Anno 117: Pax Romana's Hidden Gem Is a Breathtaking First-Person Perspective.
Hold on — were you aware gamers have the option to enjoy the game Anno 117 in first-person? If that’s your reaction, your surprise matches compared to my initial response the moment I learned this concealed mode. Allow me to step away from my empire’s management, leave it in a trusted assistant, borrow a cart, and take a spin across the Roman world.
How to Access the First-Person Mode
Being a city-building title, Anno 117 Pax Romana is normally experienced from an overhead perspective. But, should you enter a secret combination — for example “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” using PC controls or “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” with a gamepad — it becomes possible to roam the empire as an ordinary Roman. Given a comparable hidden feature appeared in Anno 1800, I looked forward to experience it in Ubisoft's newest game, yet I had doubts it would work until I found myself submerged in a structural glitch (possibly an unexpected bug — this mode is somewhat unstable occasionally).
Roaming the Streets of Rome
After extracting myself, I wandered the bustling streets of my city and toured markets, breweries, flower fields, and shellfish gatherers — it was glorious to witness the fruits of my labor 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, chickens running loose, citizens lounging on their terraces… Simply noticing the shape of a window sill and the paint layers on a column becomes engaging to someone who doesn’t live in Ancient Rome.
Further Than Mere Wandering
But there’s more to Anno 117’s first-person mode aside from meandering through streets. I became extraordinarily excited upon discovering that besides being able to view agricultural plots, but also enter them. And even though I thought the building models would be off-limits, I was able to enter clay pits, explore a prestigious Grammaticus building as teaching was underway, and intrude into private gardens. Don’t try to open any doors (not even the creators allocated resources for that), however, you can definitely wander through a grain field, see citizens working with tools and burdens, and glance into any tiny hut provided the entrance is missing.
Graphics and Ambiance
Although I was fully prepared to see my metropolis represented with outdated visual quality, excluding a few unpolished motions and the occasional civilian resting inside seating as opposed to atop a bench, the first-person view appears far superior to anticipations. The highly detailed textures (notably masonry elements) really have no business being this good in what is still, essentially, a top-down game. You might not observe any individual strands of hair, however, you can observe engravings on walls, sparks flying from torches, brick decoloration, eye details, and pine tree leaves. Nighttime, with its flickering fires and celestial bodies twinkling afar, generates a uniquely immersive environment, and feels much less frightening compared to Anno 1800, now that the citizens don’t look like nightmarish entities now.
Experimentation and Customization
Given the covert first-person feature lacks official documentation, I decided to experiment a bit, and promptly found the abilities to leap, run, and changing perspective — with the latter allowing me to switch between first and third-person views and revert. I then decided to hit certain numeric keys and found I could alter my avatar's look. Golden robe? 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; if you hit the interaction button, you shoot flaming projectiles upward. Should you be curious, 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 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 grandmother will be furious.” Understandable stance, father character. A pleasant regional Celt then proceeded to praise 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
At the moment I believed I uncovered all possible content in the title's first-person feature, I experienced the pleasure of driving in Ancient Rome. Entirely by accident, I selected a carriage and was promptly seated on the box. Bovines, equines, even manually drawn vehicles; you can drive them all at your leisure. The ass-drawn vehicle, specifically, travels rather rapidly, although you shouldn't expect 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 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 seeing opponents retreat, their arms flailing about, felt highly gratifying, but it would’ve been cool to successfully impact objects with my burning arrows.
