Al and Tim examine Anno 117’s disappointing departure from the series’ strengths, discussing how the Roman setting functions primarily as window dressing while new mechanics like tech trees and religion systems add tedious micromanagement without meaningful gameplay rewards, questioning whether Ubisoft’s design choices justify moving away from Anno 1800’s proven formula.

This episode provides an in-depth critique of Anno 117 through the perspective of longtime series veteran Tim, who has played every Anno instalment since 1602, contrasting the new release against Anno 1800’s established excellence. The discussion examines how the Roman setting fails to provide mechanical differentiation beyond aesthetics, why the heavily marketed diagonal roads feature creates more problems than it solves through unusable triangular spaces, and how additions like tech trees and religion micromanagement distract from the core city-building loop that made previous entries compelling. Tim and Al explore the fundamental design tension between iterating on established formulas versus alienating existing audiences, why land armies conflict with island-based gameplay, and how removing motivation for exploration and trade undermines the series’ traditional progression satisfaction.

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Critical Moves Podcast Episode 57 Show Notes

Episode Title: Anno 117 Review: Disappointment in the Roman Empire
Hosts: Al, Tim
Episode Length: ~51 minutes

Episode Summary

Tim, who has played every Anno game since 1602 and considers Anno 1800 a masterpiece, delivers a comprehensive critique of Anno 117’s fundamental design problems. The episode examines how the Roman setting provides mostly superficial changes rather than meaningful mechanical innovation, why the diagonal roads feature—despite extensive marketing—creates frustrating unusable spaces and UI conflicts, and how new systems like tech trees and religion mechanics add micromanagement burden without proportionate gameplay rewards. The discussion reveals Anno 117’s core problem: removing player motivation for exploration and trade by allowing warehouse-based resource purchasing that eliminates the satisfying progression loop of expanding to new regions for essential resources. Tim explains why the game’s mixed Steam reviews accurately reflect a title that adds complexity in wrong directions while failing to justify moving away from Anno 1800’s proven strengths.

Roman Setting as Window Dressing

Latium vs Albion: Aesthetic Rather Than Mechanical

Anno 117 offers two starting regions—Latium representing Roman civilization and Albion representing Celtic territories. Latium provides larger islands enabling sprawling city construction with structured Roman aesthetics, while Albion features rugged terrain, smaller islands, and more aggressive pirate activity. The aesthetic differences prove substantial, but mechanical differentiation remains minimal beyond starting position and available resources.

Both regions remain accessible regardless of starting choice, making the selection primarily about preferred visual style and early game challenge level rather than fundamentally different gameplay experiences. Latium’s larger islands support greater population density and wealth generation through expanded construction capacity, while Albion’s compact spaces force tighter efficiency optimization. The marsh mechanics replacing river slots and different population needs provide variety without transforming core gameplay loops.

Missing Historical Context for Gameplay Innovation

The Roman Empire’s historical military dominance came through land-based legionary conquest rather than naval supremacy. Anno 117’s island structure fundamentally conflicts with this historical reality, creating disconnect between setting and mechanics. Rome conquered Britain through cross-channel expeditions, controlled Egypt via Mediterranean crossings, and expanded through terrestrial military campaigns—none of which translate naturally to island-hopping city-building gameplay.

The 1800s setting worked perfectly for Anno’s island mechanics because the Royal Navy’s dominance and age of sail made naval power historically central to British imperial success. Transferring this structure to Roman times feels forced, suggesting either the setting was poorly matched to established gameplay or the gameplay should have been redesigned to accommodate Roman military realities. The half-measure approach satisfies neither historical authenticity nor gameplay innovation.

Diagonal Roads: Overhyped and Underdelivered

Marketing Focus on Minimal Feature

Ubisoft heavily marketed diagonal road construction as major Anno 117 innovation despite representing relatively minor gameplay addition. The feature allows 45-degree building orientation rather than restricting construction to cardinal directions, theoretically enabling more organic city layouts beyond rigid grid structures. For a series built on precise spatial optimization and resource management, this seemed potentially transformative.

The irony emerges that Rome—famous for organized grid-pattern city planning and straight military roads—represents the historical setting where diagonal construction matters least. Celtic Albion might justify irregular layouts historically, but the mechanical implementation undermines the feature’s practical utility regardless of setting.

