Anno 117: Pax Romana's Hidden Gem Reveals Itself as a Impressive First-Person View.
Surprisingly — did you realize you can play Anno 117: Pax Romana in first-person? Should that be your response, your surprise matches as my own reaction when I discovered this concealed mode. Allow me to briefly leave my empire’s management, entrust it to a trusted assistant, borrow a cart, and take a spin across the Roman world.
How to Access the First-Person Mode
Being a city-building title, the game Anno 117 usually operates from an overhead perspective. Yet, when you enter a secret combination — for example “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on a keyboard or else “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on console — you can explore your domain as a common citizen. Because an analogous secret appeared in the earlier game Anno 1800, I was eager to test it in the new release, but I wasn’t sure it would function before I discovered myself stuck in a Celtic building (likely not meant to happen — this mode can be somewhat unstable occasionally).
Roaming the Ancient Streets
Once I crawled out, I wandered the busy roads of my city and visited markets, breweries, flower fields, and shellfish gatherers — it felt magnificent to see all my hard work through a fresh lens. I observed all kinds of details that would escape notice from above: Doorway embellishments, an ass transporting a floral pail, chickens running loose, folks chilling on their balconies… Simply noticing the design of a windowsill and the coating on a pillar proves fascinating to modern individuals unfamiliar with ancient life.
More Than Just Walking
But there’s more to Anno 117’s first-person mode aside from meandering through streets. I felt particularly pleased the moment I learned that I could not just view agricultural plots, but also step into them. And even though I thought interiors would be restricted, I was able to enter clay pits, tour an esteemed educational structure during active classes, and invade personal courtyards. 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 provided the entrance is missing.
Visual Quality and Atmosphere
Although I was fully prepared to witness my city rendered using primitive rendering, apart from certain rough movements and sometimes citizens positioned inside seating rather than on a bench, first-person mode looks much better than expected. The intricately designed surfaces (especially stone surfaces) are unexpectedly excellent within a game that's fundamentally a city-builder. You may not see specific hair details, however, you can observe wall inscriptions, sparks flying from torches, discoloration of masonry, iris elements, and pine tree leaves. Evening, with glowing light sources and distant stellar illumination, creates a particularly moody setting, and also a lot less scary versus the earlier title, especially since the inhabitants no longer resemble terrifying apparitions anymore.
Testing and Personalization
Because the game's hidden immersive perspective lacks official documentation, I chose to test various actions, and immediately located the options to jump, sprint, and adjusting the view — the zoom function permitting me to switch between first and third-person views and return. I then decided to hit certain numeric keys and found I could alter my character’s appearance. Amber garment? Red toga? Blue and purple toga? Or — potentially preferable — armored suit? You may carry a sword and shield, or, my favorite, don a marksman outfit; when you press the action key, you’ll fire burning arrows into the sky. Should you be curious, harming inhabitants is impossible (though I didn't test this, obviously).
Humor and Citizen Interactions
But I wouldn’t wish to harm my citizens anyway, because they’re way too funny. Moments after I entered the first-person view, I overheard a father telling his child that he “Can’t have a pet fox and if you feed it one more chicken, your elder will punish you.” Understandable stance, father character. A friendly native Celtic person then began complimenting my outstanding integration methods by describing it as “Ideal combination,” meanwhile a grumpy senior female chose to intimidate me: “Utter those words again, and your fate will be sealed.”
The Joy of Joyriding
Just when I thought I had found everything available within the game's immersive perspective, I encountered the delight of riding across historical settings. Totally unintentionally, I interacted with a cart and immediately found myself in the driver's position. Cattle, asses, even manually drawn vehicles; you can drive them all at your leisure. The ass-drawn vehicle, specifically, is pretty fast, but don't anticipate Grand Theft Auto-style mischief — colliding with pedestrians or other carts is impossible (again, not saying I’ve tried).
Combat Limitations
The sole aspect that let me down in Anno 117’s first-person mode was learning about my exclusion from in battle encounters. Wearing my military outfit, I ran up to the enemy in the midst of battle and endeavored to damage them, only to be ignored completely. The proximate observation remained quite impressive, and observing foes flee, their limbs waving wildly, felt highly gratifying, though it might have been amazing to actually hit something using my fiery projectiles.
