Anno 117: PAX ROMANA is easily one of my most anticipated games of the year. After pouring hundreds of hours into Anno 1800, the previous in the Ubisoft Mainz franchise, I’ve been waiting for the next island-building, well, adventure. Across three previews, I’ve played about nine hours of the game, and with each demo, I find myself more and more intrigued with what is to come. This was no more true than the very last preview, which focused on Anno 117’s Albion, the region in the game inspired by the Celts.
We had the opportunity to speak with Anno 117’s Creative Director, Manuel Reinher, about Albion’s inspiration, the game’s aim to balance historical fact with city-building narrative fiction, what adding an active pause button means for the game, and the co-op aspect.
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To start the interview, we had to focus on Albion and why the team at Ubisoft Mainz sought to expand the game beyond just Rome, instead exploring the world that developed under the Pax Romana, the Roman Peace, which lasted for 200 years from 27 BCE to 180 CE.
Manuel Reinher explained, “I think it was clear right from the start that we want to surprise people and that we also want to deliver the typical thing that you think about when you think about Rome. It was clear we needed to do something that resembled Italy. But we also wanted to do something different.”
“We did a lot of research: What are the regions? What are the provinces that could be a good fit for us? And then we decided to go for a province inspired by the Celtic world, simply because it’s the biggest contrast [to Rome]. Even for the Romans, it was like an alien place, and we thought this had a lot of energy,” he continued.
Reinher’s explanation continued by highlighting the importance that marshland plays not just in changing up the gameplay, but also in impacting visuals, and highlighting historical realities like Roman citybuilding and terraforming. “[Albion] is a surprise moment because you don’t typically think about a bad rainy area when you think about the Roman Empire, and you also don’t think about marshlands. That’s how we decided on this part,” he said.
He added, “Once we dug deeper into the Celtic provinces of the Roman Empire, we also found out, ‘Oh, the marsh could be a nice gameplay element!’ It not only offers different goods, but also [shows] that the Romans were terraformers, which we found interesting. From a graphical point of view, [we] imagined that this could look absolutely stunning with all the reflections and the mist effects.”
If you haven’t looked into all of the elements coming with Albion, one of the most interesting is the choice that you, as the Roman Governor, have to make. Do you allow the Celtic tradition to prevail on the island? Or, do you choose to change the landscape and create a Romano-Celtic people? It’s the latter of these that Ubisoft Mainz brings across in the building mechanics available to you in the marshlands of Albion. Here, you can drain the marshes as you see fit, using waterways to divert the change in the landscape (akin to the waterways in Enbessa).
“When you look at Rome, it was very industrialized, even back then,” the Creative Director explained about the distinctions between the two regions. “When you look at Albion, it was much more basic, much closer to nature in a lot of aspects, and much more in harmony with nature. This is something we also wanted to convey.”
“You will find a lot of goods, for example, that could be collected in nature. Albion is not about creating those huge farm fields. If you go for the Celtic way, it’s more about being in touch with nature. It’s on a smaller level. The goods that they have there, and that was one area that we find super interesting, he continued.”
Any Anno player understands how the games have showcased historical movements and time periods by the goods available. And that’s no different in Anno 117. He added, “There was a lot of trade in the Roman Empire. And whenever Rome acquired or conquered a new province, the people back in Rome were also super excited about the new goods that would arrive in the empire. And so we have this very weird need for a bird’s tongue in aspic, for example, which is really weird. Once we identified this in our research, we thought [it was] something really cool to portray to see that [in the game]. That’s something that fascinated us!”
While the choice to change the landscape of Albion or keep it natural is central to developing the islands in the region, it brought up one of my favorite scenarios in Anno 1800, “Eden is Burning.” The scenario created by Ubisoft Mainz as part of the Green Game Jam was designed to raise awareness about environmental issues by highlighting the impacts of land development. Given the importance of the natural world to Albion, I had to ask the Creative Director if we could expect any significant environmental impacts from developing the marshlands of the misty islands.
“The Romans really changed the world, while the Celts were more protective of their traditions, and this is a theme that we have in the game. If you decide [to go] the Roman Celtic way, you will be able to terraform, but you will also need this new land because the Romans built huge structures, so they need more space, and they have a higher population. This is also something we wanted to reflect in the game and weave into the game design. So if you want to be successful [as the] Romano-Celtic in Albion, then you need more space to build bigger cities. And therefore, you need to start also changing the environment,” he said.
Reinher added, “If you go into the Celtic or stay in the Celtic path, everything is a bit smaller, a bit more humble, a bit closer to nature. And that’s also something we wanted to reflect in the goods [you produce]. When you think about the deities that you can worship, you will also see that there are a lot of deities in touch with nature or with animals on the Celtic side, while Romano-Celtic is more about, for example, Mercury, who is associated with commerce and trade, and things like that.”
In the same way that you can transfer goods between Latium, the Roman province, and Albion, you can also export religion. Reinher also added that you can also worship Celtic gods back in Latium once they’ve been unlocked. He also shared that “if you go and stay true to [Albion] culture, this will also have an impact and modify the gameplay back in Latium to some extent.”
Albion is going to be just as rewarding as Latium in Anno 117.
Goods, religion, and land are three core things to navigate whether you’re in Latium or in Albion. But for Albion, balancing marshland building against those that can’t be constructed on the docks is a careful balance when you look at the island development. To achieve this, the team carefully balanced the needs of players, the island, and its cultural needs. But Reinher was quick to explain that the team was still working on the final balancing that players would see at launch.
“To give some constraints to the player is a crucial element to create fun, although it’s a challenge for the player.
