Compare Anno 117: Pax Romana vs The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered

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

Some users report imbalanced sound effects or music masking dialogue, with occasional fixes possible through a reload or volume adjustment.

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.

Detailed side quests and consequential decisions are still highlights, although a few longtime gaps and notorious quest bugs remain untouched.

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

Quest filters, improved tracking and alternate control inputs help players navigate a very large adventure more comfortably.

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

A reorganized HUD and cleaner menus reduce the friction of managing equipment, abilities and everyday interactions.

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

Its living settlements, richly imagined regions and strong narrative continuity make the Continent a compelling place to return to.

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.

Including Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine without an added charge offers two substantial, highly regarded campaigns and markedly strengthens the package.

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

Cross-platform progress transfers are especially useful for players alternating between portable hardware and home systems, with Xbox Play Anywhere simplifying compatible switching.

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

Switch 2 touchscreen, motion, gyro and mouse options give the portable release unusual flexibility; Xbox Play Anywhere is another appreciated platform convenience.

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.

A free remaster for eligible owners and the inclusion of two substantial story expansions make this a particularly generous update.

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

Console mod access is a welcome addition with an easy-to-use menu, but its launch catalog is modest and activating mods can disable trophies.

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

Improved presentation and new mechanical options give veteran players a reason to begin another long playthrough ahead of future story content.

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

Switch 2 earns particular praise for its leap in portable picture quality and smoothness, while some Windows handheld users encounter severe stuttering and missing textures.

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

The brighter, regraded environments look impressive to many players, but some miss the original’s darker nights, fog and saturated color palette.

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

The distinctive banter and character conversations remain engaging, even as occasional audio-level issues make some lines harder to hear.

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

A reported hard crash and a handful of technical interruptions show that the launch build is not uniformly stable.

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

There are meaningful mechanical and visual upgrades, but this is a preservation-minded remaster rather than a new game or radical reinvention.

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

Intricate quests, sharp exchanges and emotionally grounded characters keep the decade-old writing relevant despite technical changes elsewhere.

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

Quality-of-life refinements make daily play less finicky, but retained animation issues, texture artifacts and occasional audio faults keep it from feeling spotless.

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.

The remaster still has visible glitches ranging from odd character animations to texture and lighting problems. Some playthroughs encounter little disruption; others report considerably rougher results.

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

The already expansive story and two large included expansions offer considerable playtime without making its strongest quests feel like filler.

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

Geralt’s long-form story, striking side plots and convincing relationships remain central attractions even years after the original release.

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

Enemies dodge and coordinate attacks more convincingly, encouraging more varied use of swords, Signs and equipment rather than repeated attacks.

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

The update refreshes presentation and controls without stripping away the game’s established character or intricate RPG identity. Some of its familiar flaws consequently remain.

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

Memorable supporting characters and realistic conversations enrich Geralt’s relationships and make optional storylines worth following.

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.

Results vary sharply by device and visual settings: some console and PC configurations run smoothly, while high-end path tracing and certain handheld setups suffer distracting stutters.

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

More detailed characters help conversations feel fresher, but some facial animation and interaction work still shows the original game’s age.

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

Better movement control makes interacting with scenery less fiddly, although it does not rewrite the underlying world systems.

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

Its substantial mix of stories, exploration, contracts and progression gives players multiple compelling reasons to stay in the world.

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

The redesigned branches offer earlier access to interesting combinations and make different schools and builds easier to develop, though the limited active slots remain.

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

Path tracing, ray reconstruction and improved spell effects create vivid lighting and combat flourishes, but a few reflections and darker scenes look worse to some players.

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

Quests continue to deliver memorable moral dilemmas and unexpected consequences, reinforcing the game’s reputation for meaningful player decisions.

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.

The richly realized landscapes and rewarding detours make it easy to lose time exploring, especially with more comfortable movement and traversal.

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

Richer lighting and small environmental touches help draw players back into the world, while the familiar story remains compelling.

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

The included content, modernized controls and standalone story make this an inviting starting point for first-time players.

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

Smoother movement transitions and new finishers make action more fluid, though some players still encounter awkward or looping enemy animations.

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

The refreshed lighting can make the Continent feel more enveloping, although visual changes alter some of its older, grittier mood.

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

Returning players often find the smoother action and renewed presentation enough to make familiar activities enjoyable again.

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

Rebuilt lighting, textures and scenery often look spectacular, especially on capable PCs and newer consoles. A vocal minority prefers aspects of the earlier release, and some portable or docked imagery remains rough.

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.

Swordplay, enemy behavior and contextual finishers feel more responsive and exciting. However, the basic fighting model is still recognizably the same, and longstanding targeting complaints remain.

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

The adaptive combat camera earns praise for moving closer to isolated enemies and pulling back in groups, making fights easier to follow and more cinematic.

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

The separate digital Switch 2 build can benefit from faster reads than the original cartridge-based release.

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

Denser foliage, sharper textures and improved draw distance revive familiar landscapes, although specific surfaces or docked-platform imagery can still look uneven.

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

Restructured abilities make impactful builds accessible earlier and clarify relationships between perks, though some restrictions and respec considerations remain.

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

Optional toggles can remove equipment durability, item-weight limits and other sources of mechanical friction, making the RPG more approachable. Some players prefer to keep the traditional constraints.

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

The technical workload depends heavily on hardware and graphics mode: some rigs handle the upgrade exceptionally well, but full path tracing can punish even powerful GPUs.

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

The original musical identity and atmospheric ballads retain much of their appeal within the upgraded presentation.

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

Movement and input generally feel less sluggish, but the revised modern combat scheme suits controllers better than mouse and keyboard for some players.

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

Strong returning performances give Geralt and the broader cast personality, helping the storytelling hold up long after the original release.

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

Compact tabs and faster menu navigation simplify builds and inventory management compared with the older interface.

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

Geralt’s dry humor and recognizable personality remain a major part of the adventure’s lasting appeal.

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

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

Character performances are memorable, but repeated civilian models can make some villagers feel visually interchangeable.

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

The remaster bundles the main adventure with both established story expansions, creating an unusually substantial all-in-one package.

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

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

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.

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

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

Some players distrust the new visual treatment and speculate about heavy AI involvement; these are unverified concerns, not an established production fact.

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

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.

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.

Multi-corpse pickup and improved inventory handling remove tedious steps from routine looting.

The game stands on its own for newcomers while retaining numerous references that reward familiarity with earlier games and books.

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

The free modernization and inclusion of two substantial story expansions are praised as an unusually generous alternative to expensive post-launch extras.

Geralt and Roach are markedly more responsive, making turns, stops and races less frustrating, although some floatiness and horse quirks persist.

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

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

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

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

Expanded framing, character posing, weather and filter controls turn the upgraded scenery into a stronger screenshot playground, with some limits on NPC placement.

Existing physical owners can access the digital remaster, but Switch 2’s separate large download and the absence of a dedicated launch cartridge are sticking points for some.

The remaster meaningfully refreshes an established RPG through graphics, controls and interface updates. It retains the familiar core, which delights returning fans but may not convert those who previously disliked it.

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

Stream-linked cosmetic rewards are straightforward to claim after linking the required accounts.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Transmog finally lets players pair their preferred armor and weapon appearances with strong gear stats. Its later unlock and initially confusing requirements frustrate some.

Owners who appreciate the original boxed copy and included extras welcome the ability to keep those while accessing the newer digital version.

A few commenters regard the upgrade’s launch presentation as misleading given the technical problems they encountered; this remains a contested player perception.

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

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

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