Anno 117 Pax Romana's Hidden Gem Is a Stunning First-Person View.

Wait — did you know gamers have the option to enjoy Anno 117 Pax Romana using a first-person camera? If you're thinking that, you’re just as shocked as my own reaction upon finding out this concealed mode. Excuse me while step away from managing my empire, leave it in a capable deputy, borrow a cart, and enjoy a ride across the Roman world.

How to Access the First-Person View

In its role as a city-builder, the game Anno 117 usually operates using a top-down camera. But, should you input a hidden code — including “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on keyboard or else “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on a controller — you can explore the empire as an ordinary Roman. Because an analogous secret was included in the previous Anno title, I felt excited to experience it in the new release, though I was uncertain it would work until I found myself stuck in a Celtic building (possibly an unexpected bug — this option can be prone to glitches now and then).

Exploring the Roman Cityscape

After extracting myself, I strolled the lively avenues of my city and visited stalls, alehouses, blossom gardens, and shellfish gatherers — the experience was splendid to see the fruits of my labor through a fresh lens. I detected all kinds of details I wouldn’t have spotted when viewing from overhead: Entryway ornaments, a beast of burden holding a blossom container, chickens running loose, citizens lounging on their terraces… Simply noticing the form of a ledge and the coloration on a post proves fascinating to someone who doesn’t live in Ancient Rome.

More Than Just Walking

However, there's additional content to Anno 117’s first-person mode than strolling along the road. I felt particularly pleased when I found out that I could not just look upon agricultural plots, but also access them. And even though I thought interiors would be restricted, I could walk onto earthen quarries, investigate a respected schoolhouse during active classes, and invade personal courtyards. Don’t try to open any doors (not even the studio have the budget for that), yet it's completely feasible meander across a cereal plantation, see citizens working with tools and burdens, and look within any modest shelter as long as the door is absent.

Visual Quality and Atmosphere

Although I was fully prepared to observe my settlement depicted with outdated visual quality, excluding a few unpolished motions and sometimes citizens positioned in a bench rather than on a bench, the immersive perspective seems far superior to anticipations. The highly detailed textures (particularly rock faces) really have no business being this good within a game that's fundamentally a city-builder. You won't necessarily notice any individual strands of hair, however, you can observe writings on surfaces, sparks flying from torches, discoloration of masonry, eye details, and pine tree leaves. Nighttime, with its flickering fires and distant stellar illumination, generates a uniquely immersive environment, and feels much less frightening relative to the previous game, especially since the inhabitants no longer resemble nightmarish entities these days.

Experimentation and Customization

Because the game's hidden immersive perspective lacks official documentation, I chose to test various actions, and promptly found the abilities to leap, run, and zoom in or out — with the latter allowing me to change from first-person to third-person mode and revert. I then decided to hit some number buttons and learned I could modify my avatar's look. Yellow toga? Crimson attire? Sapphire and amethyst dress? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? You may carry a sword and shield, or, personally chosen, equip a shooter's costume; if you hit the interaction button, you shoot flaming projectiles upward. If you're interested, harming inhabitants is impossible (though I didn't test this, obviously).

Amusement and Inhabitant Dialogues

Yet, I didn't want to damage my population, since they're incredibly amusing. Moments after I entered first-person mode, I overheard a father telling his child that “You cannot keep a fox as a pet and should you provide another poultry, your elder will punish you.” Appropriate response, paternal figure. A pleasant regional Celt then started applauding my outstanding integration methods by calling it the “Best of both worlds,” meanwhile a grumpy senior female opted to menace me: “Repeat that statement, and your disappearance will be permanent.”

The Thrill of Transportation

Just when I thought I uncovered all possible content within the game's immersive perspective, I found the joys of joyriding in Ancient Rome. Entirely by accident, I selected a carriage and quickly occupied the transport. Bovines, equines, even people-powered transports; you may operate any of them freely. The ass-drawn vehicle, specifically, moves quite quickly, but don't anticipate any GTA-like shenanigans — impacting citizens or additional vehicles cannot occur (once more, not admitting any attempts).

Combat Limitations

The sole aspect that let me down in Anno 117’s first-person mode was finding out I couldn’t partake in combat situations. Equipped in warrior attire, I charged toward adversaries in the midst of battle and endeavored to damage them, but was entirely disregarded. The proximate observation remained quite impressive, and seeing opponents retreat, their arms flailing about, felt highly gratifying, though it might have been amazing to actually hit something via my incendiary bolts.

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