Wait — did you know you can play Anno 117 Pax Romana from a first-person viewpoint? Should that be your response, you feel equally astonished as my own reaction when I discovered this secret option. Allow me to briefly leave my empire’s management, entrust it to a trusted assistant, take a wagon, and go for a joyride across the Roman world.
Being a city-building title, Anno 117 Pax Romana is normally experienced from an overhead perspective. But, should you press a covert button sequence — including “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” using PC controls alternatively “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on a controller — it becomes possible to roam the realm as a regular inhabitant. Since a similar easter egg was part of the previous Anno title, I was eager to test it in Ubisoft's newest game, but I wasn’t sure it would function before I discovered myself stuck in a Celtic building (possibly an unexpected bug — this option tends to be prone to glitches now and then).
Upon freeing myself, I wandered the lively avenues through my metropolis and explored shops, taverns, flower fields, and cockle pickers — it was glorious to witness my diligent efforts using an entirely new viewpoint. I noticed all kinds of details I wouldn’t have spotted when viewing from overhead: Entryway ornaments, a donkey carrying a flower bucket, fowl roaming freely, citizens lounging on their terraces… Merely examining the form of a ledge and the coloration on a post proves fascinating for those not residing in classical times.
But there’s more to the game's immersive perspective beyond simply walking the paths. I felt particularly pleased upon discovering that not only could I observe crop lands, but also enter them. And although I’d assumed the building models would be off-limits, I managed to access mud extraction sites, tour an esteemed educational structure as teaching was underway, and invade personal courtyards. Don’t try to open any doors (not even the studio allocated resources for that), however, you can definitely stroll around a barley farm, see citizens working with tools and burdens, and look within any modest shelter as long as the door is absent.
Although I was fully prepared to see my metropolis represented with outdated visual quality, apart from certain rough movements and the occasional civilian resting within a bench as opposed to atop a bench, the immersive perspective seems considerably improved over predictions. The intricately designed surfaces (notably masonry elements) are unexpectedly excellent within a game that's fundamentally a city-builder. You might not observe any individual strands of hair, however, you can observe engravings on walls, sparks flying from torches, discoloration of masonry, pupils, and evergreen foliage. The night, featuring dancing flames and stars shining in the distance, is especially atmospheric, and feels much less frightening relative to the previous game, given that the populace appears unlike sleep paralysis demons now.
Given the covert first-person feature doesn’t come with an instruction manual, I chose to test various actions, and promptly found the options to jump, sprint, and zoom in or out — the last option enabling me to switch between first and third-person views and revert. I then experimented with some number buttons 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 may carry a sword and shield, 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 (though I didn't test this, obviously).
However, I had no desire to injure my people, as they're remarkably entertaining. Only seconds after I landed first-person mode, I overheard a father telling his child that “You cannot keep a fox as a pet and if you offer additional fowl, your grandmother will be furious.” Rightly so, Roman dad. A pleasant regional Celt then proceeded to praise my outstanding integration methods by labeling it “Perfect fusion,” whereas an irritable elderly woman opted to menace me: “Utter those words again, and your fate will be sealed.”
At the moment I believed I had found everything available in the title's first-person feature, I found the joys of joyriding in Ancient Rome. Totally unintentionally, I interacted with a cart and was promptly seated on the box. Bovines, equines, even manually drawn vehicles; you may operate any of them freely. The ass-drawn vehicle, specifically, travels rather rapidly, although you shouldn't expect open-world vehicular chaos — you can’t drive into people or other wagons (again, not saying I’ve tried).
The only thing that disappointed me regarding the first-person view was finding out I couldn’t partake in any fighting. Sporting my soldier fit, I charged toward adversaries amidst fighting and tried to harm them, only to be ignored completely. The front-row seat was nonetheless magnificent, and watching the enemy run, their appendages thrashing around, seemed enormously rewarding, but it would’ve been cool to successfully impact objects with my burning arrows.
Elara is a passionate writer and photographer who shares insights on creativity and mindful living through engaging storytelling.
