Anno 117: Pax Romana's Top Secret Reveals Itself as a Impressive First-Person View.

Hold on — were you aware you can play the game Anno 117 from a first-person viewpoint? Should that be your response, your surprise matches as I was upon finding out this concealed mode. Allow me to temporarily abandon overseeing my civilization, leave it in a reliable subordinate, commandere a carriage, and enjoy a ride across the Roman world.

Activating the First-Person View

Being a city-building title, Anno 117: Pax Romana usually operates from a bird's-eye view. However, if you enter a secret combination — such as “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on keyboard alternatively “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” with a gamepad — it becomes possible to roam the realm as a regular inhabitant. Given a comparable hidden feature was included in the earlier game Anno 1800, I looked forward to test it in the new release, though I was uncertain it would work before I discovered myself stuck in a Celtic building (possibly an unexpected bug — this feature tends to be a little buggy at times).

Roaming the Streets of Rome

Once I crawled out, I strolled the lively avenues across my settlement and toured shops, taverns, floral patches, and cockle pickers — the experience was splendid to witness all my hard work through a fresh lens. I noticed numerous fine points I might have missed from above: Doorway embellishments, a beast of burden holding a blossom container, poultry scattering about, people relaxing on their verandas… Simply noticing the design of a windowsill and the paint layers on a column 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 than strolling along the road. I became extraordinarily excited when I found out that besides being able to view farming fields, but also access them. And even though I thought the building models would be off-limits, I was able to enter clay pits, explore a prestigious Grammaticus building during active classes, and even trespass into people’s gardens. Don’t try to open any doors (not even the creators have the budget for that), however, you can definitely meander across a cereal plantation, watch folks shoveling and carrying sacks, and take a peek inside any small shack provided the entrance is missing.

Appearance and Mood

While I was completely ready to see my metropolis represented in PlayStation 1 graphics, excluding a few unpolished motions and the occasional civilian resting in a bench instead of on a bench, first-person mode looks considerably improved over predictions. The highly detailed textures (especially stone surfaces) are unexpectedly excellent within a game that's fundamentally a city-builder. You may not see separate follicular elements, however, you can observe writings on surfaces, sparks flying from torches, brick decoloration, eye details, and evergreen foliage. Evening, with glowing light sources and distant stellar illumination, generates a uniquely immersive environment, and also a lot less scary relative to the previous game, now that the citizens don’t look like nightmarish entities now.

Discovery and Modification

Because the game's hidden immersive perspective lacks official documentation, I opted to try different commands, and promptly found the functions for jumping, dashing, and changing perspective — the last option enabling me to change from first-person to third-person mode and revert. I then decided to hit various digit inputs and discovered that I could change my representative's visual design. Yellow toga? Red toga? Azure and violet outfit? Or — potentially preferable — armored suit? You may carry a sword and shield, or, my favorite, don a marksman outfit; if you hit the interaction button, you launch incendiary bolts heavenward. Should you be curious, harming inhabitants is impossible (though I didn't test this, obviously).

Humor and Citizen Interactions

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 if you offer additional fowl, your grandmother will be furious.” Understandable stance, father character. A friendly native Celtic person then proceeded to praise my outstanding integration methods by calling it the “Best of both worlds,” while some cranky old lady chose to intimidate me: “Repeat that statement, and your disappearance will be permanent.”

The Joy of Joyriding

Just as I assumed I’d discovered all there is to discover in the title's first-person feature, I encountered the delight of riding across historical settings. Totally unintentionally, I selected a carriage and quickly occupied the transport. Bovines, equines, even human-pulled carts; you can control each one as desired. The donkey cart, in particular, travels rather rapidly, though you shouldn’t imagine Grand Theft Auto-style mischief — impacting citizens or additional vehicles cannot occur (reiterating, without confirming testing).

Battle Constraints

The only thing that disappointed me in Anno 117’s first-person mode was finding out I couldn’t partake in battle encounters. Sporting my soldier fit, I approached opposing forces amidst fighting and attempted to attack them, but was entirely disregarded. The close-up view was nonetheless magnificent, and watching the enemy run, their arms flailing about, felt highly gratifying, though it might have been amazing to actually hit something using my fiery projectiles.

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