Anno 117: Pax Romana's Best-Kept Secret Reveals Itself as a Impressive First-Person View.
Surprisingly — did you realize you can play the game Anno 117 in first-person? If that’s your reaction, you feel equally astonished compared to my initial response when I discovered this hidden feature. Allow me to step away from my empire’s management, leave it in a reliable subordinate, take a wagon, and take a spin around the classical city.
How to Access the First-Person Feature
As a city-building game, Anno 117 Pax Romana is typically played from an overhead perspective. Yet, when you input a hidden code — such as “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 the empire as an ordinary Roman. Given a comparable hidden feature was included in Anno 1800, I looked forward to test it in the new release, though I was uncertain it would operate until I found myself submerged in a structural glitch (likely not meant to happen — this mode is a little buggy at times).
Roaming the Ancient Streets
Upon freeing myself, I wandered the lively avenues of my city and toured markets, breweries, flower fields, and seafood collectors — it felt magnificent to witness the fruits of my labor from a brand-new perspective. I observed numerous fine points that would escape notice from the top-down view: Front door decorations, 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 paint layers on a column is quite interesting for those not residing in classical times.
Further Than Mere Wandering
However, there's additional content to the game's immersive perspective than strolling along the road. I became extraordinarily excited upon discovering that I could not just look upon farming fields, but also enter them. And despite my expectation structures would be inaccessible, I could walk onto mud extraction sites, tour an esteemed educational structure while lessons were in session, and intrude into private gardens. Avoid attempting to open doors (not even the developers have the budget for that), yet it's completely feasible meander across a cereal plantation, observe people digging and transporting bags, and glance into any tiny hut provided the entrance is missing.
Visual Quality and Atmosphere
Although I was fully prepared to see my metropolis represented in PlayStation 1 graphics, besides some crude animations and the occasional civilian resting within a bench rather than on 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 may not see any individual strands of hair, yet you will notice writings on surfaces, flames emitting from lights, discoloration of masonry, eye details, and evergreen foliage. Nighttime, with its flickering fires and distant stellar illumination, creates a particularly moody setting, and feels much less frightening versus the earlier title, given that the populace appears unlike nightmarish entities now.
Testing and Personalization
Since Anno 117’s super-secret first-person mode lacks official documentation, I decided to experiment a bit, and promptly found the options to jump, sprint, and adjusting the view — the zoom function permitting me to alternate between immersive and external perspectives and revert. I then experimented with various digit inputs and found I could alter my character’s appearance. Amber garment? Red toga? Blue and purple toga? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? You may carry a sword and shield, or, preferably, wear an archer's uniform; when you press the action key, you launch incendiary bolts heavenward. Should you be curious, harming inhabitants is impossible (not that I attempted, naturally).
Humor and Citizen Interactions
Yet, I didn't want to damage my population, as they're remarkably entertaining. Only seconds after I landed the immersive perspective, I listened to a dad instructing his kid that “Owning a fox is prohibited and should you provide another poultry, your elder will punish you.” Understandable stance, father character. One lovely local Celt then proceeded to praise my outstanding integration methods by labeling it “Perfect fusion,” whereas an irritable elderly woman opted to menace me: “Utter those words again, and your fate will be sealed.”
The Thrill of Transportation
Just when I thought I had found everything available in Anno 117: Pax Romana’s first-person mode, I experienced the pleasure of driving across historical settings. Entirely by accident, I clicked on a wagon and was promptly seated on the box. Oxen, donkeys, even people-powered transports; you may operate any of them freely. The donkey-powered transport, notably, is pretty fast, but don't anticipate any GTA-like shenanigans — you can’t drive into people or other wagons (again, not saying I’ve tried).
Fighting Restrictions
The sole aspect that let me down in Anno 117’s first-person mode was learning about my exclusion from in combat situations. Wearing my military outfit, I charged toward adversaries during active combat and tried to harm them, yet was completely overlooked. The front-row seat remained quite impressive, and watching the enemy run, their arms flailing about, felt highly gratifying, but it would’ve been cool to successfully impact objects via my incendiary bolts.