Triangular Space Problem

Buildings remain square or rectangular while roads can now intersect at 45-degree angles, creating inevitable triangular gaps where diagonal and orthogonal roads meet. These spaces cannot accommodate any existing structures, resulting in wasted efficiency that contradicts Anno’s core optimization gameplay. Players face frustrating choice between aesthetic variety through diagonal layouts or maximum efficiency through traditional grids.

Tim describes battling UI problems where building placement toggles unexpectedly between orientations, forcing cancellation and retry cycles when attempting diagonal construction. The feature feels unfinished—diagonal roads exist without complementary triangular buildings or area-based construction systems that would make them functionally viable. Games like Manor Lords demonstrate smooth building adaptation to curved roads, while Anno 117’s implementation feels rigid and incomplete.

Wasted Development Focus

The diagonal roads feature consumed development resources that could have addressed more fundamental gameplay problems. If diagonal construction was sufficiently important to warrant prominent marketing position, it deserved proper implementation including buildings that fill resulting spaces or dynamic area-based construction rather than fixed-size structures. The current state suggests either rushed development or misguided priority allocation.

Tech Trees and Religion: Micromanagement Without Reward

Breaking the “Everything on Map” Philosophy

Anno 1800’s design excellence included keeping all information and interaction visible on the game world rather than abstracting systems into separate menu screens. Players could see resource production, consumption, transportation, and building effects directly on their islands without constantly opening detached interfaces. This maintained immersion and made complex economic systems feel tangible and manageable.

Anno 117 reverses this philosophy by introducing research tech trees and religion systems requiring dedicated menu navigation. Popup notifications interrupt city construction when knowledge points accumulate, forcing players to leave their spatial planning to browse upgrade options. The disruption proves particularly jarring because the interruptions feel mandatory while the upgrades themselves rarely provide exciting improvements.

Insufficient Reward for Complexity

Tech tree upgrades offer incremental percentage bonuses that feel underwhelming given the attention demanded to select them. Players might gain 10% production efficiency or minor cost reductions, but nothing transformative enough to justify the mechanical overhead. Tim describes searching through available research options finding nothing particularly appealing, creating disconnect where the system demands engagement without offering proportionate satisfaction.

Religion mechanics compound this problem by requiring island-specific configuration. Each territory needs individual religious selection based on local production priorities—choosing pantheon bonuses that marginally improve relevant resource chains. The 4,000 population threshold and various minor buffs require constant mental calculation about which religion serves each island’s economic role, creating spreadsheet-level optimization without corresponding gameplay excitement.

Design Philosophy Mismatch

These additions suggest Anno 117 attempted incorporating grand strategy complexity without considering whether such systems serve city-builder core loops. Tech trees work effectively in games like Stellaris or Civilization where abstract strategic progression defines gameplay, but Anno’s appeal centers on visible, spatial problem-solving. The systems feel imported from different genres rather than organically integrated into Anno’s established strengths.

The Fatal Trade Route Problem

Warehouse Purchasing Eliminates Exploration Motivation

Anno 1800’s progression brilliance came from resource scarcity driving expansion. Players would develop their old world region, hit production ceilings where critical resources became unavailable, then necessarily explore and settle the New World to access coffee, cotton, oil, and other goods required for population tier advancement. This created satisfying gameplay loop where exploration had concrete purpose and establishing distant trade routes generated substantial wealth.

Anno 117 breaks this loop by allowing players to configure warehouses to automatically purchase unavailable resources from passing NPC traders. Instead of settling Albion to access resources unavailable in Latium, players simply mark goods for purchase and traders deliver them passively. This removes motivation for territorial expansion, diplomatic negotiation with AI opponents, and establishing protected trade routes—eliminating major gameplay pillars that gave previous Anno titles strategic depth.

Comparing Unsuccessful DLC Patterns

Tim draws parallels to Anno 1800’s “Land of Lions” DLC, which added African continent content that looked beautiful but provided insufficient mechanical reasons to engage with it. If available resources could be obtained through easier alternative methods, players simply ignored the new region despite its visual appeal. Anno 117 makes this mistake foundational rather than DLC-specific, suggesting the development team failed to learn from previous content that underperformed due to weak player incentives.

The passive resource acquisition through warehouse configuration represents ultimate convenience at the cost of eliminating gameplay. Instead of challenging players to expand, defend supply lines, and manage complex inter-regional economies, the system enables single-island hermit builds where everything arrives automatically. This fundamentally misunderstands what makes Anno’s economic simulation engaging—the spatial puzzle of connecting disparate production chains across geographical obstacles.

