Anno 117: Pax Romana

With Anno 117: Pax Romana, Ubisoft Mainz impressively demonstrates that cutting-edge technology in the strategy segment ‘Made in Germany’ is possible at an international level. At its heart is the in-house Empire Engine, which calculates highly complex economic, population and diplomatic systems in real time, while reliably rendering enormous cities with dynamic simulation.
Modern rendering technologies such as ray-traced global illumination and GPU-driven vegetation ensure atmospheric density without compromising performance. The technical optimisation is particularly noteworthy: even on console hardware, the game runs smooth and is visually impressive.
But even before the first legion marches or a city flourishes the music already tells of the rise of an empire. As the continuation of a long-standing series, the title builds on a wealth of experience – and that can be heard. For the first time in Anno history, players can choose between different starting provinces: they can rule the Roman Empire in Latium or the Celtic Kingdom in Albion – and thus shape two culturally distinct identities. This decision is also reflected in the audio. The music takes up historical timbres without sounding to much like a museum and translates them into a dense, orchestral score that blends with the calm flow of the game.

Anno 117: Pax Romana is not only a further development of an established series, but also a technological benchmark that combines system complexity, rendering quality and platform parity at an exceptional level.

The DCP Jury, March 2026