🔗 Share this article

Wait — did you know you can play Anno 117: Pax Romana in first-person? If you're thinking that, you feel equally astonished as my own reaction upon finding out this secret option. I must briefly leave managing my empire, leave it in a trusted assistant, take a wagon, and go for a joyride around the classical city.

How to Access the First-Person Mode

Being a city-building title, Anno 117: Pax Romana is typically played using a top-down camera. However, if you input a hidden code — including “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on keyboard or “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on console — it becomes possible to roam the realm as a regular inhabitant. Since a similar easter egg appeared in the earlier game Anno 1800, I felt excited to test it in Ubisoft's newest game, but I wasn’t sure it would function until I found myself stuck in a Celtic building (possibly an unexpected bug — this option can be prone to glitches now and then).

Exploring the Ancient Streets

Upon freeing myself, I walked the busy roads of my city and toured markets, breweries, blossom gardens, and shellfish gatherers — it felt magnificent to observe all my hard work through a fresh lens. I observed numerous fine points that would escape notice from above: Doorway embellishments, a beast of burden holding a blossom container, poultry scattering about, people relaxing on their verandas… Merely examining the shape of a window sill and the coloration on a post is quite interesting to modern individuals unfamiliar with ancient life.

Beyond Simple Strolling

However, there's additional content to the first-person feature in Anno 117 aside from meandering through streets. I was especially delighted upon discovering that I could not just observe agricultural plots, but also enter them. And even though I thought interiors would be restricted, I could walk onto clay pits, tour an esteemed educational structure while lessons were in session, and intrude into private gardens. Don’t try to open any doors (not even the developers allocated resources for that), however, you can definitely wander through a grain field, watch folks shoveling and carrying sacks, and look within any modest shelter as long as the door is absent.

Graphics and Ambiance

Although I was fully prepared to observe my settlement depicted using primitive rendering, besides some crude animations and the occasional civilian resting within a bench as opposed to atop a bench, the first-person view appears considerably improved over predictions. The highly detailed textures (particularly rock faces) really have no business being this good for a title that remains primarily overhead. You won't necessarily notice any individual strands of hair, yet you will notice engravings on walls, fiery particles from lamps, discoloration of masonry, iris elements, and pine tree leaves. The night, featuring dancing flames and celestial bodies twinkling afar, is especially atmospheric, and proves significantly less intimidating relative to the previous game, especially since the inhabitants no longer resemble sleep paralysis demons these days.

Experimentation and Customization

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 last option enabling me to alternate between immersive and external perspectives and revert. I subsequently tried pressing some number buttons and learned I could modify my avatar's look. Golden robe? Red toga? Sapphire and amethyst dress? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? You might hold a weapon and defense, or, preferably, wear an archer's uniform; if you activate the engage command, you launch incendiary bolts heavenward. In case you’re wondering, harming inhabitants is impossible (not that I attempted, naturally).

Comedy and Population Encounters

Yet, I didn't want to damage my population, because they’re way too funny. Moments after I entered the immersive perspective, I overheard a father telling his child that he “Can’t have a pet fox and if you offer additional fowl, your gran will have your head.” Rightly so, Roman dad. One lovely local Celt then proceeded to praise my brilliant Romano-Celtic policies by describing it as “Ideal combination,” while some cranky old lady opted to menace me: “Repeat that statement, and your disappearance will be permanent.”

The Thrill of Transportation

At the moment I believed I uncovered all possible content within the game's immersive perspective, I encountered the delight of riding in Ancient Rome. Totally unintentionally, I interacted with a cart and was promptly seated on the box. Oxen, donkeys, even people-powered transports; you can control each one as desired. The ass-drawn vehicle, specifically, travels rather rapidly, but don't anticipate Grand Theft Auto-style mischief — impacting citizens or additional vehicles cannot occur (again, not saying I’ve tried).

Fighting Restrictions

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 attempted to attack them, but was entirely disregarded. The close-up view was still rather spectacular, and watching the enemy run, their appendages thrashing around, proved very satisfying, yet it would have been exciting to successfully impact objects via my incendiary bolts.

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