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

Wait — did you know you can play Anno 117: Pax Romana in first-person? Should that be your response, you feel equally astonished as I was when I discovered this secret option. Allow me to briefly leave my empire’s management, leave it in a trusted assistant, commandere a carriage, and enjoy a ride around the classical city.

How to Access the First-Person Feature

As a city-building game, Anno 117: Pax Romana usually operates from an overhead perspective. Yet, when you press a covert button sequence — such as “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on keyboard or else “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” with a gamepad — you can explore the realm as a regular inhabitant. Because an analogous secret was included in Anno 1800, I felt excited to test it in the new release, yet I had doubts it would function until I found myself chin-deep in a Celtic floorboard (likely not meant to happen — this option tends to be somewhat unstable occasionally).

Roaming the Roman Cityscape

After extracting myself, I walked the bustling streets of my city and explored stalls, alehouses, flower fields, and cockle pickers — it was glorious to witness the fruits of my labor from a brand-new perspective. I observed all kinds of details that would escape notice when viewing from overhead: Front door decorations, a donkey carrying a flower bucket, poultry scattering about, citizens lounging on their terraces… Simply noticing the design of a windowsill and the paint layers on a column is quite interesting to someone who doesn’t live in Ancient Rome.

Further Than Mere Wandering

Yet, the experience extends to Anno 117’s first-person mode beyond simply walking the paths. I felt particularly pleased when I found out that not only could I observe agricultural plots, but also access them. And even though I thought interiors would be restricted, I managed to access mud extraction sites, explore a prestigious Grammaticus building as teaching was underway, and even trespass into people’s gardens. Don't bother with door access (not even the creators allocated resources for that), yet it's completely feasible wander through a grain field, observe people digging and transporting bags, and glance into any tiny hut provided the entrance is missing.

Graphics and Ambiance

Even though I expected to witness my city rendered using primitive rendering, apart from certain rough movements and sometimes citizens positioned inside seating as opposed to atop a bench, the first-person view appears much better than expected. The intricately designed surfaces (notably masonry elements) shouldn't logically be this impressive for a title that remains primarily overhead. You might not observe any individual strands of hair, but you will see wall inscriptions, fiery particles from lamps, fading on bricks, pupils, and pine tree leaves. Nighttime, with its flickering fires and stars shining in the distance, creates a particularly moody setting, and also a lot less scary versus the earlier title, especially since the inhabitants no longer resemble nightmarish entities these days.

Discovery and Modification

Since Anno 117’s super-secret first-person mode lacks official documentation, I chose to test various actions, and promptly found the options to jump, sprint, and changing perspective — with the latter allowing me to alternate between immersive and external perspectives and revert. I subsequently tried pressing some number buttons and discovered that I could change my representative's visual design. Yellow toga? Crimson attire? Blue and purple toga? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? You may carry a sword and shield, or, preferably, wear an archer's uniform; when you press the action key, you shoot flaming projectiles upward. In case you’re wondering, harming inhabitants is impossible (not that I attempted, naturally).

Comedy and Population Encounters

But I wouldn’t wish to harm my citizens anyway, as they're remarkably entertaining. Moments after I entered the immersive perspective, I listened to a dad instructing his kid that “Owning a fox is prohibited and should you provide another poultry, your gran will have your head.” Appropriate response, paternal figure. A friendly native Celtic person then started applauding my brilliant Romano-Celtic policies by labeling it “Perfect fusion,” meanwhile a grumpy senior female decided to threaten me: “Repeat that statement, and your disappearance will be permanent.”

The Fun of Vehicle Use

Just when I thought I uncovered all possible content within the game's immersive perspective, I experienced the pleasure of driving through classical settlements. Totally unintentionally, I interacted with a cart and immediately found myself in the driver's position. Cattle, asses, even human-pulled carts; you can drive them all at your leisure. The ass-drawn vehicle, specifically, travels rather rapidly, though you shouldn’t imagine Grand Theft Auto-style mischief — impacting citizens or additional vehicles cannot occur (once more, not admitting any attempts).

Fighting Restrictions

The single feature that frustrated me regarding the first-person view was discovering my inability to participate in combat situations. Sporting my soldier fit, I approached opposing forces amidst fighting and tried to harm them, yet was completely overlooked. The front-row seat remained quite impressive, and watching the enemy run, their arms flailing about, proved very satisfying, though it might have been amazing to successfully impact objects with my burning arrows.

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