Anno 117: Pax Romana's Top Secret Turns Out to Be a Breathtaking First-Person Mode.
Hold on — were you aware you can play Anno 117: Pax Romana in first-person? If you're thinking that, you’re just as shocked as I was the moment I learned this secret option. I must briefly leave managing my empire, entrust it to a reliable subordinate, take a wagon, and enjoy a ride across the Roman world.
How to Access the First-Person Mode
As a city-building game, Anno 117: Pax Romana is typically played from a bird's-eye view. However, if you input a hidden code — including “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on a keyboard or “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on console — you gain the ability to walk your domain as a common citizen. Since a similar easter egg was included in Anno 1800, I felt excited to test it in the latest installment, though I was uncertain it would function prior to being stuck in a Celtic building (possibly an unexpected bug — this feature tends to be somewhat unstable occasionally).
Roaming the Ancient Streets
After extracting myself, I wandered the busy roads of my city and explored markets, breweries, flower fields, and seafood collectors — the experience was splendid to witness the fruits of my labor from a brand-new perspective. I detected numerous fine points that would escape notice from above: Front door decorations, a beast of burden holding a blossom container, chickens running loose, citizens lounging on their terraces… Merely examining the design of a windowsill and the coloration on a post becomes engaging for those not residing in classical times.
More Than Just Walking
However, there's additional content to the first-person feature in Anno 117 beyond simply walking the paths. I felt particularly pleased the moment I learned that I could not just view farming fields, but also step into them. And despite my expectation the building models would be off-limits, I was able to enter mud extraction sites, investigate a respected schoolhouse as teaching was underway, and intrude into private gardens. Avoid attempting to open doors (not even the studio have the budget for that), however, you can definitely wander through a grain field, watch folks shoveling and carrying sacks, and glance into any tiny hut as long as the door is absent.
Graphics and Ambiance
Although I was fully prepared to observe my settlement depicted using primitive rendering, apart from certain rough movements and the occasional civilian resting within a bench rather than on a bench, the immersive perspective seems much better than expected. The highly detailed textures (notably masonry elements) are unexpectedly excellent in what is still, essentially, a top-down game. You might not observe specific hair details, however, you can observe engravings on walls, fiery particles from lamps, discoloration of masonry, pupils, and pine tree leaves. The night, featuring dancing flames and celestial bodies twinkling afar, generates a uniquely immersive environment, and proves significantly less intimidating compared to Anno 1800, given that the populace appears unlike sleep paralysis demons anymore.
Testing and Personalization
Since Anno 117’s super-secret first-person mode doesn’t come with an instruction manual, I chose to test various actions, and quickly discovered the options to jump, sprint, and adjusting the view — the zoom function permitting me to alternate between immersive and external perspectives and back. I then decided to hit various digit inputs and found I could alter my character’s appearance. Golden robe? Ruby clothing? Blue and purple toga? 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 launch incendiary bolts heavenward. In case you’re wondering, harming inhabitants is impossible (though I didn't test this, obviously).
Comedy and Population Encounters
However, I had no desire to injure my people, as they're remarkably entertaining. Shortly after I activated first-person mode, I listened to a dad instructing his kid that “You cannot keep a fox as a pet and if you offer additional fowl, your gran will have your head.” Appropriate response, paternal figure. A pleasant regional Celt then began complimenting my excellent cross-cultural strategies by calling it the “Best of both worlds,” while some cranky old lady decided to threaten me: “Repeat that statement, and your disappearance will be permanent.”
The Thrill of Transportation
Just as I assumed I’d discovered all there is to discover within the game's immersive perspective, I experienced the pleasure of driving through classical settlements. Completely unexpectedly, I interacted with a cart and was promptly seated on the box. Bovines, equines, even human-pulled carts; you may operate any of them freely. The donkey-powered transport, notably, moves quite quickly, but don't anticipate open-world vehicular chaos — impacting citizens or additional vehicles cannot occur (reiterating, without confirming testing).
Fighting Restrictions
The only thing that disappointed me regarding the first-person view was learning about my exclusion from in battle encounters. Equipped in warrior attire, I ran up to the enemy in the midst of battle and tried to harm them, but was entirely disregarded. The proximate observation was nonetheless magnificent, and watching the enemy run, their arms flailing about, seemed enormously rewarding, yet it would have been exciting to successfully impact objects via my incendiary bolts.
