Anno 117's Pax Romana's Hidden Gem Is a Impressive First-Person View.
Surprisingly — did you realize you can play the game Anno 117 using a first-person camera? If that’s your reaction, your surprise matches as my own reaction the moment I learned this hidden feature. Allow me to briefly leave my empire’s management, delegate it to a trusted assistant, borrow a cart, and enjoy a ride around the classical city.
Activating the First-Person Mode
In its role as a city-builder, Anno 117 Pax Romana is typically played using a top-down camera. However, if you press a covert button sequence — such as “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” using PC controls 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. Since a similar easter egg was included in the previous Anno title, I was eager to try it out in Ubisoft's newest game, yet I had doubts it would function until I found myself chin-deep in a Celtic floorboard (which probably wasn’t intended — this option tends to be a little buggy at times).
Exploring the Streets of Rome
Once I crawled out, I strolled the lively avenues of my city and explored markets, breweries, floral patches, and seafood collectors — it felt magnificent to observe the fruits of my labor through a fresh lens. I noticed numerous fine points I wouldn’t have spotted when viewing from overhead: Entryway ornaments, a donkey carrying a flower bucket, chickens running loose, folks chilling on their balconies… Even just observing the shape of a window sill and the paint layers on a column becomes engaging to modern individuals unfamiliar with ancient life.
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 not only could I look upon farming fields, but also step into them. And even though I thought interiors would be restricted, I managed to access earthen quarries, explore a prestigious Grammaticus building during active classes, and intrude into private gardens. Don't bother with door access (not even the studio planned for that functionality), however, you can definitely wander through a grain field, see citizens working with tools and burdens, and look within any modest shelter provided the entrance is missing.
Appearance and Mood
While I was completely ready to observe my settlement depicted with outdated visual quality, apart from certain rough movements and periodic inhabitants sitting inside seating instead of on a bench, first-person mode looks much better than expected. The intricately designed surfaces (especially stone surfaces) shouldn't logically be this impressive for a title that remains primarily overhead. You might not observe separate follicular elements, but you will see engravings on walls, fiery particles from lamps, brick decoloration, eye details, and pine tree leaves. Nighttime, with its flickering fires and distant stellar illumination, generates a uniquely immersive environment, and feels much less frightening relative to the previous game, given that the populace appears unlike sleep paralysis demons anymore.
Testing and Personalization
Since Anno 117’s super-secret first-person mode lacks official documentation, I opted to try different commands, and immediately located the abilities to leap, run, and changing perspective — the last option enabling me to change from first-person to third-person mode and back. I then experimented with various digit inputs and learned I could modify my representative's visual design. Golden robe? Red toga? Azure and violet outfit? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? You might hold a weapon and defense, or, preferably, wear an archer's uniform; if you hit the interaction button, you shoot flaming projectiles upward. In case you’re wondering, eliminating citizens cannot be done (not that I attempted, naturally).
Humor and Citizen Interactions
However, I had no desire to injure my people, as they're remarkably entertaining. Moments after I entered first-person mode, I listened to a dad instructing his kid that “You cannot keep a fox as a pet and if you offer additional fowl, your gran will have your head.” Appropriate response, paternal figure. A friendly native Celtic person then began complimenting my outstanding integration methods by describing it as “Ideal combination,” whereas an irritable elderly woman decided to threaten me: “Say that one more time, and they’ll never find your body.”
The Fun of Vehicle Use
Just as I assumed I uncovered all possible content in the title's first-person feature, I encountered the delight of riding in Ancient Rome. Completely unexpectedly, I clicked on a wagon and was promptly seated on the box. Cattle, asses, even human-pulled carts; you can control each one as desired. The ass-drawn vehicle, specifically, moves quite quickly, but don't anticipate open-world vehicular chaos — you can’t drive into people or other wagons (reiterating, without confirming testing).
Fighting Restrictions
The sole aspect that let me down in Anno 117’s first-person mode was discovering my inability to participate in combat situations. Sporting my soldier fit, I ran up to the enemy amidst fighting and tried to harm them, yet was completely overlooked. The close-up view remained quite impressive, and seeing opponents retreat, their appendages thrashing around, seemed enormously rewarding, though it might have been amazing to successfully impact objects with my burning arrows.
