Anno 117's Pax Romana's Top Secret Turns Out to Be a Breathtaking First-Person View.

Wait — did you know gamers have the option to enjoy Anno 117: Pax Romana using a first-person camera? If you're thinking that, you feel equally astonished as my own reaction upon finding out this secret option. Allow me to briefly leave managing my empire, delegate it to a capable deputy, borrow a cart, and take a spin across the Roman world.

Activating the First-Person View

As a city-building game, Anno 117: Pax Romana usually operates from a bird's-eye view. But, should you input a hidden code — including “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 empire as an ordinary Roman. Since a similar easter egg appeared in the earlier game Anno 1800, I felt excited to test it in Ubisoft's newest game, though I was uncertain it would operate prior to being stuck in a Celtic building (likely not meant to happen — this option is somewhat unstable occasionally).

Exploring the Roman Cityscape

Upon freeing myself, I wandered the bustling streets across my settlement and toured shops, taverns, floral patches, and shellfish gatherers — it felt magnificent to observe the fruits of my labor using an entirely new viewpoint. I noticed all kinds of details that would escape notice when viewing from overhead: Doorway embellishments, a donkey carrying a flower bucket, chickens running loose, people relaxing on their verandas… Even just observing the form of a ledge and the paint layers on a column proves fascinating for those not residing in classical times.

More Than Just Walking

But there’s more to Anno 117’s first-person mode than strolling along the road. I felt particularly pleased the moment I learned that not only could I view farming fields, but also enter them. And despite my expectation structures would be inaccessible, I could walk onto earthen quarries, explore a prestigious Grammaticus building as teaching was underway, and invade personal courtyards. Don’t try to open any doors (not even the developers allocated resources for that), however, you can definitely meander across a cereal plantation, observe people digging and transporting bags, and take a peek inside any small shack when there's no doorway obstructing.

Appearance and Mood

Although I was fully prepared to observe my settlement depicted in PlayStation 1 graphics, besides some crude animations and sometimes citizens positioned inside seating instead of on a bench, the immersive perspective seems much better than expected. The meticulously crafted materials (especially stone surfaces) shouldn't logically be this impressive for a title that remains primarily overhead. You may not see separate follicular elements, however, you can observe engravings on walls, sparks flying from torches, brick decoloration, eye details, and conifer needles. Nighttime, with its flickering fires and celestial bodies twinkling afar, generates a uniquely immersive environment, and feels much less frightening relative to the previous game, 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 decided to experiment a bit, and promptly found the functions for jumping, dashing, and changing perspective — the last option enabling me to switch between first and third-person views and back. I subsequently tried pressing certain numeric keys and discovered that I could change my character’s appearance. Yellow toga? Crimson attire? Blue and purple toga? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? You might hold a weapon and defense, or, my favorite, don a marksman outfit; if you hit the interaction button, you launch incendiary bolts heavenward. Should you be curious, harming inhabitants is impossible (not that I attempted, naturally).

Comedy and Population Encounters

However, I had no desire to injure my people, as they're remarkably entertaining. Only seconds after I landed the immersive perspective, 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.” Rightly so, Roman dad. One lovely local Celt then began complimenting my excellent cross-cultural strategies by calling it the “Best of both worlds,” while some cranky old lady opted to menace me: “Say that one more time, and they’ll never find your body.”

The Fun of Vehicle Use

Just when I thought I had found everything available in the title's first-person feature, I found the joys of joyriding across historical settings. Entirely by accident, I interacted with a cart and quickly occupied the transport. Cattle, asses, even people-powered transports; you can control each one as desired. The donkey cart, in particular, travels rather rapidly, 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 only thing that disappointed me regarding the first-person view was learning about my exclusion from in combat situations. Equipped in warrior attire, I charged toward adversaries in the midst of battle and tried to harm them, only to be ignored completely. The proximate observation was still rather spectacular, and observing foes flee, their arms flailing about, proved very satisfying, though it might have been amazing to successfully impact objects with my burning arrows.

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