Anno 117: Pax Romana - Dawn of the Delta Review Summary

The best expansion yet offers a beautiful map and a fun, innovative flooding mechanic, but broken balancing and diplomacy, an invincible enemy, and missing harbor production hold it back.

DLC praised as best expansion: Many reviewers consider this DLC the best Anno expansion to date, describing it as fantastic, magical, and flawless with immense value and hours of gameplay. It is often compared favorably to Albion and New World.

Beautiful map and environments: Reviewers frequently praise the stunning visuals of the new map, including the delta islands, desert, marsh, and vegetation. The Egyptian setting with its architecture, landscapes, and details looks fantastic.

Flooding mechanic innovative and fun: The new flooding mechanic is widely appreciated for being creative, fun, and well-implemented. It changes city planning and resource management by forcing adaptation of production chains to seasons.

New region impressive and unique: The new region of Aegyptus is described as impressive, unique, and absolutely beautiful. Its layout with elongated islands across the delta is particularly noteworthy.

New mechanics change overall gameplay: The new mechanics, such as flooding and granaries, change the overall gameplay rather than simply adding buildings and production chains. This makes the expansion feel fresh and challenging.

Invincible enemy Kandis von Kashta: Kandis von Kashta is nearly invincible on land even on easy difficulty, destroys troop morale in record time, and spawns masses of enemies. Even an army of about 60 elite troops with all research upgrades was destroyed.

Balancing and diplomacy broken: Balancing is totally broken and diplomacy is broken, with tall and wide building being punished. Developers constantly throw balancing overboard again.

No proper harbor production: There is no harbor area, harbor buildings, or harbor production, and port areas are tiny with no ability to build into the sea or river. Players cannot construct a nice Egyptian-style port.

Technology tree progression bug: Players cannot unlock or advance in the technology tree even when meeting all necessary requirements. The bug is not fixed by starting a new game from scratch and also occurs with previous volcano content and the hippodrome DLC.

Overpriced DLC with little value: The DLC is very expensive, and even season pass holders find it not worth the cost. It was also seen as releasing the rest of the story line as separate DLCs.

Egypt-themed delta region added: The DLC introduces a new Egypt-themed region in the Nile delta, featuring continental elongated islands split into desert, marsh, and vegetation areas. The map has a different orientation with rivers and sand islands.

Flooding mechanic impacts resources: A flooding mechanic creates extra resources during harvest but almost none during flood time, affecting city planning and resource management. The Nile experiences periodic floods that reduce production of coastal buildings and harm health.

Five new population tiers: The DLC adds 5 new population tiers divided into 2 groups, with three tiers being brand new similar to Albion. The expansion supports a bicultural development formula and includes a Graeco-Roman population path.

New military units and enemies: The DLC adds new military units such as Kushite archers and dromedarii, and features a land combat enemy named Kandis von Kashta with naval and land combat. Raiders spawn ships and mixed troops on the map.

New buildings and monuments: The DLC includes monuments, unique buildings, Kumatic houses, public service buildings, warehouses, and watchtowers. It adds new buildings and cosmetics.

Performance issues persist: Multiple clusters report poor optimization, lag, and slowdowns. Cluster 5 specifically mentions crashes every 5 minutes.

Positive performance with DLAA: One cluster notes that the game runs well when DLAA and frame generation are enabled. Another cluster mentions fluent FPS.

DLC degrades graphics: After the Dawn of the Great Delta DLC, players had to lower graphics settings from near-maximum to medium. This suggests the expansion negatively impacts performance.

Audio glitch on interaction: Scratching noises occur when clicking on ships or harbor buildings. This is a specific audio bug reported by a player.

Bug-free experience reported: One cluster states no bugs have been encountered so far. This contrasts with other reports of crashes and glitches.

Worth the money: Multiple reviewers consider the DLC good value, with several calling it worth every buck and worth paying for. The expansion is also described as great and worth replaying for base game fans.

Buy via season pass: Reviewers suggest purchasing the season pass or year pass instead of individual DLC because the bundled price makes it reasonable. One player specifically recommends the season pass over buying separate DLC.

Mixed or negative value: Some reviewers state the DLC is not worth it, including one season pass holder who feels it does not deliver value. These opinions contrast with the positive value assessments.

Recommended for base game fans: The DLC is recommended as worth replaying for players who enjoyed the base game. It is positioned as a solid follow-up for existing fans.

Buy only on sale: A reviewer advises definitely buying this content only when it is discounted. This suggests the full price may not feel justified for some players.

Session length: 6.0h.

Co-op Scenic Region Explorer: Co-op exploration and sightseeing with a focus on environment and new-region content. Motivation: Exploring a beautiful new Egypt-flavored region with friends and consuming extra content. Stance: buy.

Production-Chain Detail Seeker: Base-building and production-chain optimization, comparing new chains against existing ones. Motivation: Deeper economy and more faction-specific production-chain options. Stance: sale.

Balance-Conscious Long-Game Planner: Long-term planning and delayed purchasing until balancing and seasons settle. Motivation: Maintaining a stable, long-lasting campaign without disruptive balance changes. Stance: sale.

Monetization: The reviews focus on the value and pricing of the Dawn of the Delta expansion and the season pass. They debate whether the standalone DLC is worthwhile compared with the bundle, but provide no evidence of real-money gacha, loot boxes, paid power, paid convenience, boosters, or an in-game cash shop. Under the criteria, this is traditional paid DLC pricing and cannot be scored as predatory; the audit score remains low.

Substantial new map content: The DLC adds a large, detailed Egyptian region with NPC towns, riversides, floodplains, and a towering pyramid. Players feel it matches the price and is the most beautiful map in Anno history.

DLC scope exceeds base game: The new region is larger in scope than the base game's Albion region and is compared favorably to Albion and Anno 1800's New World. It also blends elements of Enbesa with Albion.

Egyptian setting praised: The historically accurate Ancient Egypt content and detailed architecture and landscapes remind reviewers of Assassin's Creed Origins and Children of the Nile.

Part of season pass: The DLC is part of the first season of Anno 117 and is sold with a year pass, indicating a seasonal content model.

Update packs substantial content: The accompanying update packs in a large amount of content, enhancing the overall experience.