Anno 117's Pax Romana's Best-Kept Secret Reveals Itself as a Impressive First-Person Perspective.

Hold on — were you aware you can play Anno 117 Pax Romana in first-person? If you're thinking that, you feel equally astonished as my own reaction the moment I learned this concealed mode. Excuse me while briefly leave overseeing my civilization, delegate it to a capable deputy, take a wagon, and go for a joyride across the Roman world.

Activating the First-Person Feature

As a city-building game, Anno 117 Pax Romana is typically played from an overhead perspective. Yet, when you input a hidden code — such as “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” using PC controls alternatively “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on console — you can explore the realm as a regular inhabitant. Since a similar easter egg was included in the earlier game Anno 1800, I looked forward to experience it in Ubisoft's newest game, though I was uncertain it would work until I found myself submerged in a structural glitch (possibly an unexpected bug — this mode tends to be prone to glitches now and then).

Roaming the Streets of Rome

After extracting myself, I strolled the busy roads through my metropolis and visited stalls, alehouses, floral patches, and seafood collectors — it was glorious to witness all my hard work using an entirely new viewpoint. I detected numerous fine points that would escape notice when viewing from overhead: 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 becomes engaging to someone who doesn’t live in Ancient Rome.

Beyond Simple Strolling

However, there's additional content to Anno 117’s first-person mode than strolling along the road. I felt particularly pleased upon discovering that not only could I look upon farming fields, but also enter them. And although I’d assumed structures would be inaccessible, I could walk onto mud extraction sites, explore a prestigious Grammaticus building during active classes, and even trespass into people’s gardens. Don't bother with door access (not even the studio planned for that functionality), however, you can definitely wander through a grain field, watch folks shoveling and carrying sacks, and take a peek inside any small shack as long as the door is absent.

Appearance and Mood

While I was completely ready to see my metropolis represented with outdated visual quality, besides some crude animations and sometimes citizens positioned in a bench instead of on a bench, first-person mode looks considerably improved over predictions. The highly detailed textures (notably masonry elements) really have no business being this good for a title that remains primarily overhead. You may not see specific hair details, however, you can observe writings on surfaces, fiery particles from lamps, discoloration of masonry, iris elements, and pine tree leaves. Evening, with glowing light sources and stars shining in the distance, creates a particularly moody setting, and also a lot less scary versus the earlier title, now that the citizens don’t look like nightmarish entities anymore.

Discovery and Modification

Given the covert first-person feature has no guided tutorial, I chose to test various actions, and promptly found the abilities to leap, run, and adjusting the view — with the latter allowing me to alternate between immersive and external perspectives and revert. I subsequently tried pressing various digit inputs and found I could alter my avatar's look. Golden robe? Red toga? Blue and purple toga? Or — potentially preferable — armored suit? You might hold a weapon and defense, or, personally chosen, equip a shooter's costume; if you hit the interaction button, you shoot flaming projectiles upward. If you're interested, eliminating citizens cannot be done (not that I attempted, naturally).

Amusement and Inhabitant Dialogues

But I wouldn’t wish to harm my citizens anyway, since they're incredibly amusing. Only seconds after I landed first-person mode, I overheard a father telling his child that “Owning a fox is prohibited and if you offer additional fowl, your gran will have your head.” Rightly so, Roman dad. A friendly native Celtic person then began complimenting my excellent cross-cultural strategies by describing it as “Ideal combination,” while some cranky old lady opted to menace me: “Say that one more time, and they’ll never find your body.”

The Joy of Joyriding

At the moment I believed I had found everything available in Anno 117: Pax Romana’s first-person mode, I found the joys of joyriding in Ancient Rome. Entirely by accident, I interacted with a cart and quickly occupied the transport. Cattle, asses, even human-pulled carts; you can control each one as desired. The ass-drawn vehicle, specifically, travels rather rapidly, though you shouldn’t imagine Grand Theft Auto-style mischief — you can’t drive into people or other wagons (once more, not admitting any attempts).

Battle Constraints

The only thing that disappointed me in Anno 117’s first-person mode was discovering my inability to participate in battle encounters. Equipped in warrior attire, I ran up to the enemy in the midst of battle and tried to harm them, but was entirely disregarded. The close-up view remained quite impressive, and watching the enemy run, their appendages thrashing around, 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