Anno 117's Pax Romana's Top Secret Reveals Itself as a Impressive First-Person View.

Wait — did you know gamers have the option to enjoy Anno 117 Pax Romana from a first-person viewpoint? If that’s your reaction, you feel equally astonished as I was the moment I learned this hidden feature. Excuse me while briefly leave overseeing my civilization, leave it in a reliable subordinate, borrow a cart, and go for a joyride through Ancient Rome.

Activating the First-Person View

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 — such as “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on a keyboard or else “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” with a gamepad — it becomes possible to roam the empire as an ordinary Roman. Since a similar easter egg was part of the earlier game Anno 1800, I was eager to experience it in the latest installment, but I wasn’t sure it would work prior to being chin-deep in a Celtic floorboard (likely not meant to happen — this feature is prone to glitches now and then).

Discovering the Roman Cityscape

Upon freeing myself, I strolled the bustling streets through my metropolis and toured shops, taverns, floral patches, and seafood collectors — it felt magnificent to see my diligent efforts through a fresh lens. I observed a variety of intricacies I might have missed from the top-down view: Doorway embellishments, a beast of burden holding a blossom container, chickens running loose, folks chilling on their balconies… Merely examining the design of a windowsill and the coloration on a post becomes engaging to modern individuals unfamiliar with ancient life.

Beyond Simple Strolling

But there’s more to the first-person feature in Anno 117 beyond simply walking the paths. I was especially delighted upon discovering that not only could I look upon agricultural plots, but also step into them. And even though I thought interiors would be restricted, I managed to access clay pits, investigate a respected schoolhouse as teaching was underway, and intrude into private gardens. Don't bother with door access (not even the developers have the budget for that), however, you can definitely stroll around a barley farm, observe people digging and transporting bags, and take a peek inside any small shack as long as the door is absent.

Appearance and Mood

Even though I expected to witness my city rendered using primitive rendering, apart from certain rough movements and sometimes citizens positioned in a bench instead of on a bench, first-person mode looks considerably improved over predictions. The highly detailed textures (particularly rock faces) shouldn't logically be this impressive for a title that remains primarily overhead. You won't necessarily notice any individual strands of hair, but you will see writings on surfaces, flames emitting from lights, fading on bricks, pupils, and conifer needles. Nighttime, with its flickering fires and celestial bodies twinkling afar, creates a particularly moody setting, and feels much less frightening relative to the previous game, now that the citizens don’t look like terrifying apparitions anymore.

Experimentation and Customization

Since Anno 117’s super-secret first-person mode has no guided tutorial, I decided to experiment a bit, and promptly found the options to jump, sprint, and changing perspective — the zoom function permitting me to alternate between immersive and external perspectives and back. I subsequently tried pressing various digit inputs and learned I could modify my representative's visual design. Yellow toga? Red toga? Azure and violet outfit? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? You might hold a weapon and defense, or, preferably, wear an archer's uniform; when you press the action key, you’ll fire burning arrows into the sky. Should you be curious, harming inhabitants is impossible (not that I’ve tried, of course).

Amusement and Inhabitant Dialogues

However, I had no desire to injure my people, because they’re way too funny. 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 if you offer additional fowl, your gran will have your head.” Understandable stance, father character. One lovely local Celt then started applauding my excellent cross-cultural strategies by describing it as “Ideal combination,” while some cranky old lady opted to menace me: “Say that one more time, and they’ll never find your body.”

The Fun of Vehicle Use

Just as I assumed I’d discovered all there is to discover within the game's immersive perspective, I found the joys of joyriding in Ancient Rome. Completely unexpectedly, I clicked on a wagon and quickly occupied the transport. Bovines, equines, even people-powered transports; you may operate any of them freely. The ass-drawn vehicle, specifically, travels rather rapidly, though you shouldn’t imagine any GTA-like shenanigans — you can’t drive into people or other wagons (again, not saying I’ve tried).

Fighting Restrictions

The sole aspect that let me down within the immersive perspective was learning about my exclusion from in combat situations. Wearing my military outfit, I charged toward adversaries during active combat and endeavored to damage them, only to be ignored completely. The close-up view remained quite impressive, and seeing opponents retreat, their appendages thrashing around, felt highly gratifying, but it would’ve been cool to actually hit something using my fiery projectiles.

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