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Wait — did you know it's possible to experience Anno 117 Pax Romana in first-person? Should that be your response, you feel equally astonished as I was the moment I learned this secret option. Excuse me while briefly leave my empire’s management, delegate it to a trusted assistant, take a wagon, and go for a joyride through Ancient Rome.

Activating the First-Person Mode

Being a city-building title, the game Anno 117 is typically played using a top-down camera. However, if you enter a secret combination — including “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” using PC controls or else “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on a controller — you can explore your domain as a common citizen. Given a comparable hidden feature was part of the earlier game Anno 1800, I looked forward to try it out in the latest installment, yet I had doubts it would function before I discovered myself chin-deep in a Celtic floorboard (which probably wasn’t intended — this mode tends to be a little buggy at times).

Exploring the Streets of Rome

After extracting myself, I strolled the lively avenues of my city and explored markets, breweries, blossom gardens, and shellfish gatherers — the experience was splendid to observe my diligent efforts through a fresh lens. I detected all kinds of details I might have missed from above: Front door decorations, a beast of burden holding a blossom container, fowl roaming freely, folks chilling on their balconies… Simply noticing the shape of a window sill and the coloration on a post proves fascinating for those not residing in classical times.

More Than Just Walking

But there’s more to Anno 117’s first-person mode beyond simply walking the paths. I felt particularly pleased upon discovering that besides being able to view crop lands, but also access them. And even though I thought the building models would be off-limits, I managed to access earthen quarries, explore a prestigious Grammaticus building as teaching was underway, and invade personal courtyards. Avoid attempting to open doors (not even the developers allocated resources for that), however, you can definitely meander across a cereal plantation, see citizens working with tools and burdens, and take a peek inside any small shack when there's no doorway obstructing.

Graphics and Ambiance

Even though I expected to witness my city rendered in PlayStation 1 graphics, excluding a few unpolished motions and the occasional civilian resting within a bench as opposed to atop a bench, the immersive perspective seems far superior to anticipations. The intricately designed surfaces (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 wall inscriptions, sparks flying from torches, fading on bricks, eye details, and conifer needles. The night, featuring dancing flames and distant stellar illumination, creates a particularly moody setting, and feels much less frightening compared to Anno 1800, especially since the inhabitants no longer resemble nightmarish entities anymore.

Discovery and Modification

Given the covert first-person feature lacks official documentation, I chose to test various actions, and quickly discovered the options to jump, sprint, and changing perspective — with the latter allowing me to switch between first and third-person views and back. I then decided to hit various digit inputs and learned I could modify my avatar's look. Yellow toga? Red toga? Sapphire and amethyst dress? Or — maybe superior — complete battle gear? You might hold a weapon and defense, or, personally chosen, equip a shooter's costume; if you hit the interaction button, you launch incendiary bolts heavenward. In case you’re wondering, it’s not possible to kill civilians (not that I’ve tried, of course).

Humor and Citizen Interactions

But I wouldn’t wish to harm my citizens anyway, as they're remarkably entertaining. Shortly after I activated 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.” Appropriate response, paternal figure. A pleasant regional Celt then began complimenting my brilliant Romano-Celtic policies by describing it as “Ideal combination,” meanwhile a grumpy senior female chose to intimidate me: “Utter those words again, and your fate will be sealed.”

The Thrill of Transportation

Just when I thought I had found everything available within the game's immersive perspective, I encountered the delight of riding through classical settlements. Completely unexpectedly, I interacted with a cart and immediately found myself in the driver's position. Cattle, asses, even human-pulled carts; you can drive them all at your leisure. The donkey-powered transport, notably, travels rather rapidly, but don't anticipate Grand Theft Auto-style mischief — colliding with pedestrians or other carts is impossible (reiterating, without confirming testing).

Battle Constraints

The sole aspect that let me down within the immersive perspective was learning about my exclusion from in any fighting. Wearing my military outfit, I ran up to the enemy during active combat and tried to harm them, yet was completely overlooked. The close-up view remained quite impressive, and seeing opponents retreat, their limbs waving wildly, felt highly gratifying, though it might have been amazing to actually hit something via my incendiary bolts.

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