Compare Forza Horizon 5 vs Anno 117: Pax Romana

DLC value is strong, with Rally Adventure and Hot Wheels called excellent, cool, and must-play additions.

Post-launch DLC is a weak point so far: Prophecies of Ash drew mixed-to-negative reactions, and the current lineup was described as unremarkable.

Server reliability receives limited negative evidence because one reviewer initially struggled to connect to Horizon Life.

Losing Ubisoft server access could temporarily remove baseline gameplay content, making connection reliability a meaningful concern.

Cross-save support is weak because the PS5 port cannot transfer existing Xbox or PC saves.

Cross-save exists, but cloud-save behavior and one-file limitations caused frustration for at least one multi-device player.

Cross-play support is praised as a major PS5 advantage for playing with PC and Xbox racers.

Cross-play is a clear strength, letting friends play together across platforms with flexible co-op and competitive options.

Platform-specific feature support is a pleasant PS5 surprise through adaptive triggers and Pro enhancements.

Mouse-and-keyboard support works smoothly where tested, giving console or hybrid players a more precise option for dense strategy controls.

Replay value is very high because the world, expansions, activities, and ongoing discovery continue after the campaign.

Different regions, research paths, sandbox settings, and building strategies create strong replayability, though long-term depth may not match Anno 1800 for everyone.

Value for money is mostly positive through Game Pass and overall quality, but PS5 pricing tempers the score.

The amount of content can make the price feel reasonable, while later pricing and DLC timing may make waiting for a deeper discount more attractive.

Grind level is low-pressure because the game lets players relax and avoid forced activities.

Some repetition fits the slow-building appeal, but long research waits and slow shipments can tip the experience from relaxing into administrative busywork.

Matchmaking quality has limited positive evidence through Forza Link’s event-preference matching.

Online matchmaking is a clear limitation: players are restricted to people already on their friends list rather than being able to find public matches.

Skill-tree depth is criticized because upgrades remain tied to individual cars, making progress feel less broadly useful.

Research is extremely deep, with broad economic, civic, and military branches that force meaningful specialization instead of letting one save unlock everything.

Camera behavior has a weak spot in replay presentation, which one reviewer says remains underwhelming.

Camera quality ranges from very smooth zooming and panning on console to occasional difficulty controlling or taming it in dense scenes.

HUD clarity gets limited positive evidence from trackable pinned Accolades.

Important status information is not always easy to read at a glance, with missing overlays and confusing notifications making diagnosis harder than it should be.

Animation quality is criticized in character scenes, where some characters appear to be missing animation polish.

General animation quality is mixed: some console animation looks smooth, while character presentation can become stiff or awkward in close-up scenes.

Pacing is mixed: one reviewer found the abundance of interruptions scatterbrained, while another thought character-led detours improved the flow.

Campaign pacing is a recurring weakness, with slow stretches, abrupt transitions, and a conclusion that can arrive before the story fully lands.

Sandbox freedom is a major strength, with reviewers emphasizing the ability to do almost anything in any preferred order.

Endless and sandbox modes are where the systems fully open up, letting players tailor difficulty, rivals, regions, and long-term building goals.

Fun factor is unanimous across scored reviews, with reviewers repeatedly calling it glorious, joyful, and genuinely fun.

The game is consistently described as addictive, engrossing, and hard to put down, even by players who also find parts of it frustrating.

Frame rate stability is generally strong, with solid modes noted, though one stress test found dips.

Performance is often smooth, including 60-plus FPS on capable PCs and strong console frame pacing, though dense cities and handheld play can introduce stutter.

Polish is a major strength, with several reviewers calling it flawless, polished, and technically clean.

The game generally feels polished and well built, but launch-era bugs and a few rough presentation elements keep it from being uniformly clean.

World interactivity is strong when destructible scenery reacts to the car, though crowd behavior is criticized as lifeless.

Citizens visibly work, travel, socialize, and react around the city, making close-up observation feel rewarding rather than decorative.

Accessibility is a clear strength, with reviewers highlighting broad options, beginner friendliness, inclusivity, and reduced skill barriers.

Useful settings include key rebinding, UI scaling, subtitles, and font choices, though the lack of a dedicated accessibility menu is a missed opportunity.

