Anno 117 Pax Romana's Hidden Gem Reveals Itself as a Impressive First-Person View.

Surprisingly — did you realize it's possible to experience Anno 117 Pax Romana using a first-person camera? If that’s your reaction, you feel equally astonished as my own reaction upon finding out this secret option. Allow me to briefly leave overseeing my civilization, delegate it to a trusted assistant, borrow a cart, and take a spin around the classical city.

Activating the First-Person Mode

As a city-building game, Anno 117: Pax Romana is typically played using a top-down camera. But, should you enter a secret combination — for example “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on keyboard or else “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 was included in Anno 1800, I looked forward to test it in Ubisoft's newest game, but I wasn’t sure it would function until I found myself chin-deep in a Celtic floorboard (likely not meant to happen — this mode can be somewhat unstable occasionally).

Discovering the Streets of Rome

Once I crawled out, I strolled the lively avenues across my settlement and explored shops, taverns, floral patches, and cockle pickers — the experience was splendid to see the fruits of my labor through a fresh lens. I noticed a variety of intricacies that would escape notice when viewing from overhead: Doorway embellishments, a donkey carrying a flower bucket, poultry scattering about, people relaxing on their verandas… Merely examining the design of a windowsill and the paint layers on a column proves fascinating to someone who doesn’t live in Ancient Rome.

More Than Just Walking

Yet, the experience extends to the game's immersive perspective aside from meandering through streets. I felt particularly pleased upon discovering that I could not just look upon agricultural plots, but also enter them. And although I’d assumed interiors would be restricted, I was able to enter earthen quarries, tour an esteemed educational structure as teaching was underway, and intrude into private gardens. Don’t try to open any doors (not even the studio planned for that functionality), but it’s entirely possible wander through a grain field, 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 witness my city rendered using primitive rendering, apart from certain rough movements and periodic inhabitants sitting inside seating as opposed to atop a bench, first-person mode looks considerably improved over predictions. The meticulously crafted materials (especially stone surfaces) shouldn't logically be this impressive within a game that's fundamentally a city-builder. You won't necessarily notice any individual strands of hair, however, you can observe writings on surfaces, flames emitting from lights, brick decoloration, eye details, and evergreen foliage. The night, featuring dancing flames and celestial bodies twinkling afar, generates a uniquely immersive environment, and proves significantly less intimidating versus the earlier title, now that the citizens don’t look like terrifying apparitions anymore.

Experimentation and Customization

Because the game's hidden immersive perspective lacks official documentation, I decided to experiment a bit, and quickly discovered the functions for jumping, dashing, and changing perspective — the last option enabling me to switch between first and third-person views and return. I subsequently tried pressing some number buttons and found I could alter my representative's visual design. Amber garment? Ruby clothing? Blue and purple toga? Or — potentially preferable — armored suit? You may carry a sword and shield, or, preferably, wear an archer's uniform; if you hit the interaction button, you’ll fire burning arrows into the sky. In case you’re wondering, eliminating citizens cannot be done (not that I attempted, naturally).

Humor and Citizen Interactions

Yet, I didn't want to damage my population, as they're remarkably entertaining. Shortly after I activated 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 gran will have your head.” Understandable stance, father character. One lovely local Celt then began complimenting my brilliant Romano-Celtic policies by labeling it “Perfect fusion,” while some cranky old lady decided to threaten me: “Say that one more time, and they’ll never find your body.”

The Joy of Joyriding

Just as I assumed I’d discovered all there is to discover in the title's first-person feature, I found the joys of joyriding in Ancient Rome. Totally unintentionally, I interacted with a cart and immediately found myself in the driver's position. Cattle, asses, even manually drawn vehicles; you can control each one as desired. The donkey-powered transport, notably, is pretty fast, but don't anticipate open-world vehicular chaos — you can’t drive into people or other wagons (reiterating, without confirming testing).

Combat Limitations

The only thing that disappointed me regarding the first-person view was learning about my exclusion from in any fighting. Sporting my soldier fit, I charged toward adversaries amidst fighting and tried to harm them, yet was completely overlooked. The proximate observation remained quite impressive, and watching the enemy run, their arms flailing about, felt highly gratifying, yet it would have been exciting to successfully impact objects via my incendiary bolts.

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