- “Anno 117” in Review: Rome for Confectioners
When a city-building series is so well-known that fans already know what sum of numbers in the title they can form beforehand, what new things can a sequel still offer? The Anno series has already gotten lost once when answering this question. Like few other series, “Anno” stands for building picturesquely beauti…
- “Anno 117” in Review: Rome for Confectioners
When a city-building series is so well-known that fans already know what sum of numbers in the title they can form beforehand, what new things can a sequel still offer? The Anno series has already gotten lost once when answering this question. Like few other series, “Anno” stands for building picturesquely beautiful, historical worlds,** **as if conjured from gingerbread by a confectioner and placed in a shop window.
But after successful games between the 15th and 18th centuries, sequels appeared that were set in the future or during the Industrial Revolution. They approached more current social problems, from environmental destruction to social justice. However, one contradiction was never truly resolved: should it still be an interactive postcard idyll?
The new “Anno 117,” with ancient Rome as its setting, already feels like a return to old strengths. It is the large game expected, a lavish buffet that cannot be fully assessed even after almost 20 hours of gameplay. The twisty campaign is again a kind of tutorial, but it offers weighty decisions and two different main characters. Multiplayer options, including co-op, an endless mode with many setting options, and two regions, provide a wide range of gameplay possibilities. Building takes place not only in Roman Latium but also in distant Albion, where the eerie Celts settle in the marshlands and devour eels.
Solid Confectionery Craftsmanship
The rugged islands in the north function primarily as a different backdrop for a virtual vacation: here Mediterranean with warm sun, there lush green with exciting weather. The islands in the far north are stormy and marshy. But despite all the jokes about the underarm sweat of the Romanized savages, the new “Anno” is always idyllic. Usually, you look down from high above at a settlement as if from a model. It is rendered beautifully in detail, swarming with tiny people, and brought into ever-new light by dynamic weather effects.
[“Anno 117” im Test (7 Bilder)](https://www.heise.de/bilderstrecke/4974311.html?back=11072347&lang=en “Bilderstrecke: “Anno 117” im Test (7 Bilder)“)
Zumindest die Kampagne ist auch in “Anno 117” wieder ein besseres Tutorial, bleibt aber durch viele Entscheidungen interessant. (Bild:
Jan Bojaryn
)
The friction in building feels familiar. You have to create a network of production chains, placing lumberjacks, sawmills, and warehouses like beads on a string, puzzling fish huts, farms, and marketplaces with residential buildings into the grid. The distances between them must be correct, the number of workers must match the buildings, and in the first hours of each game, there is always one production chain that you build on the side. Later, it’s more about repairs on a running engine when trade or war reshuffle the cards.
The fact that smelly industries now also bring devaluations or that there are numerous choices in the research tree doesn’t change the gameplay much. In its basic setting, “Anno 117” is very accessible, and building experiences gentle swells rather than major obstacles. Even if the first settlers are now called “Liberti”: anyone who knows Anno will find this game a reunion with an old acquaintance.
Déjà vu in an Open-Air Museum
Even though Anno had its best times between the 15th and 18th centuries: the new game looks so classic that you have to look again while playing to see if it hasn’t existed before. But it hasn’t; ancient city building has been served by various other series that you can also be reminded of here.
Whether in the finely adjustable endless mode or the campaign, everything begins with a largely empty island. In the campaign, a volcanic eruption has created new land with nicely scattered ruins. The beginning is modest, with a small supply of resources from which residential buildings, lumberjacks, sardine huts, oat farms, and warehouses are built. If you satisfy the needs of the first settlers, you can upgrade them to Plebeians. This allows them to perform new jobs and generate more money, but they also have new needs. Soon, the first Praetorian villa is built, guard posts to ward off fire and crime, a labor-hungry military, and all sorts of decorative objects.
The resources are mechanically interchangeable but atmospheric. Early in the campaign, the emperor raves so extensively about the aroma of garum that you can almost smell the fermented fish. There are also characters who start talking unexpectedly in endless mode, but they make more sense in the campaign. Here, a capricious and dynamic story is staged that doesn’t stop at the cliché image of antiquity but tells of Rome as a fractured empire. Your own Praetor comes from Egypt and is only allowed to prove himself briefly in Latium before abruptly moving to Albion.
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The characters are cunning or arrogant, cowardly or cheeky. However, their appearances are less reminiscent of Hollywood and more of picture books or Terra X documentaries. In addition to a few short videos, picture boards, talking portraits, and multiple-choice menus suffice. The narrative becomes interesting primarily through numerous decisions. They ensure that you retain the feeling of being in control even in the linearly told campaign.
The basic setting of the campaign is rather simple. However, the difficulty can also be adjusted in detail. Especially in endless mode, you can also face warlike neighbors with scarce resources.
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This article was originally published in German. It was translated with technical assistance and editorially reviewed before publication.