Land Armies: Wrong Solution to Historical Problem

Loading Troops and Micromanagement Burden

Anno 1800’s naval-only warfare simplified conquest through harbor destruction automatically eliminating entire island infrastructures. This felt abrupt—defeating a single harbor building caused all improvements to vanish simultaneously. Anno 117 attempts realism by requiring players to train land armies, load them onto transport ships, sail to target islands, disembark troops, and assault villas representing territorial control.

The process involves extensive micromanagement spanning multiple systems. Players must construct barracks, train units, build transport vessels, coordinate naval protection during crossing, find suitable landing zones, and conduct ground combat. Each step adds complexity that Anno’s interface and control schemes weren’t designed to accommodate smoothly, creating friction where naval combat previously offered streamlined (if unrealistic) resolution.

Fundamental Incompatibility with Island Mechanics

Land warfare makes historical sense for Roman setting but contradicts Anno’s core island-based geography. The series built its identity around maritime expansion and naval logistics—mechanics that flow naturally from hopping between separated landmasses. Introducing land armies suggests either the setting should have changed to accommodate Roman military realities or the warfare system should have remained naval-focused.

Tim argues developers should have committed fully to either island structure with purely naval conflict or transitioned to landmass-based maps where territorial armies make mechanical sense. The compromise solution serves neither approach effectively, adding complexity without delivering satisfying ground combat or respecting the Roman military tradition the setting supposedly celebrates. The half-measure disappoints fans wanting traditional Anno naval gameplay while failing to provide robust ground warfare mechanics.

Justifying the Roman Theme

The developers faced legitimate challenge: Rome’s military power derived from legions, not fleets. Including only naval combat in a Roman game would feel historically incongruous, while the island structure Anno depends upon doesn’t accommodate land-focused warfare. This represents fundamental design tension where setting and established gameplay mechanics conflict rather than complement each other.

A truly innovative approach might have reimagined Anno’s geographical structure entirely—creating large landmasses with water features rather than archipelagos, enabling organic territorial expansion via ground forces while maintaining some naval logistics. Such dramatic reinvention would have required abandoning proven formulas that might alienate existing fans, representing substantial commercial risk Ubisoft apparently wasn’t willing to take.

Building Placement and Urban Planning Changes

Adjacency Bonuses and Production Integration

Previous Anno games encouraged separating industrial production into dedicated zones away from residential districts, creating clean city layouts with distinct functional areas. Anno 117 reverses this by granting adjacency bonuses when production buildings like bakeries sit near houses, providing income boosts and satisfaction increases that incentivize mixed-use urban planning.

This change forces players to reconsider ingrained building patterns, initially frustrating those accustomed to segregated zoning but potentially creating more organic, historically authentic settlement layouts where workshops integrated directly into residential neighborhoods. Roman and Celtic towns wouldn’t have featured modern industrial district separation, making the adjacency system thematically appropriate even if mechanically disruptive to veteran expectations.

Multiple Specialization Paths

Players can choose between emphasizing different citizen needs—knowledge (research), belief (religion), happiness, or fire safety—through strategic building placement and district design. Each tier advancement offers choices between building types providing different bonuses, enabling divergent city specializations that theoretically increase replayability through variable optimization strategies.

Tim appreciates this addition as one of Anno 117’s genuine improvements, providing meaningful player agency where Anno 1800 felt more railroaded toward predetermined progression paths. The ability to prioritize research infrastructure versus religious structures versus entertainment facilities creates strategic decisions with tangible consequences, even if execution through menu-based systems undermines the spatial satisfaction that should accompany such choices.

Quality of Life Improvements Overshadowed

UI Enhancements That Actually Work

Anno 117 introduces legitimately useful interface improvements that would benefit Anno 1800 if backported. Fire station placement shows existing coverage areas with arrows indicating which buildings will receive protection, enabling precise gap-filling without coverage overlap waste. This extends to most service buildings, making optimal placement immediately visible without mental radius calculation.

Road deletion now offers batch removal—highlighting connected segments for simultaneous destruction rather than tedious one-by-one clicking. Click-and-drag destruction also works for clearing building strips efficiently. When structures burn down, automatic rebuilding occurs after delay unless players manually accelerate reconstruction, reducing post-disaster micromanagement burden.

