Anno 117: Pax Romana's Top Secret Is a Breathtaking First-Person Mode.

Surprisingly — did you realize you can play the game Anno 117 in first-person? Should that be your response, you feel equally astonished as I was the moment I learned this secret option. Allow me to step away from managing my empire, delegate it to a reliable subordinate, borrow a cart, and go for a joyride through Ancient Rome.

Activating the First-Person Feature

In its role as a city-builder, the game Anno 117 is normally experienced using a top-down camera. However, if you enter a secret combination — such as “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” using PC controls or else “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on console — it becomes possible to roam your domain as a common citizen. Since a similar easter egg was part of the earlier game Anno 1800, I felt excited to experience it in the new release, but I wasn’t sure it would work prior to being stuck in a Celtic building (likely not meant to happen — this option is prone to glitches now and then).

Discovering the Ancient Streets

After extracting myself, I wandered the busy roads of my city and explored shops, taverns, flower fields, and shellfish gatherers — it was glorious to witness all my hard work using an entirely new viewpoint. I noticed a variety of intricacies that would escape notice from the top-down view: Front door decorations, an ass transporting a floral pail, fowl roaming freely, people relaxing on their verandas… Merely examining the shape of a window sill and the coloration on a post proves fascinating to modern individuals unfamiliar with ancient life.

More Than Just Walking

But there’s more to the first-person feature in Anno 117 than strolling along the road. I felt particularly pleased the moment I learned that besides being able to observe farming fields, but also enter them. And despite my expectation the building models would be off-limits, I could walk onto clay pits, tour an esteemed educational structure during active classes, and invade personal courtyards. Don’t try to open any doors (not even the developers planned for that functionality), but it’s entirely possible wander through a grain field, observe people digging and transporting bags, and take a peek inside any small shack when there's no doorway obstructing.

Visual Quality and Atmosphere

Even though I expected to witness my city rendered with outdated visual quality, excluding a few unpolished motions and sometimes citizens positioned within a bench rather than on a bench, the immersive perspective seems much better than expected. The meticulously crafted materials (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, yet you will notice wall inscriptions, flames emitting from lights, brick decoloration, eye details, and pine tree leaves. The night, featuring dancing flames and stars shining in the distance, is especially atmospheric, and feels much less frightening compared to Anno 1800, 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 opted to try different commands, and promptly found the abilities to leap, run, and adjusting the view — with the latter allowing me to alternate between immersive and external perspectives and back. I subsequently tried pressing some number buttons and found I could alter my character’s appearance. Golden robe? Ruby clothing? Sapphire and amethyst dress? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? You might hold a weapon and defense, or, my favorite, don a marksman outfit; if you hit the interaction button, you launch incendiary bolts heavenward. Should you be curious, eliminating citizens cannot be done (not that I attempted, naturally).

Amusement and Inhabitant Dialogues

However, I had no desire to injure my people, since they're incredibly amusing. Moments after I entered the immersive perspective, I heard a parent advising their offspring that “You cannot keep a fox as a pet and should you provide another poultry, your elder will punish you.” Understandable stance, father character. One lovely local Celt then started applauding my outstanding integration methods by labeling it “Perfect fusion,” whereas an irritable elderly woman chose to intimidate me: “Say that one more time, and they’ll never find your body.”

The Thrill of Transportation

Just when I thought I’d discovered all there is to discover in the title's first-person feature, I experienced the pleasure of driving across historical settings. Completely unexpectedly, I clicked on a wagon and quickly occupied the transport. Cattle, asses, even people-powered transports; you can control each one as desired. The donkey-powered transport, notably, is pretty fast, but don't anticipate any GTA-like shenanigans — colliding with pedestrians or other carts is impossible (once more, not admitting any attempts).

Battle Constraints

The single feature that frustrated me 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 attempted to attack them, but was entirely disregarded. The front-row seat remained quite impressive, and seeing opponents retreat, their limbs waving wildly, proved very satisfying, though it might have been amazing to actually hit something with my burning arrows.

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