AI behavior is mixed to weak, with rubber-banding, hard spikes, and occasional runaway opponents offset by one reviewer noticing improvement.

AI governors can be easy to manipulate in some situations, which helps trade-focused play but may soften the challenge.

Character development gets positive evidence where the campaign gives more attention to the people behind the cars.

The campaign gives its central cast enough personality and growth to make the political story more engaging than a typical city-builder tutorial.

Dialogue quality is tolerable but uneven, described as likeable and sometimes loud or cringe-y.

Dialogue is uneven: the comedic tone can be enjoyable, but delivery and story conversations sometimes feel poorly edited or awkward.

Exploration is a standout strength, with reviewers enjoying the sense of scale, discovery, and simple pleasure of driving around Mexico.

Exploring the provinces is rewarding largely because the islands and cities are so attractive, with Roman and British landscapes giving discovery a strong visual payoff.

Faithfulness to franchise is positive because the game refines the Horizon formula rather than replacing it.

The core Anno identity remains intact while the Roman setting and quality-of-life changes refresh the formula rather than replacing it.

Load times are mixed: one PS5 review complained about frequent loading, while another praised quick next-gen loading.

Loading can be impressively quick on some consoles, while other setups report longer transitions or pauses as cities and regions grow.

Originality is mixed: reviewers see thoughtful evolution, but also note limited novelty and safe iteration.

The Roman era gives familiar Anno systems a fresh identity, especially through cultural choices, ancient infrastructure, and distinct regional play styles.

Visual effects quality is praised for smoke, dust, lighting, and particle effects.

Lighting, weather, day-night changes, and environmental effects strongly reinforce the contrast between sunny Latium and misty Albion.

Narrative quality is mixed: some see the story as thin, while others appreciate a more personal campaign and engaging voice-led missions.

The political campaign is more engaging than expected for a city builder, but its pacing and abrupt or unfinished-feeling conclusion are recurring complaints.

Progression is broadly praised for constant rewards, player choice, and less overwhelming event unlocking, with only minor concerns about excess rewards.

Research and progression are flexible and rewarding, with Discovery Tree choices and less rigid citizen advancement encouraging different builds across playthroughs.

Bug frequency is moderate, with rare issues in one review but repeated dialogue/subtitle oddities in another.

Technical cleanliness varies by platform and version: some players saw almost no issues, while others reported disruptive bugs and even game-breaking problems around launch.

Economy and rewards are mixed: reviewers like constant rewards, but some feel cars and prize-wheel elements can dilute progression.

Trade, production chains, workforce management, and inter-island logistics are among the game’s strongest systems, rewarding planning while still allowing cascading failures when one link breaks.

Tutorial quality is criticized where Event Lab creation lacks guidance, making custom content harder to learn.

Tutorial quality is inconsistent: some players found the campaign helpful, while others complained about skipped steps, missing explanations, and insufficient recovery guidance.

Graphics quality has the strongest consensus, with reviewers repeatedly calling the game stunning, gorgeous, photorealistic, and among the best-looking racers.

Visuals are one of the clearest strengths, with gorgeous cities, excellent lighting, detailed buildings, and impressive scale across both regions.

Difficulty balance is mixed, with good accessibility and adjustable challenge offset by complaints about uneven settings and occasional over-ease or over-hard spikes.

Challenge is highly adjustable, yet newcomers can still hit punishing economic and systems spikes before the broader difficulty curve settles into place.

The learning curve can be approachable with assists but still daunting for new players who engage deeper tuning and systems.

The learning experience is mixed: many find this the most approachable Anno yet, while others still face a steep, punishing wall once systems begin stacking up.

Co-op experience is mostly positive through Horizon Arcade and Tours, though one reviewer found longer co-op events can become a slog.

Sharing cities, resources, research, and workload makes co-op a natural fit for Anno 117’s sprawling management demands.

Innovation is described as evolutionary rather than revolutionary, with meaningful changes but few disruptive new ideas.

Anno 117 evolves rather than reinvents the series, with diagonal roads, land combat, culture choices, and streamlined progression adding meaningful new wrinkles.

Atmosphere is highly praised for sense of place, festival energy, and breathtaking Mexico scenery.

Latium and Albion feel strongly differentiated through weather, lighting, sound, and architecture, creating a calm but vivid historical atmosphere.

