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Hold on — were you aware you can play Anno 117: Pax Romana using a first-person camera? If you're thinking that, you’re just as shocked as I was the moment I learned this hidden feature. Excuse me while briefly leave my empire’s management, delegate it to a capable deputy, commandere a carriage, and enjoy a ride across the Roman world.

Unlocking the First-Person Mode

As a city-building game, the game Anno 117 is typically played from a bird's-eye view. Yet, when you enter a secret combination — including “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on a keyboard or else “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on console — you can explore the realm as a regular inhabitant. Given a comparable hidden feature was part of the previous Anno title, I was eager to experience it in the latest installment, yet I had doubts it would operate until I found myself submerged in a structural glitch (possibly an unexpected bug — this mode can be prone to glitches now and then).

Discovering the Streets of Rome

Upon freeing myself, I wandered the lively avenues of my city and toured shops, taverns, blossom gardens, and cockle pickers — it was glorious to observe all my hard work through a fresh lens. I observed numerous fine points I wouldn’t have spotted when viewing from overhead: Doorway embellishments, a donkey carrying a flower bucket, fowl roaming freely, people relaxing on their verandas… Simply noticing the form of a ledge and the coloration on a post becomes engaging to modern individuals unfamiliar with ancient life.

Further Than Mere Wandering

Yet, the experience extends to the game's immersive perspective beyond simply walking the paths. I felt particularly pleased the moment I learned that I could not just view crop lands, but also enter them. And although I’d assumed interiors would be restricted, I was able to enter mud extraction sites, explore a prestigious Grammaticus building while lessons were in session, and even trespass into people’s gardens. Don’t try to open any doors (not even the creators have the budget for that), yet it's completely feasible wander through a grain field, see citizens working with tools and burdens, and glance into any tiny hut as long as the door is absent.

Visual Quality and Atmosphere

Although I was fully prepared to witness my city rendered using primitive rendering, excluding a few unpolished motions and sometimes citizens positioned in a bench rather than on a bench, the first-person view appears considerably improved over predictions. The meticulously crafted materials (especially stone surfaces) really have no business being this good for a title that remains primarily overhead. You might not observe specific hair details, however, you can observe writings on surfaces, flames emitting from lights, fading on bricks, pupils, and evergreen foliage. The night, featuring dancing flames and stars shining in the distance, creates a particularly moody setting, and proves significantly less intimidating versus the earlier title, especially since the inhabitants no longer resemble nightmarish entities these days.

Testing and Personalization

Since Anno 117’s super-secret first-person mode lacks official documentation, I opted to try different commands, and quickly discovered the options to jump, sprint, and zoom in or out — with the latter allowing me to alternate between immersive and external perspectives and back. I subsequently tried pressing various digit inputs and discovered that I could change my character’s appearance. Yellow toga? Crimson attire? Azure and violet outfit? Or — potentially preferable — armored suit? You can wield a blade and protection, or, personally chosen, equip a shooter's costume; if you activate the engage command, you shoot flaming projectiles upward. If you're interested, harming inhabitants is impossible (though I didn't test this, obviously).

Amusement and Inhabitant Dialogues

However, I had no desire to injure my people, since they're incredibly amusing. Shortly after I activated the first-person view, I listened to a dad instructing his kid that “You cannot keep a fox as a pet and should you provide another poultry, your grandmother will be furious.” Rightly so, Roman dad. A friendly native Celtic person then proceeded to praise my outstanding integration methods by describing it as “Ideal combination,” whereas an irritable elderly woman chose to intimidate me: “Utter those words again, and your fate will be sealed.”

The Thrill of Transportation

At the moment I believed I’d discovered all there is to discover in Anno 117: Pax Romana’s first-person mode, I found the joys of joyriding in Ancient Rome. Entirely by accident, I clicked on a wagon and quickly occupied the transport. Bovines, equines, even human-pulled carts; you can drive them all at your leisure. The donkey-powered transport, notably, moves quite quickly, though you shouldn’t imagine any GTA-like shenanigans — impacting citizens or additional vehicles cannot occur (once more, not admitting any attempts).

Combat Limitations

The only thing that disappointed me within the immersive perspective was discovering my inability to participate in any fighting. Wearing my military outfit, I approached opposing forces in the midst of battle and endeavored to damage them, only to be ignored completely. The proximate observation was still rather spectacular, and watching the enemy run, their limbs waving wildly, seemed enormously rewarding, though it might have been amazing to effectively strike targets via my incendiary bolts.

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