Anno 117: Pax Romana

Ubisoft launcher prevented me from playing the game when I have free time with a simple error "Unable to start the game, please try again later".

I didn't mind the game, it's Anno, and I have generally enjoyed the Anno games I have played. But I feel ripped off. I paid a lot of money for the gold edition because I assumed that that meant I would have access to all the DLC. But no. Greedy, predatory, consumer hating, money grubbing Ubisoft has decided that cosmetic pack DLC are not included in a year one pass. So my negative review is a reflection of my disgust with Ubisoft and their filthy, greedy ways which, in turn, have left me not wanting to play the game nor any other Ubisoft product. If I had known the truth of the year 1 pass, I would never have bought it. It's no wonder Ubisoft is a dying company.

Unable to start game: this product cannot be activated right now, please try again later. You spend $65 on a game, are forced to create a Ubisoft account from launch, spend forever creating the account to receive the error your product you just spent $65 on cannot be activated! Next you click the support button on the popup which has no useful information or links to the error you received let alone the game you launched. It's just a standard support page. Then you think maybe you need to try again when signing in to your Ubisoft account and click Link All Steam Games so now you share your entire steam library information with Ubisoft thinking the game will work but you still get the CANNOT BE ACTIVATED RIGHT NOW error. Finally you refund the game $65 dollars and wait to be refunded because you cannot play what you purchased. Additionally you shared marketing data on your entire Steam library with your Ubisoft account thinking this would fix the problem and didn't. In total until refunded you lost $65 dollars and marketing data related to you so they could sell you a game that you cannot even launch because they cannot troubleshoot activation errors. Not only did they sell you snake oil they stole marketing data and fleeced you good. 0/10 will never buy a Ubisoft product ever game.

It's an expensive, soul-less DLC trap. From a historical perspective there's nothing interesting. From an Anno perspective it's just the same reskinned formula. From a Ubisoft perspective they're milking the franchise. I can totally see it being worth 20$ or so, but at current prices? Save your money, unless it's your first Anno game, then I can understand.

I am physically unable to play because hackers got access to my ubisoft account, they then changed the email where authentication email goes from mine to theirs. They were able to successfully take over my account and prevent me from playing any ubisoft game I "owned" from then on. Ubisoft has failed to take any action despite being able to prove it's my account by tracing game purchases all the way back to 2012, they have protected the hackers more then me. I cannot recover my account because they always respond with an automated message telling me there is nothing more they can do because they "take account safety seriously." Update: They have returned my account after a human reviewed the evidence I sent through. It seems like they are using AI to handle their support in the first instance.

Pays $90 for a game. Game is lacking everything Anno 1800 made great. The game is $90. Obvious degradation of systems and QoL animations that made the world feel alive. The game is $90. Come back less than 12 months later to see 3 "DLCs" $10.95, $10.95 and $17.95? Again the game is $130. Wait what? Obvious money grab just like the rest of games nowadays so if you enjoy throwing money at digital content like its a bloody boat then you'll love it. The game does look nice, Roman vibes is great, I''ll check back in 5 years time when the game is fully released and costs $400.

I am going to leave a positive review because I loved the Roman setting and even a "bad" Anno game is a good game but holy sh*t there are a lot of things missing right now. Basic Qol mechanics even the base Anno 1404 has is absent. If you are a long time player like me I'd suggest waiting a couple of years before buying Anno 117 as of now.

I think they are really on to something with this installment of Anno. I will also say I believe this game will in the end be a better game than Anno 1800. 1800 is fantastic of course, but this game has some fresh ideas that set it apart. People can argue that 1800 is the better game right now, but that is mostly because it has so much added content. I would say this game is better than release anno 1800. Pros (things I think are fantastic design decisions and innovations. Most of these things will be differences from Anno 1800) -Everything about the game tries very hard to stick to linear scaling especially getting money. Mostly money is made by creating more people instead of simply supplying specific luxury goods to the highest tiers of pops. I really like how this changes the objective of progress in the game to building a bigger province and expanding your little governorship over just rushing to investors in anno 1800. They have tried really hard to keep the money from scaling out of control which I appreciate since it becomes extremely easy to scale to infinity in 1800. -Significantly more planning is needed for good city layout. This is like 1000x more interesting than it is in Anno 1800. You really have to plan out space for production buildings, large buildings, aquaducts, buildings of all shapes and sizes in your cities. For one it makes the cities look awesome but it also is a much more interesting problem to solve than the dead simple anno 1800 city building where all you really need to plan for is the railroad. Also it rewards you heavily for good planning -Research, I think research is fantastic, it is very satisfying to get big upgrades that allow you to redesign your layouts. Some people might not like this. They maybe don't like building one layout and then having to rearrange, but personally i've grown to really enjoy building the city one way and then rearranging everything when i get the right tools for optimization. -Much more impactful city disasters. They have done a great job making you actually care about keeping your cities safe from disease, unrest and fire. In anno 1800 the disasters are for the most part an afterthought. I found I never even used the improved city services systems they added in DLCs in 1800 because there was literally no point, the disasters don't matter, mostly take care of themselves and end quickly. In 117 you actually have to micro and pay attention if a major incident occurs, I find it way more compelling. -A rigorous attempt to make all mechanics matter and keep the game flat, nothing at this point is insanely OP which I appreciate -I think the religion mechanics are top notch in terms of making you think and rewarding you for having a good plan Cons -Game does need more time in the oven and it is my sincere with that they add tons more stuff to it like they did with 1800. -Emperor system could do with some changes to make it more interesting and currently its a bit unbalanced particularly the pro consul stuff. I do like how much the emperor acts as a buffer to slow down the destruction of competitors. This mechanic needs again more refinement but I think it serves a great purpose -specialists are very bland and not all that powerful. I will preface by saying this is a good and bad thing. In Anno 1800 specialists are very interesting but they can be so powerful its almost laughable and completely broken balance wise. My hope is they can add more unique niches for specialists that change your play style and strategy like 1800 but keep it from going off the power creep deep end. -I would like to see more options for ships that are interesting. Again this might just need a bit more time in the oven and be a DLC addition. -We need more AI competitors In my con section I explained some of the points many I've seen online and in reviews complaining about and I think those are fair for the most part. I definitely do not under any circumstances want them to make the game easier or less complex. At first the city planning and necessary redesigns were daunting but after playing for 400 hours I really think it adds so much rich interesting complexity to the game. If by some magical chance the devs read this review, Devs please do not listen to all the whiny babies who just wanted anno 1800 Rome. Refining things is good and there is some balancing to do but this game has great ideas going in it that really set it apart from 1800. One thing, please bring back the button on a production building that will automatically filter to that good in the production screen. Also please for the love of god give us some kind of interface for viewing and managing ship pop assignment.