From the game’s opening, “Anno 117: Pax Romana” immediately immerses the player in its Roman theme. Each time the main menu is booted up, it lights up with fun facts about the Roman Empire, perfect for any Romanophile or just someone wanting to brush up on their Roman trivia.

The game, which releases Nov. 13, delivers a satisfying city-building experience filled to the brim with intricate features. It creates an engaging — though sometimes overwhelming — experience that’ll keep any player interested in strategy games hooked for hours. This review covers up to the end of Act III in the Campaign mode and the beginning of tier three in Sandbox mode.

In “Anno 117,” the player plays as a Roman governor. Although players start building their city on one island, they can expand, creating more cities on different islands throughout the map. The player is incentivized to do this as a way to access more resources since different islands contain different resources.

The game comes with two game modes: Campaign and Sandbox. In Campaign mode, the player chooses between playing as either Marcia or Marcus. The campaign serves as a long tutorial to get the player acquainted with the controls and mechanics of the game.

The campaign’s plot is serviceable: Marcia and Marcus follow similar stories with some differing elements to get the player from point A to point B. This allows the player to clearly progress, but it isn’t the most engaging. For example, when choosing Marcia, there is a mystery introduced in the beginning regarding the absence of her newlywed husband — the player is told that he is sick, but it is obvious that something else is going on.

In another, more plot-focused game, this might serve as a great starting point. For “Anno 117,” however, the player can easily put this detail into the back of their mind as they focus on the main meat of the game.

The plot alternates between teaching the player a key mechanic and making them go on what feel like pointless side quests, such as picking up drapes or putting down decorations near a burial site. While these side quests technically help teach some mechanics, such as putting items onto ships and placing decorations, the way in which they’re integrated makes the player divert their attention from the game’s main draw: the city-building.

The core gameplay of “Anno 117” is beyond fantastic. The city building is intuitive and the natural progression of the game introduces features in a slow and steady manner that doesn’t feel hand-holdy.

Cities start small with a few roads, a woodcutter, a sawmill and a few homes for tier-one peoples. To upgrade homes from tier one to tier two, the player has to meet certain needs of the population, requiring the extraction of raw materials and the production of intermediary and consumer goods.

As the tiers of some people are upgraded, they are able to take different jobs, allowing for the extraction and production of even more materials. As the population of the city increases, players also need to deal with more problems such as fires, illness, riots and more. If a player isn’t careful, these needs and problems can quickly stack up and overwhelm them.

Sandbox mode is the definitive way to experience the game. While it doesn’t guide the player as much as Campaign, it allows the player to build and expand as they please. When starting a new game, the player can choose an avatar and create their own banner. While customization is limited, it’s a nice detail to make the game feel more personal.

The player then has two choices of location, starting in Latium or Albion. Latium is a core part of the Roman Empire and provides the player with a simpler experience, while Albion is the Gaelic part of the Roman Empire and provides some extra features, complicating the game a little more.

When upgrading them to tier two in Albion, the player can choose between remaining fully Gaelic in culture or shifting to be more Romanized. Both options have some unique jobs and unique needs requiring the player to think ahead about what type of city they want to build. This creates a less casual gaming experience in Albion, perfect for any veterans of the city-building genre.

Albion also contains the unique marsh mechanic — more like a gimmick than an actual feature — which is simply just a portion of the island where the player can place marsh buildings to produce certain materials and goods for the Gaelic population.

Sandbox mode also puts the player straight into a game with other governors who can be either NPCs or real people. The player interacts with the other players using the diplomacy screen, which creates dynamic gameplay options.

Diplomacy can lead to blossoming friendships with other governors, or can be used to start wars for the conquest of the other player’s islands. The player could go most of the game without raising an army if they wanted, or could immediately declare war on their weakest neighbor.

Performance-wise, the game runs well with good graphics to complement. Some lagging can arise depending on which computer the player uses, especially when sending a ship to discover new islands or when the weather changes.

Despite the occasional performance issues and mediocre campaign plot, “Anno 117” delivers a definitive city-building experience. The city-building is some of the finest in the genre and can easily engross the player: Anyone who has ever daydreamed of Rome will have their prayers answered with “Anno 117: Pax Romana.”