🔗 Share this article

Hold on — were you aware you can play Anno 117: Pax Romana using a first-person camera? If that’s your reaction, you’re just as shocked as my own reaction upon finding out this concealed mode. I must briefly leave managing my empire, leave it in a capable deputy, take a wagon, and take a spin around the classical city.

How to Access the First-Person View

Being a city-building title, Anno 117 Pax Romana usually operates using a top-down camera. But, should 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” with a gamepad — it becomes possible to roam the realm as a regular inhabitant. Given a comparable hidden feature was included in Anno 1800, I looked forward to try it out in the latest installment, though I was uncertain it would work before I discovered myself submerged in a structural glitch (likely not meant to happen — this mode can be somewhat unstable occasionally).

Exploring the Roman Cityscape

Upon freeing myself, I walked the bustling streets across my settlement and toured markets, breweries, blossom gardens, and shellfish gatherers — the experience was splendid to see the fruits of my labor from a brand-new perspective. I detected all kinds of details I might have missed from above: Entryway ornaments, a beast of burden holding a blossom container, chickens running loose, people relaxing on their verandas… Simply noticing the shape of a window sill and the coating on a pillar becomes engaging to someone who doesn’t live in Ancient Rome.

Further Than Mere Wandering

Yet, the experience extends to the game's immersive perspective than strolling along the road. I became extraordinarily excited when I found out that I could not just view crop lands, but also access them. And although I’d assumed structures would be inaccessible, I was able to enter mud extraction sites, tour an esteemed educational structure as teaching was underway, and intrude into private gardens. Avoid attempting to open doors (not even the creators planned for that functionality), but it’s entirely possible stroll around a barley farm, see citizens working with tools and burdens, and take a peek inside any small shack when there's no doorway obstructing.

Visual Quality and Atmosphere

Although I was fully prepared to observe my settlement depicted with outdated visual quality, excluding a few unpolished motions and periodic inhabitants sitting within a bench instead of on a bench, the immersive perspective seems much better than expected. The meticulously crafted materials (particularly rock faces) shouldn't logically be this impressive in what is still, essentially, a top-down game. You might not observe separate follicular elements, but you will see engravings on walls, sparks flying from torches, fading on bricks, eye details, and conifer needles. Evening, with glowing light sources and distant stellar illumination, is especially atmospheric, and also a lot less scary versus the earlier title, especially since the inhabitants no longer resemble sleep paralysis demons now.

Testing and Personalization

Given the covert first-person feature doesn’t come with an instruction manual, I chose to test various actions, and immediately located the options to jump, sprint, and adjusting the view — the last option enabling me to switch between first and third-person views and return. I then experimented with some number buttons and learned I could modify my representative's visual design. Amber garment? Red toga? Sapphire and amethyst dress? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? You might hold a weapon and defense, or, my favorite, don a marksman outfit; when you press the action key, you launch incendiary bolts heavenward. Should you be curious, harming inhabitants is impossible (not that I attempted, naturally).

Amusement and Inhabitant Dialogues

Yet, I didn't want to damage my population, since they're incredibly amusing. Moments after I entered first-person mode, I listened to a dad instructing his kid that “Owning a fox is prohibited and should you provide another poultry, your grandmother will be furious.” Rightly so, Roman dad. One lovely local Celt then proceeded to praise my excellent cross-cultural strategies by labeling it “Perfect fusion,” meanwhile a grumpy senior female 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 had found everything available in Anno 117: Pax Romana’s first-person mode, I experienced the pleasure of driving through classical settlements. Completely unexpectedly, I interacted with a cart and immediately found myself in the driver's position. Oxen, donkeys, even human-pulled carts; you may operate any of them freely. The donkey cart, in particular, travels rather rapidly, though you shouldn’t imagine Grand Theft Auto-style mischief — impacting citizens or additional vehicles cannot occur (once more, not admitting any attempts).

Fighting Restrictions

The only thing that disappointed me within the immersive perspective was discovering my inability to participate in combat situations. Sporting my soldier fit, I ran up to the enemy during active combat and attempted to attack them, yet was completely overlooked. The close-up view was still rather spectacular, and seeing opponents retreat, their appendages thrashing around, felt highly gratifying, though it might have been amazing to successfully impact objects via my incendiary bolts.

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