If you remove all constraints – for example, in Anno 1800, people asked for a creative mode where all the rules are almost gone and we can just build whatever we want – we found out in our data that this was not the most enjoyable mode for the players. They tried it then, but without limitations, there is no play, there is no challenge, and so on. So, with Albion, it was clear right from the start, as it’s the [new] province at the order of the Empire that also should have specific new challenges for you as a player,” he explained.
For players looking for an extra challenge, it’s clear from both the demo and conversations with Manuel Reinher that Albion will be where the challenge takes hold. He continued, “So [it] might be better to start the first session in Latium to learn the ropes and then go to these far places, and this is something we wanted to reflect [in the gameplay].”
“In Albion,” he continued, “You have more space management to do because the building space is limited. What makes it even more challenging is that you have two construction areas: the marsh and the regular construction area. So you’re right, it’s a different challenge.”
“We believe it’s good because at some point you will learn, and you have all your tricks, and you know this is the right pattern that you need to produce to modify some of my attributes. Here are some additional challenges, something we wanted to do, and also be reassured that in the final game, you will have a lot of options to modify it. The game really depends on your needs, on your play style, but also on your experience in Anno.”
With the challenge, Reinher’s team has also added some ease as well with the addition of an active pause button, which allows you to build while time is paused. We asked him about the choice to include it in this iteration of Anno. He answered, “We’ve learned a lot from 1800, and we also know that a lot of people want to have [an active pause button] in Anno. There were a lot of people who were requesting it or wishing for it. So we thought with the new game, we really try to make this happen.”
History continues to inform the Anno series.
One of the things that the Anno team has been known for is having an immediate connection with its players. When players were asking about the inclusion of an active pause button in Anno 1800 updates, the answer was that it just wasn’t possible, given the tick system that the game used. You can read more about that here, in this post on Reddit.
But, as Reinher said, it was something that the team wanted to make happen for Anno 117. “These things, although they sound easy and small, are usually really deep into the engine and the way that the game is structured. We [knew that we] needed to work on [an active pause button] early on and make this decision. The reason for this new feature is to respect the wishes of our fans because we have both super invested [players] and we also have a lot of newcomers.”
He continued, “It’s quite hard to find here the right balance between delivering on the legacy, making the game challenging for our pros. But also on the other hand, making the game [somewhat] more accessible. And for us, it was super important that we do not remove complexity or make the game extremely easy just to make it more accessible for new players.”
“Our approach was, in general, to keep the complexity in some areas. [Anno 117] even deeper than the 1800 systems. You have more choices than in 1800 right from the start of [Anno 117], but we also try to deliver features like the active pause, and choosing your starting province that helps new players get in contact with the game more easily,” the Creative Director ended.
But one question has been on my mind since I saw the response from an Anno 1800 dev on r/Anno: what will co-op be like? For me, I’ve only ever played Anno 1800 co-op. All of our coverage as a site has been via co-op campaigns, and the joy of playing came from being the beauty builder while my husband managed the ships with the combat and trade routes.
Anno 117 will have co-op, and even the developers love playing in that mode.
Explaining how much Anno co-op has meant to me as a player, Reinher responded, “I think I also prefer Anno in co-op personally. It reminds me a bit of when you see small kids playing together in the sandbox. [Anno Co-Op] is a good way to spend time.”
He added, “I think also that the slow pace of Anno is also really helpful to create a stress-free environment. Not saying that Anno is stressless because there’s also drama and challenges, of course. But it’s fulfilling a different need with our co-op.”
“You can simply have a good time, there’s a lot of room to chat, and you see something growing together. You build something together, and I think these are different values that we offer in our game, and I think it’s people just having a good time. I think even if you play together with someone and you’re not actively the guy who’s playing or building something, but just watching your partner doing something, it’s really something beautiful.”
While Manuel Reinher didn’t add anything specific about Anno 117 co-op, the joy he expressed about playing Anno with others is one of the first times I’ve had that kind og exchange. Most of the time, folks are surprised that I don’t play it alone. And that kind of joy is something I can’t wait to see in whatever we get from Anno 117 co-op.
To conclude our conversation, we delved a little deeper into allowing players to play in their preferred way. We had talked about Anno 117 co-op briefly and the active pause button, but the other element that goes into letting players choose their path is making sure that both Latium and Albion feel rewarding.
Striking that balance between the two is key, so we asked Manuel Reinher about it. “Every path needs to have its own identity and also its own benefits,” he started. “For example, one of the paths you are better at doing science, while the other path is better if you are more into religion and want to push those boundaries further.”
Whether you choose Latium or Albion, you’ll be able to experience everything in one playthrough.
But religion and science aren’t the only unique elements, he continued, “Another thing is that we also made sure that we connected with the discovery tree. Depending on how deep you go into a certain direction, you will also unlock new discoveries that you can use that are more powerful than if you just work on a balanced empire.”
Still, differences aren’t all about keeping the cultures separate. As we saw int he demos, the briding of cultures through the trading of products and the embrace of different island focuses can also mean that the two can work together.
Reinher elaborated, “There will also be possibilities to mix and to do both directions, even in one play session, because it’s also important that we, in general, have an approach where we don’t exclude you from certain parts of the game. If you are really invested in the whole Anno experience, it should be possible for you in this game. We know that a lot of our fans play for a very, very long time in a one-save environment, and that’s why we also didn’t change the game to be for more play run-throughs. We really want to keep one world, one creation that you can build on, attach to for a very long time.”
It’s clear that replayability holds significant importance for the Creative Director, and it has always done so. With the promise of being the largest Anno yet, every conversation we have with the developers showcases their approach to gameplay and history that stands out.
