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Surprisingly — did you realize gamers have the option to enjoy Anno 117: Pax Romana in first-person? If that’s your reaction, you’re just as shocked as I was when I discovered this concealed mode. Excuse me while temporarily abandon my empire’s management, delegate it to a capable deputy, take a wagon, and take a spin through Ancient Rome.

Unlocking the First-Person Mode

In its role as a city-builder, the game Anno 117 is typically played from an overhead perspective. But, should you enter a secret combination — for example “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on keyboard or “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on a controller — it becomes possible to roam the realm as a regular inhabitant. Since a similar easter egg 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 (which probably wasn’t intended — this feature can be prone to glitches now and then).

Roaming the Roman Cityscape

Once I crawled out, I strolled the bustling streets through my metropolis and toured markets, breweries, blossom gardens, and cockle pickers — it felt magnificent to witness all my hard work from a brand-new perspective. I noticed numerous fine points that would escape notice when viewing from overhead: Entryway ornaments, a donkey carrying a flower bucket, poultry scattering about, folks chilling on their balconies… Even just observing the design of a windowsill and the paint layers on a column becomes engaging for those not residing in classical times.

Further Than Mere Wandering

Yet, the experience extends to Anno 117’s first-person mode aside from meandering through streets. I was especially delighted the moment I learned that not only could I look upon crop lands, but also enter them. And despite my expectation interiors would be restricted, I could walk onto earthen quarries, investigate a respected schoolhouse as teaching was underway, and invade personal courtyards. Don’t try to open any doors (not even the creators allocated resources for that), but it’s entirely possible stroll around a barley farm, watch folks shoveling and carrying sacks, and take a peek inside any small shack as long as the door is absent.

Graphics and Ambiance

Even though I expected to see my metropolis represented using primitive rendering, apart from certain rough movements and the occasional civilian resting inside seating instead of on a bench, first-person mode looks far superior to anticipations. The highly detailed textures (especially stone surfaces) really have no business being this good in what is still, essentially, a top-down game. You might not observe specific hair details, however, you can observe engravings on walls, flames emitting from lights, fading on bricks, pupils, and pine tree leaves. Nighttime, with its flickering fires and celestial bodies twinkling afar, creates a particularly moody setting, and proves significantly less intimidating versus the earlier title, now that the citizens don’t look like sleep paralysis demons anymore.

Discovery and Modification

Given the covert first-person feature has no guided tutorial, I chose to test various actions, and promptly found the functions for jumping, dashing, and zoom in or out — the last option enabling me to change from first-person to third-person mode and revert. I then experimented with certain numeric keys and found I could alter my character’s appearance. Amber garment? Crimson attire? Sapphire and amethyst dress? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? 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. In case you’re wondering, eliminating citizens cannot be done (not that I’ve tried, of course).

Comedy and Population Encounters

However, I had no desire to injure my people, as they're remarkably entertaining. Shortly after I activated the first-person view, I listened to a dad instructing his kid that “Owning a fox is prohibited and if you feed it one more chicken, your gran will have your head.” Appropriate response, paternal figure. A friendly native Celtic person then proceeded to praise my brilliant Romano-Celtic policies 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 Fun of Vehicle Use

At the moment I believed I uncovered all possible content within the game's immersive perspective, I found the joys of joyriding in Ancient Rome. Completely unexpectedly, I interacted with a cart and immediately found myself in the driver's position. Bovines, equines, even human-pulled carts; you can drive them all at your leisure. The donkey-powered transport, notably, moves quite quickly, but don't anticipate any GTA-like shenanigans — you can’t drive into people or other wagons (once more, not admitting any attempts).

Combat Limitations

The only thing that disappointed me in Anno 117’s first-person mode was learning about my exclusion from in combat situations. Equipped in warrior attire, I ran up to the enemy during active combat and tried to harm them, yet was completely overlooked. The front-row seat remained quite impressive, and observing foes flee, their limbs waving wildly, felt highly gratifying, yet it would have been exciting to actually hit something via my incendiary bolts.

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