Anno 117: Pax Romana's Best-Kept Secret Turns Out to Be a Impressive First-Person Perspective.

Hold on — were you aware you can play Anno 117 Pax Romana from a first-person viewpoint? If that’s your reaction, you feel equally astonished compared to my initial response upon finding out this secret option. I must step away from my empire’s management, leave it in a capable deputy, borrow a cart, and take a spin through Ancient Rome.

How to Access the First-Person Mode

In its role as a city-builder, Anno 117: Pax Romana is normally experienced using a top-down camera. Yet, when you press a covert button sequence — for example “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” using PC controls or else “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on console — you gain the ability to walk the realm as a regular inhabitant. Given a comparable hidden feature was part of the previous Anno title, I felt excited to test it in the latest installment, yet I had doubts it would operate before I discovered myself submerged in a structural glitch (possibly an unexpected bug — this mode is prone to glitches now and then).

Discovering the Ancient Streets

After extracting myself, I walked the busy roads of my city and visited shops, taverns, floral patches, and cockle pickers — it felt magnificent to witness all my hard work through a fresh lens. I detected all kinds of details that would escape notice from above: Front door decorations, a donkey carrying a flower bucket, poultry scattering about, citizens lounging on their terraces… Merely examining the form of a ledge and the paint layers on a column proves fascinating to someone who doesn’t live in Ancient Rome.

Beyond Simple Strolling

But there’s more to Anno 117’s first-person mode beyond simply walking the paths. I was especially delighted upon discovering that not only could I view crop lands, but also enter them. And even though I thought the building models would be off-limits, I was able to enter mud extraction sites, investigate a respected schoolhouse while lessons were in session, and intrude into private gardens. Don’t try to open any doors (not even the developers have the budget for that), but it’s entirely possible 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.

Graphics and Ambiance

While I was completely ready to see my metropolis represented with outdated visual quality, besides some crude animations and periodic inhabitants sitting inside seating rather than on a bench, the first-person view appears far superior to anticipations. The highly detailed textures (especially stone surfaces) are unexpectedly excellent within a game that's fundamentally a city-builder. You may not see specific hair details, yet you will notice engravings on walls, sparks flying from torches, discoloration of masonry, eye details, and conifer needles. Nighttime, with its flickering fires and celestial bodies twinkling afar, is especially atmospheric, and proves significantly less intimidating relative to the previous game, given that the populace appears unlike terrifying apparitions anymore.

Discovery and Modification

Since Anno 117’s super-secret first-person mode lacks official documentation, I decided to experiment a bit, and promptly found the functions for jumping, dashing, and adjusting the view — with the latter allowing me to switch between first and third-person views and revert. I then decided to hit certain numeric keys and discovered that I could change my representative's visual design. Golden robe? Crimson attire? Azure and violet outfit? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? You can wield a blade and protection, or, preferably, wear an archer's uniform; when you press the action key, you shoot flaming projectiles upward. If you're interested, eliminating citizens cannot be done (not that I attempted, naturally).

Humor and Citizen Interactions

However, I had no desire to injure my people, because they’re way too funny. Only seconds after I landed first-person mode, I listened to a dad instructing his kid that “Owning a fox is prohibited and should you provide another poultry, your grandmother will be furious.” Appropriate response, paternal figure. A friendly native Celtic person then started applauding my excellent cross-cultural strategies by calling it the “Best of both worlds,” whereas an irritable elderly woman chose to intimidate me: “Say that one more time, and they’ll never find your body.”

The Joy of Joyriding

Just as I assumed I uncovered all possible content in the title's first-person feature, I encountered the delight of riding through classical settlements. Totally unintentionally, I interacted with a cart and immediately found myself in the driver's position. Oxen, donkeys, even human-pulled carts; you can drive them all at your leisure. The donkey-powered transport, notably, is pretty fast, although you shouldn't expect open-world vehicular chaos — colliding with pedestrians or other carts is impossible (once more, not admitting any attempts).

Fighting Restrictions

The single feature that frustrated me in Anno 117’s first-person mode was learning about my exclusion from in any fighting. Equipped in warrior attire, I ran up to the enemy amidst fighting and endeavored to damage them, yet was completely overlooked. The front-row seat remained quite impressive, and seeing opponents retreat, their appendages thrashing around, felt highly gratifying, though it might have been amazing to effectively strike targets with my burning arrows.

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