stages to complete, and when done it’s essentially a whole new tech tree that opens up - representing the gladiatorial games that can be hosted there.

Like all Anno games, the idea is to start with farmers and work your way up to increasingly sophisticated urbanities. If you fail to meet their needs, they’ll leave the island, potentially throwing your production chains into chaos.

There are tons and tons of choices for how and what to build. There’s a lot of gameplay here, far – far – more than a traditional city builder like Cities Skylines, or even more gameplay focused ones like Frostpunk. Buildings are shaped in all sorts of weird ways, and some have bonuses in a circular aura that can’t grow, and some give bonuses via road connections. Then there’s the Governor’s Villa, which can be slotted with Officials that give their own crazy bonuses, some of which give aura bonuses to connected buildings.

This can get complex. For example, I had an official that gave a big aura bonus to markets, meaning I wanted the edge of the official’s circular aura to touch as many useful markets as I could, extending a bonus even further still.

The game is like a huge Tetris puzzle, trying to fit all these bonuses in some sort of optimal way. It’s fun. It’s also a little time consuming, and maybe a bit too much. I found myself endlessly tweaking my main city, then realizing I’d been doing it for a whole hour and had done little else.

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We have to talk about the campaign.

Pax Romana has the best campaign of a game like this since Frostpunk, until it reaches the final act. Until then, the story was challenging, serious, interesting – a far cry from Anno 1800’s whimsical fire-people conspiracy plot. But for some reason, it just suddenly ends.

Marcia’s story drew me in. A young girl sold into a marriage she doesn’t want, to a man she has never met, and thrust into a dangerous political game. Several villains are set up, including a new and dangerous Emperor. But sadly, instead of that Emperor, say, invading your main island and having a climatic battle, the campaign just unceremoniously ends and endless mode begins. There’s not even a dialog box saying the campaign is over - I eventually just realized I wasn’t getting any more quests and had to google it.

It’s a real shame. They did a great job with the story, but then mysteriously just didn't follow through. It also ends a good deal before you reach the higher tier of citizen needs, unlock the Colosseum, or have any serious battles. I would have loved to see the game prompt you to explore those things while supplying you an interesting story.

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Anno Pax Romana adds ground combat for the first time. It’s not bad. They’ve drawn inspiration from the Total War games, and I enjoyed trying to build armies with a well-rounded unit composition. I also enjoyed defending my islands at war. You now need a combination of naval defense and land defense, and it’s definitely fun building towers and walls in your city - and balancing the needs of a well-connected city with the practical considerations of how expensive gates are to build and maintain.

What doesn’t work for me about combat, though, is the diplomacy and war system. I’m very glad to see a new (I think) Limited War option, allowing you to say, “Hey, I just want to fight your military; I don’t want either of us to fight our trade ships.” That’s a huge improvement over Anno 1800’s endless babysitting of your trade ships.

But it’s not good enough given the extra attention you need to pay to both naval and land fights. I try to play all games on “hard” or equivalent, Pax Romana being no exception, and so played my Endless game on the default “Veteran” difficulty. But even a “Limited War” means being outnumbered 10 to 1 and having to defend everywhere, all at once, all the time, across all my islands, in two game worlds separated by a loading screen. This is too much, even for me. It’s a not-fun amount of multitasking.

Also, AI makes alliances with each-other, meaning it’s essentially a war of you against everyone. (Having an alliance of your own doesn’t seem to make this better: AI chooses their alliances over you.)

What would be better is to allow players to declare the intention to fight over one specific island, allowing that one island to be attacked and invaded - but no others. The casus belli system from Paradox games could be imported here: First manufacture a claim on an island, then press the claim. In this way, wars wouldn’t be quite so out of control, so sprawling and difficult to wrap your head around. You could just focus on one theater - one island - at a time. Alas, this is not how it works.

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There’s a new religion and technology system that I don’t recall from an Anno game before. It’s deep, and I like it.

Each island can be set to follow a specific deity, which provides specific types of bonuses. You could, in theory, use this to hyper specialize islands into particular production chains, or even sources of manpower for your fleet or military, or even make one island a source of trade. Though, I wasn’t able to make that happen in my games. I think religion could use a bit more cooking, personally. I do enjoy the flavor of it.

The technology tree is fantastic, though. It’s huge, and even now I find myself cooking about how I could pull off a faster opening in my next game. There are tons of nodes, and some are locked behind little achievements in the game, such as settling a Celt island or setting up a trade route. Some are very powerful, unlocking new tiers of ships for example.

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I think Pax Romana is fantastic. It’s a little too addictive, frankly, as I’ve been up til 1 AM playing it several nights in a row. That said, the missing final act of Marcia’s campaign feels bad.

Then again, it’s Rome, and the Rome setting is very fun. I visited Pompeii with my wonderful boyfriend a couple years ago, and we had a fantastic time. The site is wonderful. It felt like walking through history, and I wished I could play a game that let me build a city like Pompeii. Well, now I can. And it’s awesome.

Recommended.

Incomplete game. The campaign ends randomly without even letting us know and does not seem polished at all.

cant recomend the game untill they fix the MP problems, hard to join a gae and its desync aftter a while

I'm gonna give this game a thumbs up, BUT there's a major issue that I think needs to be fixed.
The AI oponent cheats, and it is blatant. When starting in Latium, they will eventually settle half a dozen islands, while having an economy that is weaker that the player's. With normal taxes and the cost of settling large islands, I don't know how that is possible, all the while building baths, theaters etc. It will also eventually be able to produce 200 wattle & daub, wich can be manufactured from ressources only available in Albion, WITHOUT SETTLING said region!!! How does one do that?? Basically there is no correlation between what the AI builds and what is produces and that's a huge bummer in the mid and late stage.

Otherwise, the construction is great and you really do think about the Roman Empire every day!

Anno 117 is a very fun and entertaining game. The campaign offers a okey-written story and does a great job introducing the core mechanics without overwhelming you or throwing you in the dark.

I’ve seen some negative reviews from long-time Anno players, but as someone experiencing the series for the first time, I’m really enjoying it. The gameplay feels smooth, the progression is satisfying, and it’s easy to get absorbed for hours.

If you’re new to the Anno series, don’t let the negative reviews discourage you. Give it a go, chances are you’ll have a great time just like I do!

This game rules, I don't understand the haters. I have a 1 year old, relatively high end PC, and can run on max settings with no issue (4070 ti, recent amd chip).

There is _tons_ to do at launch. The available provinces and population tiers have a LOT to build and manage.

The game is gorgeous, and the set and setting are better than 1800 imo.

I haven't touched the campaign due to people saying it ends abruptly and don't see any problems doing that.

I got into anno 1800 about a year ago, bought it with all the DLC. i loved it, and when this was announced i was somewhat sad because i had just gotten into 1800. I've been more than happy to leave 1800 on the shelf and just plow through this.

Loved 1800, Now, I don't know how to express my adoration with 117. Please play it if you like city builders.

Game feels incomplete and rushed.
Trading with other nations/states/AI just dull. They always sell same items and no randomization.
Specialists are so boring. They dont give secondary benefits etc as in Anno 1800.
Repeating quests on AI with same rewards with an additional dull specialist which doesnt have major effects are not interesting.
Overall game doesnt worth the money you spend on it. Anno 1800 was way way way better than this.

This game makes me think of the Roman Empire much less per day.