As a long-time Anno enjoyer and a basic boy obsessed with the Roman Empire, I am smack bang in the middle of Anno 117: Pax Romana's target demographic, so it's good to know that the new city builder has a release date that's not too far into the future. As revealed during the PC Gaming Show 2025, it's coming on November 17.
The date was revealed along with a mostly cinematic trailer featuring a bunch of musical statues hamming it up, so there's not much to say about the rest of the reveal. The good news is that I've actually played Anno 117 for several hours, so I can keep this news post spinning for a bit longer while I chat about city planning.
As I mentioned in my preview, area of effect bonuses are one of the most meaningful additions this time around, even if they are a lot less sexy than things like gods and armies. While the concept of building attributes isn't completely new to either Anno or city builders in general, the way it's been deployed here does shake things up quite a bit.
It all ties into fulfilling the needs of your residents, but it's distinct from the system where you provide them with actual goods. So, for instance, your first residents will want things like a market where they can buy goods. When you've given them everything they need, they can be upgraded to a new citizen class.
But these buildings also provide specific bonuses. The market bonuses are +1 population and +1 income. That means, when you plonk a market down, all the residences in its substantial area of effect gain these bonuses. So every household starts generating an additional +1 income, and gives you a whole extra potential worker.
To put it another way, if you're broke and you don't have enough workers, you can kill two birds with one stone.
Obviously this is very handy, but I really like the way it encourages you to think hard about your colony's layout right from the start. And it also captures some of the way cities evolve over time. As the needs of your residents—along with your own needs—change, then so too will your buildings and the city's layout.
And it's not all bonuses that you receive. Some buildings have negative attributes, even though they are no less essential. They might reduce happiness because they stink, or decrease fire safety because they generate lots of heat. Sometimes this will mean you'll need to keep them away from your residential areas, but some buildings will have very desirable bonuses and negative attributes at the same time, forcing you to take risks or pick your priorities.
It's really interesting the way this system both smoothes things out but also introduces new kinds of friction.
OK, city planning chat over. Go watch some more trailers or something.
Check out every game, trailer, and announcement in the PC Gaming Show 2025
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