Anno 117 Pax Romana's Best-Kept Secret Reveals Itself as a Stunning First-Person Mode.

Wait — did you know you can play Anno 117: Pax Romana in first-person? If that’s your reaction, you feel equally astonished as I was upon finding out this concealed mode. I must temporarily abandon managing my empire, delegate it to a trusted assistant, commandere a carriage, and take a spin through Ancient Rome.

Unlocking the First-Person Feature

In its role as a city-builder, Anno 117 Pax Romana is normally experienced from a bird's-eye view. But, should you press a covert button sequence — including “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on a keyboard alternatively “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on console — you gain the ability to walk the realm as a regular inhabitant. Since a similar easter egg was included in Anno 1800, I looked forward to test it in the latest installment, but I wasn’t sure it would work before I discovered myself chin-deep in a Celtic floorboard (likely not meant to happen — this option tends to be somewhat unstable occasionally).

Discovering the Ancient Streets

Upon freeing myself, I walked the bustling streets across my settlement and visited shops, taverns, floral patches, and cockle pickers — it felt magnificent to see my diligent efforts from a brand-new perspective. I detected a variety of intricacies I wouldn’t have spotted from above: Entryway ornaments, a beast of burden holding a blossom container, fowl roaming freely, folks chilling on their balconies… Simply noticing the form of a ledge and the coating on a pillar becomes engaging to someone who doesn’t live in Ancient Rome.

Beyond Simple Strolling

But there’s more to the first-person feature in Anno 117 aside from meandering through streets. I became extraordinarily excited the moment I learned that not only could I observe farming fields, but also enter them. And even though I thought the building models would be off-limits, I was able to enter earthen quarries, investigate a respected schoolhouse during active classes, and intrude into private gardens. Avoid attempting to open doors (not even the developers 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.

Graphics and Ambiance

Even though I expected to see my metropolis represented with outdated visual quality, besides some crude animations and sometimes citizens positioned within a bench as opposed to atop a bench, the first-person view appears considerably improved over predictions. The intricately designed surfaces (especially stone surfaces) really have no business being this good in what is still, essentially, a top-down game. You might not observe separate follicular elements, yet you will notice engravings on walls, fiery particles from lamps, discoloration of masonry, pupils, and evergreen foliage. The night, featuring dancing flames and celestial bodies twinkling afar, is especially atmospheric, and also a lot less scary relative to the previous game, especially since the inhabitants no longer resemble sleep paralysis demons now.

Discovery and Modification

Because the game's hidden immersive perspective has no guided tutorial, I decided to experiment a bit, and immediately located the abilities to leap, run, and changing perspective — with the latter allowing me to change from first-person to third-person mode and revert. I subsequently tried pressing some number buttons and found I could alter my avatar's look. Golden robe? Ruby clothing? Blue and purple toga? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? You might hold a weapon and defense, or, preferably, wear an archer's uniform; if you activate the engage command, you’ll fire burning arrows into the sky. If you're interested, harming inhabitants is impossible (not that I attempted, naturally).

Comedy and Population Encounters

However, I had no desire to injure my people, since they're incredibly amusing. Shortly after I activated first-person mode, I overheard a father telling his child that he “Can’t have a pet fox and should you provide another poultry, your gran will have your head.” Appropriate response, paternal figure. A friendly native Celtic person then began complimenting my brilliant Romano-Celtic policies by calling it the “Best of both worlds,” meanwhile a grumpy senior female opted to menace me: “Utter those words again, and your fate will be sealed.”

The Fun of Vehicle Use

Just when I thought I’d discovered all there is to discover in the title's first-person feature, I encountered the delight of riding in Ancient Rome. Completely unexpectedly, I selected a carriage and was promptly seated on the box. Bovines, equines, even human-pulled carts; you can control each one as desired. The ass-drawn vehicle, specifically, travels rather rapidly, though you shouldn’t imagine Grand Theft Auto-style mischief — colliding with pedestrians or other carts is impossible (again, not saying I’ve tried).

Battle Constraints

The sole aspect that let me down within the immersive perspective was discovering my inability to participate in battle encounters. Wearing my military outfit, I approached opposing forces during active combat and tried to harm them, yet was completely overlooked. The front-row seat was nonetheless magnificent, and watching the enemy run, their appendages thrashing around, seemed enormously rewarding, yet it would have been exciting to effectively strike targets using my fiery projectiles.

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