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Wait — did you know it's possible to experience the game Anno 117 using a first-person camera? Should that be your response, your surprise matches as my own reaction upon finding out this hidden feature. I must step away from my empire’s management, delegate it to a capable deputy, take a wagon, and go for a joyride around the classical city.

Activating the First-Person View

As a city-building game, Anno 117 Pax Romana usually operates from an overhead perspective. However, if you press a covert button sequence — for example “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on a keyboard alternatively “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on console — it becomes possible to roam the realm as a regular inhabitant. Because an analogous secret appeared in the previous Anno title, I felt excited to experience it in the latest installment, though I was uncertain it would work prior to being chin-deep in a Celtic floorboard (which probably wasn’t intended — this mode is a little buggy at times).

Exploring the Ancient Streets

Upon freeing myself, I strolled the lively avenues through my metropolis and explored stalls, alehouses, floral patches, and shellfish gatherers — it was glorious to witness my diligent efforts from a brand-new perspective. I detected a variety of intricacies I wouldn’t have spotted from the top-down view: Doorway embellishments, a beast of burden holding a blossom container, poultry scattering about, citizens lounging on their terraces… Merely examining the shape of a window sill and the coating on a pillar proves fascinating to modern individuals unfamiliar with ancient life.

Further Than Mere Wandering

But there’s more to Anno 117’s first-person mode than strolling along the road. I felt particularly pleased when I found out that not only could I look upon crop lands, but also step into them. And despite my expectation structures would be inaccessible, I was able to enter earthen quarries, investigate a respected schoolhouse while lessons were in session, and invade personal courtyards. Avoid attempting to open doors (not even the creators have the budget for that), but it’s entirely possible stroll around a barley farm, watch folks shoveling and carrying sacks, and glance into any tiny hut as long as the door is absent.

Appearance and Mood

Even though I expected to see my metropolis represented with outdated visual quality, apart from certain rough movements and periodic inhabitants sitting within a bench rather than on a bench, the first-person view appears far superior to anticipations. The highly detailed textures (especially stone surfaces) really have no business being this good within a game that's fundamentally a city-builder. You may not see any individual strands of hair, however, you can observe wall inscriptions, sparks flying from torches, brick decoloration, iris elements, and conifer needles. The night, featuring dancing flames and celestial bodies twinkling afar, generates a uniquely immersive environment, and feels much less frightening versus the earlier title, now that the citizens don’t look like nightmarish entities anymore.

Experimentation and Customization

Given the covert first-person feature has no guided tutorial, I decided to experiment a bit, and immediately located the options to jump, sprint, and changing perspective — the zoom function permitting me to change from first-person to third-person mode and back. I then decided to hit certain numeric keys and learned I could modify my avatar's look. 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; when you press the action key, you’ll fire burning arrows into the sky. If you're interested, it’s not possible to kill civilians (not that I’ve tried, of course).

Comedy and Population Encounters

But I wouldn’t wish to harm my citizens anyway, since they're incredibly amusing. Only seconds after I landed the immersive perspective, I listened to a dad instructing his kid that “Owning a fox is prohibited and if you feed it one more chicken, your elder will punish you.” Understandable stance, father character. One lovely local Celt then proceeded to praise my excellent cross-cultural strategies by calling it the “Best of both worlds,” meanwhile a grumpy senior female decided to threaten me: “Repeat that statement, and your disappearance will be permanent.”

The Thrill of Transportation

Just as I assumed I’d discovered all there is to discover within the game's immersive perspective, I experienced the pleasure of driving in Ancient Rome. Totally unintentionally, I interacted with a cart and immediately found myself in the driver's position. Oxen, donkeys, even people-powered transports; you can control each one as desired. The donkey cart, in particular, is pretty fast, though you shouldn’t imagine any GTA-like shenanigans — you can’t drive into people or other wagons (again, not saying I’ve tried).

Combat Limitations

The single feature that frustrated me within the immersive perspective was learning about my exclusion from in any fighting. Wearing my military outfit, I charged toward adversaries amidst fighting and tried to harm them, but was entirely disregarded. The close-up view was still rather spectacular, and observing foes flee, their appendages thrashing around, felt highly gratifying, but it would’ve been cool to actually hit something via my incendiary bolts.

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