Art direction is praised for making Mexico’s culture, music, murals, and ambience feel authentic.

The Roman and Celtic art direction is a standout, pairing strong architecture with richly detailed islands and a distinctive historical look.

Online stability is a concern, with connection problems and disconnect messages appearing in multiple reviews.

Online reliability is inconsistent: cross-progression can work cleanly, but connection or access problems can also prevent multiplayer from working as intended.

Side characters add more car culture, local context, and human texture than prior entries.

Supporting characters help round out the campaign and give political decisions more personality than a purely mechanical tutorial would.

Onboarding is praised for spectacular openings and smooth early introductions, though one reviewer felt the game later floods players with content.

The campaign can provide a strong structured introduction, gradually exposing players to trade, culture, and production before sandbox freedom opens up.

Crash stability is mostly solid on console, though one PC-focused review reports frustrating crashes.

Most experiences are stable, but a few console players encountered outright crashes; stability appears better on many PC configurations.

Facial animations are criticized as awkward and poorly synced in character interactions.

Facial presentation is a notable blemish, with lip-sync and talking-head animation sometimes looking stiff, dubbed, or poorly timed.

The core loop centers on open-world exploration, racing, and rewards; one reviewer loved the structure while another found its always-on excitement less personally compelling.

Building supply chains, balancing citizens, trading across islands, and constantly refining layouts creates an engrossing loop that repeatedly makes hours disappear.

Emotional impact is strong for reviewers who describe awe, adrenaline, and lingering admiration for the world.

The strongest emotional payoff comes from seeing a struggling settlement become a thriving city and feeling that hard-won sense of order, growth, and mastery.

The upgrade system is strongly praised for deep tuning, auto-upgrade convenience, stat changes, and broad customization freedom.

Fast relocation, upgrading, and neighborhood redesign make it painless to correct early layout mistakes as the city evolves.

Reviewers consistently describe the racing play as crisp, satisfying, and strong, with only minor variation by platform or preference.

The layered mix of city-building, logistics, trade, research, diplomacy, religion, and warfare gives the game substantial mechanical depth without abandoning accessibility.

Content variety is one of the strongest attributes, with reviewers repeatedly noting races, activities, modes, challenges, and event types.

Latium and Albion can feel like substantially different games, with distinct needs, resources, cultures, and visual identities that keep repeat play fresh.

Environmental detail is very strong overall, though a few reviewers criticize lifeless cities or NPC behavior.

Cities are packed with small visual touches, lively streets, changing weather, and richly modeled architecture that reward zooming in and watching daily life.

Endgame content receives positive evidence because reviewers say there is still plenty to do after completing the campaign.

The sandbox endgame offers long-term empire building and military expansion that can keep a successful save going well beyond the campaign.

Immersion is strong through tactile feedback, visuals, and presentation that make the racer feel lively.

Bustling citizens, detailed environments, and the ability to observe cities up close make the Roman world feel unusually alive for a strategy game.

Writing quality is mixed, ranging from criticism of juvenile writing to praise for thoughtful, people-focused changes.

Writing quality is mixed: some campaign material is engaging and well written, while the main story can lack weight or a satisfying conclusion.

Voice acting is a weak-to-mixed point, with reviewers criticizing peppy delivery and limited voice options.

Voice work is frequently praised for giving the campaign personality, although repetition and editing issues occasionally weaken delivery.

Control feel receives uniformly high praise for being slick, responsive, and unusually accommodating for arcade and sim-leaning players.

Console controls are workable and sometimes excellent, but radial menus and dense command layouts can feel slower and less precise than mouse and keyboard.

Menu usability is mixed, balancing an intuitive car collection display against bloated menus.

Menus are often clearer than older Anno entries, but dense submenus, radial navigation, and buried information can still create friction.

The protagonist is more appealing than before because the created driver now has more of a voice.

Marcia in particular gives the campaign a more personal hook, with her struggle for authority making the governor role easier to invest in.

Map and navigation design is mixed: many praise the map’s beauty and structure, but others criticize decision support and road diversity.

Road tools, diagonal layouts, island networks, and attractive province maps make expansion easy to read and satisfying to plan.

User interface design is mixed-to-weak because the game can feel overloaded or messy despite useful systems.

