The quiet release of the Anno 117: Pax Romana demo on Ubisoft’s shores marks the fifth instance in the series where I feel compelled to voice out on the positive team. I feel compelled now more than ever because this mini-preview of the strategic planner promises the chance to voyage across Latium and Albion, and while this is great, I’d also like to remind everyone that the demo will be released on the 2nd and will last until the 16th. It would mark the perfect blend, especially paired with the latest PC roadmap to the game, which focuses on the graphical hardware and mechanics of the game. However, the demo limits you to one hour of gameplay per save file, which is an absolutely stupid trade-off.
Why one hour? One theory that makes sense is to limit the amount of information players are able to put out for the game. According to a player named Jarathael, “perhaps to avoid people from uncovering too much, the game developers wouldn’t want the players to dive too deep into the game.” I understand it is more than enough to grasp the basics of the game by tier 2. But one hour for a city-builder is absurd. It’s like taking one bite of a pizza and promising it to you. Absolutely pathetic.
The issues don’t stop there. People are also reporting other issues. Even well-known Twitch streamer BeelzebubTwich mentioned that even with a high-end i9 14900k and RTX 4090 setup, there appears to be screen tearing or some ‘weird scan waves’ when zooming out. Enabling V-Sync alleviates the issue but locks the fps to 30, which is painfully not smooth. On another note, Jasheon88 states that the demo is blurry and nothing seems crisp. Oof. It’s not the best first impression for a game that is supposed to market PC optimisations.
But wait, there’s still more of that. The Diablo takes up an astounding 90 GB. Emiel_Regis_ said it best with “90 gb download for 1 hour 💀”. That’s way too much space for such a quick download. Additionally, FilipSalamon and some other players did two run-throughs, and while they did find the time limit irritating, the real issue is the needing to race through everything. The timer continues to run even while you take a break. Their preference was no time limit rather than a level limit like Manor Lords.
Regardless of everything, a few other users are still looking forward. For titles like this and Battlefield 6 this fall, Agri_Colas even went ahead and upgraded their CPU and GPU. Agri_Colas, as well as Jarathael, were excited to check out the game, but then there’s KonnardM64009, with the classic “No French = No Game!” comment. A bit harsh to say, but okay.
The outraged expressions of the Xbox community aren’t going unnoticed either. Fred80000252 openly wondered when the demo will be available to Xbox players. Adding to this, Termram stated that they would only take a look if Ubisoft removed the Ubisoft launcher and the microtransactions. To be honest, both of those are very reasonable complaints.
As with everything else, there are questions regarding performance. Jarathael’s question of expecting performance enhancements between demo and full release, a few more frames per second, is a valid question, especially with the aforementioned technical issues users are facing.
In general, the Anno 117: Pax Romana demo is garnering attention, but with the less favorable remarks. All the attention is focused on the constant “one-hour time limit” that overshadows it all which is very distracting from the game. There is also a worry about the “screen tearing and blur” that happens on higher end gaming PCs. At least we get to test out Latium and Albion, and hopefully, that encourages people to buy the game. The demo ends on the 16th of September, so you can try it out; however, be sure to plan your time and disk space accordingly. Clearing 90 GB is a pain. Maybe reevaluate your life. Nonetheless, give it a shot. Do not blame me for the time limit. It is a huge “killjoy.” That said, I need to finish my gaming backlog, which luckily also does not have a time limit.