Upgrade Tool and Missing Hotkey Indicators

Pressing ‘U’ activates upgrade mode for advancing buildings between tiers, but the game provides no tooltip or interface indication explaining this hotkey exists. Players must discover it accidentally or through external resources—a minor oversight symptomatic of Anno 117’s broader polish problems. Basic UI/UX design principles dictate prominently displaying important hotkeys, especially for frequently used functions.

These quality of life additions demonstrate Anno 117’s developers understood some player pain points and implemented thoughtful solutions. The improvements prove insufficient to overcome fundamental gameplay structure problems, but represent aspects worth preserving for future iterations. Tim explicitly states he’d prefer playing Anno 1800 with Anno 117’s interface enhancements rather than Anno 117 itself.

The Iteration Dilemma

Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t

Game developers face impossible tension with established franchises: iterate too conservatively and face “just a reskin” criticism; change too dramatically and alienate existing fans who loved previous formulas. Anno 117 attempted threading this needle by maintaining core city-building loops while adding tech trees, religion, land armies, and diagonal construction—changes substantial enough to differentiate from Anno 1800 but ultimately moving in directions that undermine rather than enhance the experience.

Al expresses sympathy for developers trapped between competing audience demands. Publishers want sequels that justify full-price purchases through visible innovation, while fans want familiar gameplay with refinements rather than risky reinvention. Europa Universalis, Total War, and other long-running series face identical challenges where each new entry must balance recognizable continuity against fresh experiences.

When Vision Fails

Tim argues success requires not just any iteration but correct vision guiding change direction. Anno 1800 succeeded by removing clunky land army mechanics that confused players in earlier entries—a bold cut that streamlined gameplay toward maritime strengths. Anno 117’s additions feel arbitrary rather than purposeful, suggesting developers added complexity for its own sake without playtesting whether these systems actually enhanced fun.

The mixed Steam reviews likely reflect this vision failure. Some players appreciate attempted innovation even if execution falters, while others see poorly integrated features distracting from what made Anno special. Neither group feels entirely satisfied—not because the game changed or stayed similar, but because changes moved in wrong directions without sufficient polish or purposeful design integration.

Art, Risk, and Shareholder Pressure

Al notes video games as art form inherently involves subjective reception—pleasing everyone remains impossible when creative decisions involve genuine artistic vision. However, commercial pressures from shareholders and publishers complicate pure artistic expression, forcing compromises between design integrity and marketability concerns. Anno 117 suggests committee-driven feature addition rather than cohesive creative direction.

The diagonal roads marketing emphasis exemplifies this problem. Rather than emerging organically from design vision, the feature feels like marketing department identification of a “differentiator” that could be promoted regardless of gameplay value. True artistic vision would have either implemented diagonal construction properly with complementary mechanics or recognized it as insufficient foundation for major game selling point.

Al’s Newcomer Perspective

Expectations Versus Reality

As Anno series newcomer, Al expected Roman city-builder combining historical setting with creative urban design freedom. The reality delivered neither satisfying Roman authenticity nor the spatial creativity promised by diagonal road features. The restriction to islands felt disconnected from Roman military history, while building placement proved frustratingly rigid despite geometric flexibility promises.

Al’s approach—grid construction with income-focused housing density—reflects rational optimization response to Anno’s efficiency-driven design, but eliminates aesthetic creativity that drew him to the game initially. When core gameplay incentivizes functional grids over beautiful layouts, and new features like diagonal roads create unusable spaces rather than enabling organic designs, the resulting experience disappoints both strategically and aesthetically.

The Full-Price Purchase Question

Buying Anno 117 shortly after release represents rare departure from Al’s typical patient gaming approach where purchases wait for significant discounts. The combination of Roman setting, city-building genre, and series reputation justified full-price investment. Post-purchase inability to engage sufficiently for the time commitment necessary to master Anno’s complexity creates lingering disappointment over wasted expenditure.

Al’s experience illustrates how Anno 117 fails to hook players who should represent its ideal target audience. Someone passionate about Roman history, experienced with city-builders, and willing to pay premium pricing should have been effortlessly captured. Instead, the game’s lack of immediate appeal combined with awareness of necessary time investment for competency created barrier to continued engagement—a fundamental failure for any city-builder where “one more turn” addiction represents genre core strength.