The interface can be clean and accessible once learned, but opinions split sharply over confusing tabs, dense screens, and console-oriented navigation.

World-building is praised through Mexico’s culture, accents, and festival identity, even when stylized.

The Roman and Celtic regions are convincingly realized through architecture, culture, weather, politics, and everyday activity, giving the setting real identity.

Sound design is strongly praised for improved car audio, engine detail, and immersive environmental audio.

Ambient city noise, industry, crowds, and environmental effects make settlements feel busy and alive without overwhelming the player.

Multiplayer design is broadly positive, with better grouping, seamless linking, and revamped online modes.

Cooperative and competitive modes add worthwhile variety, and the flexible structure makes shared empire-building especially appealing.

Performance optimization is mixed: some reviewers report flawless ports, while others note mode issues, slowdowns, or hardware-dependent problems.

Most PC and console impressions are positive, with smooth performance on a range of hardware, though very large cities can still trigger slowdowns.

Soundtrack quality is mostly positive, with praise for licensed radio and variety, though one reviewer wanted broader music options.

The orchestral soundtrack is widely praised for supporting long planning sessions and shifting naturally between peaceful building and conflict.

Age appropriateness is positive overall, with little objectionable content, though some all-ages writing feels juvenile.

Naval battles earn especially strong praise, while land battles are simpler; together they add welcome strategic tension without overtaking city-building.

Cultural and political choices add flavor and replayability, though some decisions feel more cosmetic or unclear in their long-term consequences.

Combat is generally satisfying and better integrated than in earlier entries, especially at sea, but it remains deliberately lighter and less tactical than a dedicated RTS.

Community features are a strength, especially Event Lab, shared courses, creation tools, and online creativity.

Competitive balance is a clear concern in later evidence because ranked racing and drifting were removed.

Driving mechanics are one of the strongest consensus points, with reviewers praising handling, realism, speed, and arcade-sim balance.

Family friendliness is supported by very limited objectionable content and a fun-first tone.

Fast travel convenience receives limited but positive evidence through outposts and houses that make map movement easier.

The campaign can feel short in places, but sandbox and repeat play can stretch the overall experience into dozens or hundreds of hours.

Steam Deck-style play has meaningful compromises, including controller issues under Linux/Proton and performance drops in larger cities.

Haptic feedback is positive on PS5, making driving feel more tactile, though not revolutionary.

The wheelspin reward system is described as enjoyable and motivating through its steady stream of prizes.

Microtransaction impact is a negative caveat where in-game car-pass promotions remind one reviewer of MTX-heavy design.

Mission variety is positive overall, though one later review says some races and missions become repetitive over time.

Monetization fairness is questioned on PS5 because pricing is called high for an older game.

Vehicle movement feel is praised because each car feels distinct and satisfying to control.

Active pause is singled out as an excellent quality-of-life improvement, making large-scale management easier without sacrificing control.

Seasonal content quality is mixed: some reviewers like the freshness, while others find storms and seasons underwhelming or wasted.

Social features receive positive evidence through convoys and group driving, especially the ability to roam with many friends.

The vehicle roster is a major strength, with reviewers praising the huge and expanding car list and varied classifications.

The Hall of Fame progression layer drew skepticism when framed as a battle-pass-style system, especially around non-cosmetic unlocks.

Live-service support is praised for years of updates, playlists, new content, and reasons to return.

Mod support is a strong addition, helping extend and customize the experience beyond the base game.

Cloud-save reliability can be frustrating across devices, with one player needing workarounds before a campaign file synced correctly.

Level design earns praise for standout roads and elevation changes that create memorable racing routes.

Mission design is viewed positively because Expeditions and story events use Mexico’s culture, spectacle, and pacing to add purpose beyond standard racing.

Open-world design receives near-universal praise for its massive, varied, gorgeous Mexico map and its ability to support racing, exploration, and events.

Layout and logistics repeatedly turn into satisfying spatial puzzles, as players juggle building effects, production chains, and efficient neighborhood design.

Side quests are serviceable but not a major strength: some add flavor, while others fall back on familiar fetch tasks and are easy to ignore.

City-building is the product’s strongest pillar, combining intuitive placement tools, production puzzles, regional constraints, and satisfying visual growth.