The announcement of Anno 117: Pax Romana at Ubisoft Forward this morning feels like proof that the surprise popularity of Anno 1800 gave the series the boost in profile it has always deserved.
A few years ago, it wouldn’t have been surprising if an Anno title was omitted from a mid-year Ubisoft broadcast. The series has always had a cult following and was a project studio BlueByte worked on between instalments of The Settlers. But it wasn’t until 2019’s Anno 1800 that the series took off. That surprise hit city builder reinvigorated a strategy franchise that might well be gone now without it.
That Anno 117 exists at all feels like proof of that.
Ubi didn’t have anything to show beyond a teaser that confirmed the series would finally indulge a setting from ancient history. This time, the series will dive into Ancient Roman history, a setting that BlueByte says has been long requested by fans. Previously, the Anno series has stuck to either semi-recent history or the far-flung future, with Anno 1404 being the earliest period explored so far. Anno 117 will beat that by almost 1,300 years.
The Pax Romana in its title (literally ‘Roman Peace’) refers to a real period of history, a roughly 200-year window between 27 BC to 180 AD in which the Roman Empire enjoyed its golden age. Anno 117 is, therefore, set smack bang in the middle of that age of prosperity. There have been plenty of strategy games that focused on the Ancient Roman empire before, but most have been full-fledged RTS games about raising armies and upsetting the French. Anno lets you do that too, but it also asks you to think about your civilisation as a priority. Rome, quite literally, wasn’t built in a day — and now, that’ll be your job.
Also worth noting: like Civilization 7, announced just a few days ago, Anno 117 will be coming to PC and console at launch. First time for everything. Hopefully it means BlueByte can build controller support into the PC version this time — something Anno 1800 has had to get along without.
Keen. Give it here, Ubi. I’m ready.
Image: Ubisoft, Kotaku Australia
Leave a Reply