Mixed Reviews Reflect Accurate Assessment

Why “Mixed” Fits Perfectly

Steam’s mixed review designation appears entirely justified based on Tim and Al’s analysis. The game isn’t catastrophically broken or fundamentally unplayable—it contains functional city-building mechanics, beautiful graphics, and some genuine improvements. However, it also features poorly integrated systems, removal of exploration motivation, combat mechanics that conflict with geographical structure, and overhyped features that disappoint in practice.

Players who prioritize visual aesthetics and don’t deeply engage with optimization might find satisfaction in constructing pretty Roman settlements. Those seeking the tight economic puzzle and expansion satisfaction that defined Anno 1800 will likely share Tim’s disappointment at directionless additions and missing motivational structures. Neither group feels comprehensively served, producing genuinely mixed reception rather than polarized love-or-hate responses.

The Motivation Problem

Tim’s inability to sustain play motivation despite enjoying previous Anno entries identifies Anno 117’s core failure. City-builders depend on compulsive “just one more thing” loops where each accomplishment reveals the next exciting challenge. Anno 1800 delivered this through resource scarcity forcing exploration, trade route establishment generating wealth, and each new region unlocking transformative production capabilities.

Anno 117’s warehouse purchasing removes the necessity driving expansion, while tech tree and religion systems demand attention without providing proportionate excitement. The result feels like work rather than play—ticking boxes because the game demands it rather than pursuing goals because achieving them brings satisfaction. When a city-builder feels like obligation rather than irresistible addiction, something fundamental has broken.

Future DLC Uncertainty

Egypt and Monument Building

Tim anticipates Egypt as next regional DLC addition, likely focusing on monument construction like Coliseums and chariot racing facilities. This fits Anno 117’s apparent design direction emphasizing spectacular building projects, but risks repeating the Land of Lions mistake if Egyptian content lacks compelling mechanical reasons for engagement beyond visual novelty.

Monument building could work effectively if integrated into progression systems—requiring Egyptian resources for tier advancement or providing substantial empire-wide bonuses justifying territorial investment. Without such hooks, beautiful pyramids become screenshot fodder rather than meaningful gameplay objectives. The concern reflects Tim’s broader worry that DLC will add content without addressing fundamental motivational structure problems.

Hoping for Mechanical Reworks

Tim’s primary DLC hope involves mechanical adjustments rather than pure content additions. The trade motivation problem, religion micromanagement burden, and tech tree implementation need redesign to function properly. Whether Ubisoft will undertake such substantial reworking versus simply layering additional regions and buildings atop existing framework remains uncertain.

Post-release patches and DLC typically add content rather than fundamentally restructuring base game systems, suggesting Anno 117’s core problems may persist regardless of expansion releases. This creates difficult position for the development team—acknowledging fundamental design issues requires admitting the base game launched with structural problems, while failing to address them means DLC cannot salvage the experience for disappointed players like Tim.

Contact & Links

Episode Verdict

Anno 117 represents cautionary tale about iteration without vision. The game demonstrates technical competence and contains genuine improvements like adjacency bonuses and UI enhancements, but fundamental design decisions undermine what made Anno 1800 compelling. Removing exploration motivation through passive warehouse purchasing eliminates the satisfying progression loop of territorial expansion for essential resources. Adding tech trees and religion systems creates micromanagement burden without proportionate rewards, violating Anno 1800’s elegant “everything on the map” philosophy. The heavily marketed diagonal roads feature delivers triangular unusable spaces rather than organic urban design possibilities.

The Roman setting functions primarily as aesthetic reskin rather than meaningful mechanical transformation. Land armies conflict with island-based geography, creating tedious multi-step conquest processes incompatible with Anno’s core strengths. For longtime fans like Tim who consider Anno 1800 a masterpiece, Anno 117 disappoints by adding complexity in wrong directions while removing the motivational structures that made economic simulation deeply engaging. The mixed Steam reviews accurately reflect a game that neither catastrophically fails nor successfully evolves the formula—instead existing in frustrating middle ground where flashes of quality cannot overcome structural problems requiring fundamental redesign rather than incremental patching.

Next Episode: Ben Angel on Age of Empires 2 Chronicles: Narrative Design in RTS

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Anno 117: Pax Romana – Why Even Anno Fans Are Disappointed (Ep.57)