Anno 117 Pax Romana's Best-Kept Secret Turns Out to Be a Stunning First-Person Mode.
Wait — did you know you can play the game Anno 117 in first-person? Should that be your response, your surprise matches compared to my initial response the moment I learned this concealed mode. I must temporarily abandon managing my empire, entrust it to a trusted assistant, borrow a cart, 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. Yet, when you enter a secret combination — including “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” using PC controls or “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on console — it becomes possible to roam the empire as an ordinary Roman. Given a comparable hidden feature was part of Anno 1800, I felt excited to test it in the latest installment, but I wasn’t sure it would work before I discovered myself submerged in a structural glitch (possibly an unexpected bug — this feature tends to be somewhat unstable occasionally).
Discovering the Streets of Rome
Once I crawled out, I walked the busy roads of my city and explored stalls, alehouses, flower fields, and cockle pickers — it felt magnificent to witness all my hard work from a brand-new perspective. I noticed a variety of intricacies that would escape notice when viewing from overhead: Entryway ornaments, a beast of burden holding a blossom container, chickens running loose, people relaxing on their verandas… Even just observing the shape of a window sill and the coloration on a post becomes engaging for those not residing in classical times.
Beyond Simple Strolling
But there’s more to Anno 117’s first-person mode aside from meandering through streets. I became extraordinarily excited when I found out that I could not just observe agricultural plots, but also enter them. And even though I thought structures would be inaccessible, I managed to access clay pits, investigate a respected schoolhouse as teaching was underway, and even trespass into people’s gardens. Don't bother with door access (not even the studio allocated resources for that), however, you can definitely stroll around a barley farm, see citizens working with tools and burdens, and glance into any tiny hut as long as the door is absent.
Appearance and Mood
Even though I expected to see my metropolis represented using primitive rendering, excluding a few unpolished motions and periodic inhabitants sitting inside seating rather than on a bench, first-person mode looks far superior to anticipations. The highly detailed textures (particularly rock faces) are unexpectedly excellent in what is still, essentially, a top-down game. You won't necessarily notice any individual strands of hair, yet you will notice writings on surfaces, fiery particles from lamps, discoloration of masonry, pupils, and pine tree leaves. The night, featuring dancing flames and stars shining in the distance, is especially atmospheric, and proves significantly less intimidating versus the earlier title, given that the populace appears unlike nightmarish entities now.
Discovery and Modification
Given the covert first-person feature lacks official documentation, I opted to try different commands, and immediately located the options to jump, sprint, and changing perspective — the last option enabling me to switch between first and third-person views and return. I subsequently tried pressing some number buttons and discovered that I could change my avatar's look. Yellow toga? Ruby clothing? Azure and violet outfit? Or — maybe superior — complete battle gear? You can wield a blade and protection, or, preferably, wear an archer's uniform; when you press the action key, you launch incendiary bolts heavenward. In case you’re wondering, eliminating citizens cannot be done (not that I attempted, naturally).
Humor and Citizen Interactions
Yet, I didn't want to damage my population, because they’re way too funny. Only seconds after I landed first-person mode, I overheard a father telling his child that he “Can’t have a pet fox and if you offer additional fowl, your elder will punish you.” Rightly so, Roman dad. One lovely local Celt then started applauding my brilliant Romano-Celtic policies by describing it as “Ideal combination,” while some cranky old lady decided to threaten me: “Say that one more time, and they’ll never find your body.”
The Joy of Joyriding
Just as I assumed I’d discovered all there is to discover in the title's first-person feature, I found the joys of joyriding across historical settings. Completely unexpectedly, I clicked on a wagon and was promptly seated on the box. Oxen, donkeys, even manually drawn vehicles; you can control each one as desired. The donkey cart, in particular, moves quite quickly, though you shouldn’t imagine Grand Theft Auto-style mischief — impacting citizens or additional vehicles cannot occur (reiterating, without confirming testing).
Combat Limitations
The sole aspect that let me down in Anno 117’s first-person mode was discovering my inability to participate in battle encounters. Wearing my military outfit, I ran up to the enemy amidst fighting and tried to harm them, only to be ignored completely. The front-row seat was still rather spectacular, and observing foes flee, their arms flailing about, seemed enormously rewarding, yet it would have been exciting to actually hit something with my burning arrows.
