Anno 117: Pax Romana surprised me in a really good way. I’ve never really gotten too far into a city-building or strategy game before, so I wasn’t sure if I would like it. Initially, I felt completely lost. There were menus everywhere, and half the time I couldn’t even remember how to get back to the screen I needed, or I’d selected something and forgotten what I pressed… the whole start was honestly a little overwhelming. But once I started to understand how everything worked, the game became a lot of fun.
Anno 117: Pax Romana takes place in the Roman Empire, and your job is to build up towns and help your people grow from simple workers into rich, high-class citizens. Your city looks great from the very beginning. You can zoom in and watch tiny Roman people going about their daily activities, such as walking, farming, and shopping. The world feels full of life, and on the PS5, everything looks sharp and colourful.
Because this was my first time with this type of game, the menus were a bit confusing. This was also probably due to the fact that this type of game lends itself much more to a keyboard/mouse setup than a controller. There are so many buttons, wheels and screens that it took me a long time to figure out what anything meant. The menu layout also isn’t very beginner-friendly, especially when navigating it with the aforementioned controller. But the cool thing is that the more I struggled, the more I understood the deeper systems. Little by little, I began to see how buildings connect, how resources move, and how people’s needs change over time. Once the pieces started coming together, I started to really enjoy trying to make my city run smoothly.
The most addictive part of Anno 117: Pax Romana for me was setting up trade routes. Rich citizens want fancy goods, and to make those goods, you often need resources from many different islands. Without spoiling anything, you don’t stay in one place forever either. After building up your first area, you get to travel to a new region with a totally different style. One is sunny and Mediterranean, and the other is cooler and foggy, with different people and new resources. You can even choose whether to keep their original traditions or make them more Roman, which changes the bonuses you get. I loved watching my ships travel across the map, carrying things like cheese, pottery, or cloth from one town to another. It made the whole world feel connected.
There is also combat! I didn’t expect much of it in a city-building game, but ship battles were actually one of the highlights for me. Ships move differently depending on their size and type, and protecting your trade routes from pirates becomes important as the game progresses. Land battles are much simpler, but they work fine. The story campaign only took me a few hours, and it mostly teaches you the basics, but the real fun is in Endless Mode, where you can choose where to start, how tough the game is, and what kind of rivals you want. I spent most of my time here, trying different strategies and building new cities.
Even though I enjoyed Anno 117: Pax Romana, there were definitely some parts that frustrated me — especially as someone who’s new to this kind of game. The menus are confusing for beginners. There are so many screens, tabs, and little icons that it’s easy to get lost. Sometimes I opened one thing, thinking it would show me my resources, but instead it took me to a completely different section. I spent probably an hour Googling how to turn on the production of clothing at one point. Honestly, if you’ve never played a city-builder before, it can feel like trying to read a map written in another language, especially on a controller.
Your cities can fall apart fast if you run out of important supplies, too. In Anno 117: Pax Romana, everything depends on something else. If you suddenly run low on food, pottery, or cloth, your citizens get upset and move away. When that happens, the buildings that make those supplies stop working properly because fewer people are working in them. This can create a chain reaction where things keep getting worse, and usually, you don’t notice a problem until it’s too late. Additionally, building something in the wrong location, forgetting to establish a trade route, or losing a shipment to pirates can be catastrophic and require a significant amount of time to recover from. Sometimes you have to rebuild production chains, reorganize whole neighbourhoods, or spend several in-game days waiting for resources to arrive. When you’re already overwhelmed by the menus, this can feel extra difficult.
But even with these problems, there’s something really satisfying about watching your towns grow from tiny villages into busy Roman cities. Every time I fixed a problem or redesigned a district, it made the world feel more alive. And that feeling of improvement, learning from mistakes and seeing real progress, is a big part of what makes Anno 117: Pax Romana so fun overall.
Even though I was confused at first and had never played a game like this before, Anno 117: Pax Romana won me over. It looks beautiful, feels rewarding to learn, and has some fun trade and naval systems. It’s a great choice for players who love building, planning, and watching their world come to life, even if you’re totally new to the genre.
Have you played Anno 117: Pax Romana? Let us know what you think in the comments!
