Anno 117 Pax Romana's Top Secret Is a Impressive First-Person View.

Wait — did you know it's possible to experience Anno 117: Pax Romana using a first-person camera? If you're thinking that, you’re just as shocked compared to my initial response upon finding out this hidden feature. I must step away from managing my empire, delegate it to a trusted assistant, borrow a cart, and enjoy a ride across the Roman world.

How to Access the First-Person Feature

In its role as a city-builder, Anno 117 Pax Romana usually operates using a top-down camera. Yet, when you enter a secret combination — including “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” using PC controls 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 the previous Anno title, I felt excited to test it in the latest installment, though I was uncertain it would work before I discovered myself submerged in a structural glitch (possibly an unexpected bug — this mode is prone to glitches now and then).

Roaming the Streets of Rome

Upon freeing myself, I strolled the lively avenues through my metropolis and explored stalls, alehouses, flower fields, and shellfish gatherers — it felt magnificent to observe the fruits of my labor through a fresh lens. I noticed all kinds of details I wouldn’t have spotted from the top-down view: Front door decorations, an ass transporting a floral pail, fowl roaming freely, citizens lounging on their terraces… Merely examining the form of a ledge and the paint layers on a column proves fascinating to someone who doesn’t live in Ancient Rome.

Further Than Mere Wandering

Yet, the experience extends to the game's immersive perspective beyond simply walking the paths. I became extraordinarily excited when I found out that besides being able to look upon crop lands, but also access them. And despite my expectation interiors would be restricted, I could walk onto mud extraction sites, explore a prestigious Grammaticus building during active classes, and even trespass into people’s gardens. Avoid attempting to open doors (not even the developers planned for that functionality), however, you can definitely meander across a cereal plantation, observe people digging and transporting bags, and glance into any tiny hut when there's no doorway obstructing.

Graphics and Ambiance

Although I was fully prepared to see my metropolis represented with outdated visual quality, apart from certain rough movements and sometimes citizens positioned within a bench rather than on a bench, the first-person view appears far superior to anticipations. The intricately designed surfaces (notably masonry elements) really have no business being this good within a game that's fundamentally a city-builder. You won't necessarily notice separate follicular elements, however, you can observe wall inscriptions, sparks flying from torches, discoloration of masonry, pupils, and evergreen foliage. Nighttime, with its flickering fires and distant stellar illumination, generates a uniquely immersive environment, and feels much less frightening versus the earlier title, now that the citizens don’t look like terrifying apparitions anymore.

Experimentation and Customization

Given the covert first-person feature has no guided tutorial, I decided to experiment a bit, and quickly discovered the abilities to leap, run, and adjusting the view — with the latter allowing me to alternate between immersive and external perspectives and return. I subsequently tried pressing various digit inputs and discovered that I could change my character’s appearance. Yellow toga? Ruby clothing? Azure and violet outfit? Or — maybe superior — complete battle gear? You may carry a sword and shield, or, preferably, wear an archer's uniform; if you hit the interaction button, you shoot flaming projectiles upward. In case you’re wondering, harming inhabitants is impossible (not that I attempted, naturally).

Humor and Citizen Interactions

But I wouldn’t wish to harm my citizens anyway, since they're incredibly amusing. Moments after I entered first-person mode, I overheard a father telling his child that “Owning a fox is prohibited and if you feed it one more chicken, your gran will have your head.” Appropriate response, paternal figure. A pleasant regional Celt then started applauding my brilliant Romano-Celtic policies by calling it the “Best of both worlds,” meanwhile a grumpy senior female decided to threaten me: “Utter those words again, and your fate will be sealed.”

The Thrill of Transportation

At the moment I believed I uncovered all possible content in the title's first-person feature, I experienced the pleasure of driving through classical settlements. Totally unintentionally, I selected a carriage and immediately found myself in the driver's position. Oxen, donkeys, even human-pulled carts; you may operate any of them freely. The ass-drawn vehicle, specifically, is pretty fast, though you shouldn’t imagine open-world vehicular chaos — colliding with pedestrians or other carts is impossible (reiterating, without confirming testing).

Combat Limitations

The sole aspect that let me down in Anno 117’s first-person mode was learning about my exclusion from in any fighting. Sporting my soldier fit, I approached opposing forces in the midst of battle and tried to harm them, but was entirely disregarded. The front-row seat was nonetheless magnificent, and observing foes flee, their arms flailing about, seemed enormously rewarding, yet it would have been exciting to effectively strike targets via my incendiary bolts.

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