Anno 117's Pax Romana's Hidden Gem Turns Out to Be a Stunning First-Person Mode.

Wait — did you know gamers have the option to enjoy the game Anno 117 using a first-person camera? If you're thinking that, your surprise matches as I was upon finding out this secret option. Excuse me while briefly leave managing my empire, entrust it to a trusted assistant, commandere a carriage, and enjoy a ride across the Roman world.

Unlocking the First-Person Feature

Being a city-building title, Anno 117: Pax Romana is normally experienced from a bird's-eye view. However, if you press a covert button sequence — including “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” using PC controls or else “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” with a gamepad — you can explore the realm as a regular inhabitant. Because an analogous secret was part of the earlier game Anno 1800, I felt excited to experience it in the latest installment, but I wasn’t sure it would operate prior to being stuck in a Celtic building (likely not meant to happen — this mode tends to be prone to glitches now and then).

Roaming the Ancient Streets

Once I crawled out, I wandered the bustling streets of my city and toured markets, breweries, blossom gardens, and seafood collectors — it felt magnificent to see the fruits of my labor through a fresh lens. I noticed all kinds of details I wouldn’t have spotted from above: Doorway embellishments, a beast of burden holding a blossom container, fowl roaming freely, folks chilling on their balconies… Merely examining the design of a windowsill and the coloration on a post becomes engaging for those not residing in classical times.

Beyond Simple Strolling

Yet, the experience extends to the first-person feature in Anno 117 beyond simply walking the paths. I was especially delighted upon discovering that besides being able to view agricultural plots, but also access them. And although I’d assumed structures would be inaccessible, I could walk onto earthen quarries, investigate a respected schoolhouse during active classes, and even trespass into people’s gardens. Don't bother with door access (not even the creators have the budget for that), however, you can definitely stroll around a barley farm, observe people digging and transporting bags, and glance into any tiny hut provided the entrance is missing.

Visual Quality and Atmosphere

Even though I expected to see my metropolis represented in PlayStation 1 graphics, apart from certain rough movements and periodic inhabitants sitting inside seating rather than on a bench, the immersive perspective seems considerably improved over predictions. The intricately designed surfaces (particularly rock faces) shouldn't logically be this impressive in what is still, essentially, a top-down game. You won't necessarily notice specific hair details, however, you can observe engravings on walls, sparks flying from torches, fading on bricks, pupils, and pine tree leaves. The night, featuring dancing flames and stars shining in the distance, creates a particularly moody setting, and proves significantly less intimidating relative to the previous game, now that the citizens don’t look like sleep paralysis demons anymore.

Experimentation and Customization

Since Anno 117’s super-secret first-person mode doesn’t come with an instruction manual, I decided to experiment a bit, and promptly found the functions for jumping, dashing, and zoom in or out — with the latter allowing me to alternate between immersive and external perspectives and back. I then experimented with certain numeric keys and found I could alter my representative's visual design. Yellow toga? Crimson attire? Sapphire and amethyst dress? Or — maybe superior — complete battle gear? You might hold a weapon and defense, or, my favorite, don a marksman outfit; when you press the action key, you’ll fire burning arrows into the sky. In case you’re wondering, it’s not possible to kill civilians (not that I attempted, naturally).

Humor and Citizen Interactions

However, I had no desire to injure my people, as they're remarkably entertaining. Only seconds after I landed first-person mode, I heard a parent advising their offspring that “You cannot keep a fox as a pet and should you provide another poultry, your grandmother will be furious.” Appropriate response, paternal figure. One lovely local Celt then started applauding my brilliant Romano-Celtic policies by calling it the “Best of both worlds,” meanwhile a grumpy senior female opted to menace me: “Say that one more time, and they’ll never find your body.”

The Thrill of Transportation

Just as I assumed I had found everything available in the title's first-person feature, I encountered the delight of riding across historical settings. Entirely by accident, I clicked on a wagon and quickly occupied the transport. Bovines, equines, even people-powered transports; you can control each one as desired. The donkey-powered transport, notably, is pretty fast, though you shouldn’t imagine open-world vehicular chaos — colliding with pedestrians or other carts is impossible (again, not saying I’ve tried).

Fighting Restrictions

The sole aspect that let me down regarding the first-person view was finding out I couldn’t partake in battle encounters. Wearing my military outfit, I approached opposing forces amidst fighting and attempted to attack them, yet was completely overlooked. The front-row seat remained quite impressive, and observing foes flee, their arms flailing about, felt highly gratifying, but it would’ve been cool to effectively strike targets with my burning arrows.

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