Anno 117 Pax Romana's Best-Kept Secret Turns Out to Be a Stunning First-Person Perspective.
Surprisingly — did you realize 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 when I discovered this concealed mode. Allow me to step away from overseeing my civilization, delegate it to a capable deputy, commandere a carriage, and go for a joyride through Ancient Rome.
How to Access the First-Person Feature
As a city-building game, Anno 117: Pax Romana is typically played from a bird's-eye view. But, should you press a covert button sequence — such as “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. Since a similar easter egg was part of Anno 1800, I felt excited to experience it in the latest installment, yet I had doubts it would operate before I discovered myself submerged in a structural glitch (which probably wasn’t intended — this option can be somewhat unstable occasionally).
Exploring the Roman Cityscape
After extracting myself, I walked the bustling streets of my city and explored shops, taverns, floral patches, and seafood collectors — the experience was splendid to see the fruits of my labor using an entirely new viewpoint. I noticed a variety of intricacies I wouldn’t have spotted from above: Front door decorations, a donkey carrying a flower bucket, poultry scattering about, citizens lounging on their terraces… Simply noticing the shape of a window sill and the coating on a pillar becomes engaging for those not residing in classical times.
Beyond Simple Strolling
Yet, the experience extends to the game's immersive perspective aside from meandering through streets. I was especially delighted the moment I learned that I could not just observe agricultural plots, but also step into them. And despite my expectation interiors would be restricted, I could walk onto earthen quarries, investigate a respected schoolhouse during active classes, and even trespass into people’s gardens. Don’t try to open any doors (not even the creators allocated resources for that), but it’s entirely possible wander through a grain field, observe people digging and transporting bags, 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Although I was fully prepared to witness my city rendered with outdated visual quality, excluding a few unpolished motions and periodic inhabitants sitting inside seating instead of on a bench, first-person mode looks considerably improved over predictions. The highly detailed textures (particularly rock faces) really have no business being this good for a title that remains primarily overhead. You might not observe separate follicular elements, but you will see engravings on walls, sparks flying from torches, discoloration of masonry, eye details, and evergreen foliage. The night, featuring dancing flames and distant stellar illumination, creates a particularly moody setting, and also a lot less scary relative to the previous game, especially since the inhabitants no longer resemble sleep paralysis demons anymore.
Experimentation and Customization
Since Anno 117’s super-secret first-person mode has no guided tutorial, I chose to test various actions, and immediately located the abilities to leap, run, and zoom in or out — with the latter allowing me to switch between first and third-person views and back. I subsequently tried pressing certain numeric keys and found I could alter my character’s appearance. Yellow toga? Ruby clothing? Azure and violet outfit? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? You might hold a weapon and defense, or, my favorite, don a marksman outfit; if you hit the interaction button, you shoot flaming projectiles upward. In case you’re wondering, eliminating citizens cannot be done (though I didn't test this, obviously).
Comedy and Population Encounters
But I wouldn’t wish to harm my citizens anyway, because they’re way too funny. Moments after I entered the immersive perspective, I heard a parent advising their offspring that “Owning a fox is prohibited and if you feed it one more chicken, your elder will punish you.” Rightly so, Roman dad. A pleasant regional Celt then proceeded to praise my excellent cross-cultural strategies by labeling it “Perfect fusion,” whereas an irritable elderly woman opted to menace me: “Repeat that statement, and your disappearance will be permanent.”
The Fun of Vehicle Use
Just as I assumed I uncovered all possible content within the game's immersive perspective, I experienced the pleasure of driving through classical settlements. Totally unintentionally, I selected a carriage and quickly occupied the transport. Oxen, donkeys, even manually drawn vehicles; you can control each one as desired. The ass-drawn vehicle, specifically, is pretty fast, although you shouldn't expect open-world vehicular chaos — you can’t drive into people or other wagons (once more, not admitting any attempts).
Fighting Restrictions
The only thing that disappointed me in Anno 117’s first-person mode was finding out I couldn’t partake in battle encounters. Sporting my soldier fit, I charged toward adversaries during active combat and tried to harm them, only to be ignored completely. The proximate observation remained quite impressive, and seeing opponents retreat, their arms flailing about, proved very satisfying, but it would’ve been cool to actually hit something with my burning arrows.
