Ubisoft's Anno series is well-established among fans of city builders, with the most recent entry (Anno 1800) taking players on a tour of the industrial revolution. Now six years later, the series is moving to one of the most highly requested settings: Ancient Rome. Anno 117: Pax Romana will hand gamers the keys to the kingdom and task them with building their own Roman Empire from scratch.
The Best War Games attended a recent event that showcased Anno 117: Pax Romana and spoke with game director Jan Dungel. He shed some light on the decision to take the series to Ancient Rome and gave insight into the research process, as well as discussed some of the new features in this installment. This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Anno 117: Pax Romana Hands-On Preview: Forging an Empire
The Best War Games recently went hands-on with Ubisoft's Anno 117: Pax Romana, the next installment in its city-building franchise.
The Anno Series Finally Goes to Ancient Rome
Q: Can you talk us through the decision behind having the game set in Ancient Rome?
A: Anno is a very successful brand. It has existed for 27 years. There was a high probability that we would do a game in Rome at some stage. The only question was when. We always do research in terms of what our fans want, and we know that it is one of the most wished-for settings for our fan base. Anno 1800 was the industrial revolution. We wanted to stay somewhere in history, but we didn't want to repeat what we'd already done. We’ve already done medieval games and so on. We wanted to do something very new, and that time period was perfect.
Rome is a very fitting setting, especially as the game is based in the year 117 when it was at its peak. It was spread across different continents. It was a melting pot of cultures and different nations, and the Anno franchise is perfect to showcase that. It's not only about building one city with marble roads, etc., but it's also about connecting to other regions and bringing various goods and needs from different islands and regions. It was very fitting. The people during this time were great builders.
Q: One of the most striking things about the game is the sheer level of detail in every single aspect of it. What was the research process like for a project this size?
A: Well, I would say that we are lucky because a lot of people on the team study Ancient Rome as a hobby, and we even have people who have master's degrees in archaeology. Many on the team were already very connected to that topic and wanted to do something that was very close to their hearts. It came naturally to them. Of course, we also did a lot of research on specific things; types of foods, where they came from, the various gods they worshiped, etc. There was a lot of research that we did internally, using a new part of the studio specifically dedicated to helping us with the research. The people here are very educated. Yeah, it involved a lot of specific research on specific things. Did concrete exist in 117? Things like that.
Anno 117: Pax Romana Aims to Bring in Both New and Existing Anno Fans
Q: How have you tried to strike a balance between pleasing the existing fan base and bringing in a new audience as well? What kind of steps have been taken for that?
A: We actually needed to create two distinct balances, and that's the key point there. In the previous Anno, it was much more linear. You had to do a very specific list of tasks and meet certain needs to get to the next level. This is very core to the Anno experience, to satisfy the people to upgrade to the next civilization tier. There was no flexibility. That also defines when you have to go to another island or maybe when you have to go to the new world and new province. When analyzing player stats, we found out that these moments are also the biggest drop rates when players stop playing.
For example, when they reach the new world and they feel like they need to build another island from scratch, it feels like too much work for many players and they just drop out. We felt like we needed to address that. The problem is, at the same time, there are also hardcore fans who want to put that work in, so they don’t want us to change anything. This was how we got the idea of bringing in choices, to break the linearity up so you don't have to fulfill all the needs and objectives. You can do just half of them, then you can decide if you want to stay longer. Maybe you don't have to go to another province, but if you're that guy who wants to do everything, go for it. It's the player’s choice. That’s basically how we have tried to create two balances.
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Anno 117: Pax Romana Will Launch Simultaneously on PC and Consoles
Q: This game is launching simultaneously on PC and consoles. To make that happen, did you have to do anything with the control scheme? Will it be as fluid and intuitive on consoles?
A: During the very extensive Anno 1800 post-launch schedule, the team already integrated the console version, so this was basically our testing grounds for the console control scheme. It went very well. The console proved to be very successful for Anno 1800, as it was mainly about the user interface and adapting the controls to the console’s controller. There is no difference regarding the game’s actual features. You have the same experience. It's just different UIs and different ways to control the game, but the experience in terms of what the game offers is the same.
Q: Are there any plans for a multiplayer component?
A: Yeah, so I can say that we will have multiplayer and we plan to also have the co-op mode, which was very successful in Anno 1800. I cannot go into too much detail about this just yet though.
Q: Is there anything you can say on the post-launch roadmap right now?
A: I can not say at the moment. I would love to share more, but I cannot say everything right now. We will talk about it in more detail soon!
Combat Plays a Role in Anno 117: Pax Romana
Q: Anno 117: Pax Romana will feature ground and naval combat. Are there any parts of the combat that are mandatory, or could a player, in theory, go all the way through without ever having to engage in any combat, just focusing on the city-building aspects?
A: There is a way not to engage in any combat. The game needed to be still first and foremost a premium city builder. We wanted to stay truthful to that. We know that there are a lot of people who are excited by land combat, but there are also people who don't want to participate in that at all. We will have a lot of accessibility settings you can customize. You can disable AI, for example.
However, even if you don't actually change any setting, we will have more peaceful characters in the game, so not everything will result in violence. To engage in combat, you will need to come across some opponents who aren’t satisfied with peaceful negotiations. For example, there will be pirates in the game, although you can actually disable them should you wish to. It is super customizable. In summary, combat is definitely not integral at all.
Q: In terms of the narrative, will there be multiple endings?
A: We plan to have multiple endings for the campaign. It will depend on which Emperor is on the throne at the end; that's the general idea. We will reveal a little more about the campaign when the time is right, but I can confirm it's planned to have more than one ending.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 83 /100 Critics Rec: 92%
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- City Builder, Simulation, Strategy
