Anno 117's Pax Romana's Best-Kept Secret Turns Out to Be a Breathtaking First-Person View.

Wait — did you know gamers have the option to enjoy Anno 117 Pax Romana in first-person? If you're thinking that, you feel equally astonished as I was when I discovered this concealed mode. I must temporarily abandon my empire’s management, delegate it to a trusted assistant, commandere a carriage, and enjoy a ride through Ancient Rome.

Unlocking the First-Person View

Being a city-building title, Anno 117: Pax Romana usually operates from a bird's-eye view. But, should you enter a secret combination — such as “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” using PC controls or “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” with a gamepad — you can explore your domain as a common citizen. Because an analogous secret appeared in Anno 1800, I felt excited to experience it in the latest installment, yet I had doubts it would function before I discovered myself chin-deep in a Celtic floorboard (likely not meant to happen — this feature is somewhat unstable occasionally).

Roaming the Streets of Rome

After extracting myself, I wandered the busy roads across my settlement and explored shops, taverns, flower fields, and shellfish gatherers — it felt magnificent to observe all my hard work using an entirely new viewpoint. I noticed a variety of intricacies that would escape notice when viewing from overhead: Front door decorations, an ass transporting a floral pail, fowl roaming freely, folks chilling on their balconies… Simply noticing the design of a windowsill and the coating on a pillar is quite interesting for those not residing in classical times.

Beyond Simple Strolling

However, there's additional content to the first-person feature in Anno 117 beyond simply walking the paths. I felt particularly pleased when I found out that I could not just observe farming fields, but also access them. And despite my expectation the building models would be off-limits, I was able to enter mud extraction sites, tour an esteemed educational structure as teaching was underway, and invade personal courtyards. Avoid attempting to open doors (not even the developers planned for that functionality), however, you can definitely meander across a cereal plantation, watch folks shoveling and carrying sacks, and glance into any tiny hut as long as the door is absent.

Graphics and Ambiance

Even though I expected to see my metropolis represented with outdated visual quality, besides some crude animations and the occasional civilian resting in a bench instead of on a bench, first-person mode looks considerably improved over predictions. The meticulously crafted materials (particularly rock faces) shouldn't logically be this impressive in what is still, essentially, a top-down game. You might not observe any individual strands of hair, but you will see wall inscriptions, fiery particles from lamps, brick decoloration, iris elements, and conifer needles. The night, featuring dancing flames and celestial bodies twinkling afar, creates a particularly moody setting, and feels much less frightening compared to Anno 1800, given that the populace appears unlike sleep paralysis demons these days.

Experimentation and Customization

Since Anno 117’s super-secret first-person mode doesn’t come with an instruction manual, I opted to try different commands, and immediately located the options to jump, sprint, and changing perspective — the last option enabling me to change from first-person to third-person mode and back. I subsequently tried pressing various digit inputs and found I could alter my character’s appearance. Yellow toga? Crimson attire? Sapphire and amethyst dress? Or — potentially preferable — armored suit? You might hold a weapon and defense, or, personally chosen, equip a shooter's costume; when you press the action key, you shoot flaming projectiles upward. In case you’re wondering, it’s not possible to kill civilians (though I didn't test this, obviously).

Comedy and Population Encounters

Yet, I didn't want to damage my population, since they're incredibly amusing. Only seconds after I landed first-person mode, I heard a parent advising their offspring that he “Can’t have a pet fox and if you offer additional fowl, your grandmother will be furious.” Rightly so, Roman dad. A pleasant regional Celt then began complimenting my excellent cross-cultural strategies by labeling it “Perfect fusion,” meanwhile a grumpy senior female opted to menace me: “Utter those words again, and your fate will be sealed.”

The Thrill of Transportation

Just when I thought I uncovered all possible content in Anno 117: Pax Romana’s first-person mode, I encountered the delight of riding in Ancient Rome. Totally unintentionally, I clicked on a wagon and immediately found myself in the driver's position. Cattle, asses, even manually drawn vehicles; you can control each one as desired. The donkey cart, in particular, travels rather rapidly, but don't anticipate open-world vehicular chaos — colliding with pedestrians or other carts is impossible (reiterating, without confirming testing).

Battle Constraints

The only thing that disappointed me within the immersive perspective was learning about my exclusion from in combat situations. Wearing my military outfit, I ran up to the enemy in the midst of battle and tried to harm them, yet was completely overlooked. The front-row seat was still rather spectacular, and watching the enemy run, their limbs waving wildly, felt highly gratifying, though it might have been amazing to effectively strike targets via my incendiary bolts.

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