Anno 117: Pax Romana's Top Secret Is a Stunning First-Person View.

Hold on — were you aware you can play Anno 117: Pax Romana from a first-person viewpoint? If you're thinking that, you’re just as shocked as my own reaction upon finding out this secret option. Excuse me while step away from managing my empire, entrust it to a reliable subordinate, take a wagon, and go for a joyride across the Roman world.

Unlocking the First-Person Mode

Being a city-building title, Anno 117 Pax Romana is typically played from an overhead perspective. But, should you enter a secret combination — including “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on a keyboard or “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” with a gamepad — you can explore your domain as a common citizen. Given a comparable hidden feature appeared in the previous Anno title, I looked forward to test it in Ubisoft's newest game, though I was uncertain it would operate until I found myself chin-deep in a Celtic floorboard (which probably wasn’t intended — this mode tends to be a little buggy at times).

Exploring the Ancient Streets

Upon freeing myself, I walked the bustling streets across my settlement and visited shops, taverns, blossom gardens, and shellfish gatherers — it was glorious to witness all my hard work using an entirely new viewpoint. I detected all kinds of details I might have missed from above: Entryway ornaments, a beast of burden holding a blossom container, fowl roaming freely, folks chilling on their balconies… Simply noticing the shape of a window sill and the coating on a pillar is quite interesting to modern individuals unfamiliar with ancient life.

Further Than Mere Wandering

But there’s more to the first-person feature in Anno 117 than strolling along the road. I was especially delighted the moment I learned that I could not just observe farming fields, but also step into them. And despite my expectation the building models would be off-limits, I was able to enter mud extraction sites, explore a prestigious Grammaticus building during active classes, and intrude into private gardens. Don't bother with door access (not even the studio planned for that functionality), yet it's completely feasible meander across a cereal plantation, watch folks shoveling and carrying sacks, and glance into any tiny hut as long as the door is absent.

Appearance and Mood

While I was completely ready to observe my settlement depicted in PlayStation 1 graphics, besides some crude animations and sometimes citizens positioned within a bench instead of on a bench, the first-person view appears considerably improved over predictions. The meticulously crafted materials (notably masonry elements) really have no business being this good for a title that remains primarily overhead. You won't necessarily notice separate follicular elements, yet you will notice wall inscriptions, flames emitting from lights, fading on bricks, iris elements, and evergreen foliage. Nighttime, with its flickering fires and distant stellar illumination, creates a particularly moody setting, and also a lot less scary versus the earlier title, especially since the inhabitants no longer resemble terrifying apparitions these days.

Testing and Personalization

Because the game's hidden immersive perspective doesn’t come with an instruction manual, I opted to try different commands, and quickly discovered the functions for jumping, dashing, and changing perspective — with the latter allowing me to alternate between immersive and external perspectives and back. I then experimented with certain numeric keys and discovered that I could change my character’s appearance. Yellow toga? Ruby clothing? Azure and violet outfit? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? You can wield a blade and protection, or, my favorite, don a marksman outfit; when you press the action key, you’ll fire burning arrows into the sky. If you're interested, harming inhabitants is impossible (though I didn't test this, obviously).

Comedy and Population Encounters

However, I had no desire to injure my people, since they're incredibly amusing. Moments after I entered the first-person view, I listened to a dad instructing his kid that “You cannot keep a fox as a pet and should you provide another poultry, your grandmother will be furious.” Understandable stance, father character. A friendly native Celtic person then proceeded to praise my brilliant Romano-Celtic policies by calling it the “Best of both worlds,” while some cranky old lady chose to intimidate me: “Say that one more time, and they’ll never find your body.”

The Fun of Vehicle Use

At the moment I believed I uncovered all possible content within the game's immersive perspective, I found the joys of joyriding in Ancient Rome. Totally unintentionally, I interacted with a cart and quickly occupied the transport. Cattle, asses, even manually drawn vehicles; you may operate any of them freely. The donkey cart, in particular, is pretty fast, though you shouldn’t imagine open-world vehicular chaos — colliding with pedestrians or other carts is impossible (once more, not admitting any attempts).

Battle Constraints

The single feature that frustrated me in Anno 117’s first-person mode was discovering my inability to participate in any fighting. Wearing my military outfit, I charged toward adversaries during active combat and tried to harm them, but was entirely disregarded. The proximate observation remained quite impressive, and watching the enemy run, their limbs waving wildly, seemed enormously rewarding, though it might have been amazing to successfully impact objects with my burning arrows.

{Conclusion: More to Discover|Final Thoughts: Additional Exploration