Anno 117 Pax Romana's Hidden Gem Is a Impressive First-Person Mode.
Wait — did you know you can play Anno 117 Pax Romana in first-person? If you're thinking that, you feel equally astonished compared to my initial response upon finding out this hidden feature. Allow me to briefly leave overseeing my civilization, leave it in a capable deputy, borrow a cart, and enjoy a ride through Ancient Rome.
Unlocking the First-Person Feature
As a city-building game, Anno 117 Pax Romana is normally experienced from an overhead perspective. However, if you input a hidden code — such as “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 the realm as a regular inhabitant. Since a similar easter egg was part of the previous Anno title, I looked forward to try it out in Ubisoft's newest game, but I wasn’t sure it would function before I discovered myself submerged in a structural glitch (likely not meant to happen — this feature can be a little buggy at times).
Roaming the Streets of Rome
Upon freeing myself, I wandered the bustling streets through my metropolis and toured shops, taverns, blossom gardens, and seafood collectors — it was glorious to see the fruits of my labor through a fresh lens. I observed numerous fine points I might have missed when viewing from overhead: Front door decorations, a beast of burden holding a blossom container, poultry scattering about, folks chilling on their balconies… Simply noticing the design of a windowsill and the coloration on a post proves fascinating for those not residing in classical times.
Further Than Mere Wandering
But there’s more to Anno 117’s first-person mode aside from meandering through streets. I was especially delighted when I found out that not only could I view farming fields, but also step into them. And although I’d assumed interiors would be restricted, I was able to enter earthen quarries, tour an esteemed educational structure during active classes, and invade personal courtyards. Avoid attempting to open doors (not even the developers planned for that functionality), but it’s entirely possible stroll around a barley farm, observe people digging and transporting bags, and take a peek inside any small shack as long as the door is absent.
Visual Quality and Atmosphere
Although I was fully prepared to observe my settlement depicted using primitive rendering, apart from certain rough movements and periodic inhabitants sitting in a bench instead of on a bench, the first-person view appears much better than expected. The highly detailed textures (especially stone surfaces) are unexpectedly excellent within a game that's fundamentally a city-builder. You might not observe any individual strands of hair, yet you will notice wall inscriptions, sparks flying from torches, fading on bricks, eye details, and evergreen foliage. Evening, with glowing light sources and stars shining in the distance, is especially atmospheric, and also a lot less scary versus the earlier title, especially since the inhabitants no longer resemble sleep paralysis demons now.
Testing and Personalization
Given the covert first-person feature has no guided tutorial, I chose to test various actions, and immediately located the functions for jumping, dashing, and zoom in or out — the zoom function permitting me to alternate between immersive and external perspectives and return. I then decided to hit various digit inputs and learned I could modify my representative's visual design. Yellow toga? Red toga? Sapphire and amethyst dress? Or — potentially preferable — armored suit? You may carry a sword and shield, or, personally chosen, equip a shooter's costume; when you press the action key, you shoot flaming projectiles upward. Should you be curious, harming inhabitants is impossible (not that I’ve tried, of course).
Humor and Citizen Interactions
However, I had no desire to injure my people, since they're incredibly amusing. Only seconds after I landed the first-person view, I heard a parent advising their offspring that “Owning a fox is prohibited and if you feed it one more chicken, your grandmother will be furious.” Rightly so, Roman dad. One lovely local Celt then proceeded to praise my outstanding integration methods by labeling it “Perfect fusion,” 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
Just as I assumed I’d discovered all there is to discover in the title's first-person feature, I experienced the pleasure of driving in Ancient Rome. Entirely by accident, I interacted with a cart and immediately found myself in the driver's position. Oxen, donkeys, even people-powered transports; you can drive them all at your leisure. The donkey-powered transport, notably, travels rather rapidly, though you shouldn’t imagine any GTA-like shenanigans — colliding with pedestrians or other carts is impossible (reiterating, without confirming testing).
Battle Constraints
The only thing that disappointed me in Anno 117’s first-person mode was learning about my exclusion from in any fighting. Wearing my military outfit, I approached opposing forces in the midst of battle and tried to harm them, yet was completely overlooked. The proximate observation remained quite impressive, and seeing opponents retreat, their appendages thrashing around, felt highly gratifying, but it would’ve been cool to effectively strike targets using my fiery projectiles.
