Anno 117's first DLC will let you disregard history by building your Roman city next to a massive volcano

A Roman city blazes as an erupting volcano rains down ash and rock in the background. — (Image credit: Ubisoft)

Ubisoft has revealed that city-building sequel Anno 117: Pax Romana will get its first DLC later this month. Prophecies of Ash will add the largest island featured in the series yet, one that happens to be loomed over by a massive volcano. Because why bother building a Roman city without the risk of a natural disaster that will echo across millennia?

Cinis is the name of the volcanic island, acting as an expansion to the Latium province rather than a whole new map. The trailer for the Prophecies of Ash suggests that Cinis will be a bountiful place to build, with plentiful river slots and mining nodes for your citizens to exploit. The DLC also introduces a new resource to the game—Obsidian—which brings new items to fashion like carved idols and boardgames, alongside the production chains required to make them.

Naturally, building a city in the shadow of a volcano comes with its own hazards. The trailer doesn't explain exactly what these will be, though it shows footage of giant rocks blasting out from the volcano and landing on buildings in the city. A press release from Ubisoft mentions that volcano-based mechanics will include eruptions, volcanic winters and a "bloom phase". I'm guessing the latter two affect the productivity of your agricultural buildings, with the former hindering food production while the latter sends it into overdrive.

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Anno 117: Pax Romana - Prophecies of Ash Announcement Trailer - YouTube

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Finally, Prophecies of Ash lets players construct a temple to Vulcan. This boosts mine productivity and your city's fire safety, which seems like it's going to be particularly important given the environment in which you're building.

Prophecies of Ash launches on April 23. It'll be interesting to see how it affects Anno 117's somewhat muddled reputation. The game has a 'Mixed' rating on Steam, partly due to Ubisoft Mainz' controversial inclusion of AI art in the game (which has since been removed), but also because there's a sense the game was released in an incomplete state, with the third act of the campaign's story having been cut.

None of this stopped Anno 117 having the most successful launch for the series ever. We liked it well enough too, with Phil Iwaniuk awarding it a score of 80 in our Anno 117: Pax Romana Review: "Anno 117 finds a reason for being with its setting and characterisation, giving you new resources and supply chains using a ready-made and polished interface," he wrote back in November. "I’ve been surprised to find that’s exactly the pace to keep me compelled towards this chocolate-box depiction of Rome."

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Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.

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