Anno 117: Pax Romana's Hidden Gem Is a Impressive First-Person View.

Hold on — were you aware it's possible to experience the game Anno 117 in first-person? 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, entrust it to a trusted assistant, borrow a cart, and enjoy a ride through Ancient Rome.

Activating the First-Person Feature

As a city-building game, Anno 117: Pax Romana usually operates using a top-down camera. However, if you enter a secret combination — including “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on keyboard or “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” with a gamepad — it becomes possible to roam your domain as a common citizen. Given a comparable hidden feature was included in the previous Anno title, I felt excited to test it in Ubisoft's newest game, yet I had doubts it would operate until I found myself chin-deep in a Celtic floorboard (likely not meant to happen — this mode can be a little buggy at times).

Discovering the Ancient Streets

Once I crawled out, I strolled the lively avenues through my metropolis and explored markets, breweries, floral patches, and seafood collectors — the experience was splendid to observe my diligent efforts from a brand-new perspective. I detected numerous fine points I wouldn’t have spotted when viewing from overhead: Front door decorations, a beast of burden holding a blossom container, fowl roaming freely, people relaxing on their verandas… Simply noticing the form of a ledge and the paint layers on a column is quite interesting for those not residing in classical times.

Beyond Simple Strolling

But there’s more to the game's immersive perspective aside from meandering through streets. I felt particularly pleased upon discovering that I could not just look upon crop lands, but also step into them. And even though I thought the building models would be off-limits, I could walk onto clay pits, explore a prestigious Grammaticus building during active classes, and even trespass into people’s gardens. Don't bother with door access (not even the developers have the budget for that), however, you can definitely stroll around a barley farm, observe people digging and transporting bags, and take a peek inside any small shack when there's no doorway obstructing.

Appearance and Mood

While I was completely ready to see my metropolis represented using primitive rendering, besides some crude animations and sometimes citizens positioned in a bench rather than on a bench, the immersive perspective seems much better than expected. The meticulously crafted materials (particularly rock faces) are unexpectedly excellent for a title that remains primarily overhead. You may not see any individual strands of hair, yet you will notice wall inscriptions, sparks flying from torches, discoloration of masonry, eye details, and evergreen foliage. Nighttime, with its flickering fires and stars shining in the distance, creates a particularly moody setting, and proves significantly less intimidating versus the earlier title, especially since the inhabitants no longer resemble terrifying apparitions now.

Discovery and Modification

Given the covert first-person feature doesn’t come with an instruction manual, I chose to test various actions, and quickly discovered the functions for jumping, dashing, and zoom in or out — the zoom function permitting me to alternate between immersive and external perspectives and revert. I then decided to hit various digit inputs and found I could alter my avatar's look. Yellow toga? Red toga? Azure and violet outfit? Or — maybe superior — complete battle gear? You can wield a blade and protection, or, my favorite, don a marksman outfit; if you hit the interaction button, you’ll fire burning arrows into the sky. In case you’re wondering, harming inhabitants is impossible (though I didn't test this, obviously).

Humor and Citizen Interactions

However, I had no desire to injure my people, since they're incredibly amusing. Shortly after I activated first-person mode, I heard a parent advising their offspring that “You cannot keep a fox as a pet and if you offer additional fowl, your grandmother will be furious.” Understandable stance, father character. A pleasant regional Celt then began complimenting my brilliant Romano-Celtic policies by calling it the “Best of both worlds,” whereas an irritable elderly woman opted to menace me: “Repeat that statement, and your disappearance will be permanent.”

The Fun of Vehicle Use

At the moment I believed I had found everything available within the game's immersive perspective, I found the joys of joyriding in Ancient Rome. Entirely by accident, I clicked on a wagon and quickly occupied the transport. Cattle, asses, even people-powered transports; you can control each one as desired. The donkey cart, in particular, is pretty fast, though you shouldn’t imagine Grand Theft Auto-style mischief — impacting citizens or additional vehicles cannot occur (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. Sporting my soldier fit, I approached opposing forces in the midst of battle and attempted to attack them, only to be ignored completely. The close-up view was nonetheless magnificent, and seeing opponents retreat, their limbs waving wildly, proved very satisfying, yet it would have been exciting to effectively strike targets using my fiery projectiles.

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