Anno 117: Pax Romana – Stunning PC Features Trailer Reveals Next-Gen City Builder

Ubisoft Mainz has a Pc Features Trailer for Anno 117: Pax Romana — and holy hell, it’s quite possibly the prettiest city builder we’ve come across. Running on the completely new Empire Engine, the trailer demonstrates just how alive your Roman empire will be when the game releases.

Your Empire, Truly Alive

The trailer begins with a voiceover from Creative Director Manuel Reinher, inviting players to step back and take it all in — not just the cities they built, but how they actually feel alive.

Every aqueduct, every wheat field, every province has a story of your reign — and now you get to see it in 4K resolution, HDR too, with even ultrawide support.

The Empire Engine

Next-Gen Simulation Power

The stunning tech behind Anno 117 is the brand new Empire Engine from Ubisoft Mainz. Here’s what it has going for it:

• GPU-Driven Grass – Not flat abstract textures — every blade is swaying in the wind.
• Terrain Displacement Mapping – Roads and fields look like they have some tangible height.
• Ray-Traced Lighting – Shadows and light look more realistic in reflections on temples, water, streets.
• Instanced Crowd Simulation – he stock exchange roars, markets bustle and your city lives.
• Global Illumination – Light reflects dynamically off marble villas and wooden huts.

Or, as Reinher put it:

“Every blade sways to the breeze of your empire.”

Dynamic Weather and Day-Night Cycle

It’s not just about graphics — the world responds dynamically.

• Mist meanders the marshes, clouds roll in of their own volition.
• Sunbeams follow a storm as though:) Omens from heaven.
• Rainbows, lightning and changing skies make for consistent variety.
• A day-night cycle the lasts 24 hours will see your empire illuminated by moonlight to dawn breaking on marble rooftops.

Each scene could have been lanced from a cinematic.

Scale and Performance

Among the most compelling details? The game is said to scale across a variety of PCs.

• Runs great on both mid-tier setups and beast tanks.
• Unlocked frame rate for smooth city
• all systems running on real time.

No matter your specs, the Empire Engine is designed to make your empire look good.

Community Reactions

The community is hyped:

"This will be the ultimate Anno game yet! Cannot wait :-)"

“Fantastic game, stunning graphics, superb sound track and great city building with interactions.”

“Very much looking forward to Anno 117. Well done Ubisoft Mainz!”

“When he opened up with ‘GPU simulated grass’ I knew can’t run this.

From the graphics to its soundtrack, fans are already hailing this as the next big leap for the series — and some are already prepared to pre-order that Collector’s Edition or put their PC through its paces with a demo.

Why Anno 117 Could Be the Biggest Anno Yet

Offering next-gen graphics, fully dynamic worlds and huge amounts of real-time gameplay, Anno 117: Pax Romana is set to be the ultimate city builder.

Whether you are hoping to dominate through trade, diplomacy or military force the game has always been offering hundreds of hours of replay.

Ubsisoft Mainz isn’t just creating another Anno game — they are revolutionizing what city-building might be.

Between the Empire Engine, ray tracing, dynamic weather, and variable performance scaling, that’s already incredibly promising for one of 2025’s most exciting strategy games FileUtils: [playable_max]CALLTYPE_falldamage And yet it might be better to play instead.

If you like city builders, or historical sims, put Anno 117: Pax Romana at the absolute top of your wishlist.