🔗 Share this article

Hold on — were you aware gamers have the option to enjoy the game Anno 117 using a first-person camera? If you're thinking that, you feel equally astonished as I was when I discovered this concealed mode. Excuse me while temporarily abandon overseeing my civilization, delegate it to a capable deputy, take a wagon, and go for a joyride around the classical city.

How to Access the First-Person Feature

Being a city-building title, Anno 117: Pax Romana is typically played using a top-down camera. But, should you enter a secret combination — for example “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on keyboard alternatively “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” with a gamepad — it becomes possible to roam the empire as an ordinary Roman. Given a comparable hidden feature was part of the earlier game Anno 1800, I felt excited to try it out in the latest installment, though I was uncertain it would operate prior to being chin-deep in a Celtic floorboard (which probably wasn’t intended — this option can be prone to glitches now and then).

Roaming the Ancient Streets

Upon freeing myself, I wandered the bustling streets through my metropolis and visited shops, taverns, floral patches, and shellfish gatherers — it felt magnificent to see all my hard work using an entirely new viewpoint. I observed numerous fine points I wouldn’t have spotted from the top-down view: Front door decorations, a donkey carrying a flower bucket, chickens running loose, folks chilling on their balconies… Even just observing the design of a windowsill and the coloration on a post is quite interesting to modern individuals unfamiliar with ancient life.

More Than Just Walking

However, there's additional content to the game's immersive perspective beyond simply walking the paths. I became extraordinarily excited the moment I learned that not only could I observe farming fields, but also enter them. And despite my expectation structures would be inaccessible, I managed to access mud extraction sites, investigate a respected schoolhouse during active classes, and even trespass into people’s gardens. Avoid attempting to open doors (not even the studio allocated resources for that), yet it's completely feasible meander across a cereal plantation, watch folks shoveling and carrying sacks, and glance into any tiny hut provided the entrance is missing.

Visual Quality and Atmosphere

Although I was fully prepared to witness my city rendered in PlayStation 1 graphics, besides some crude animations and periodic inhabitants sitting within a bench rather than on a bench, the immersive perspective seems far superior to anticipations. The intricately designed surfaces (especially stone surfaces) shouldn't logically be this impressive for a title that remains primarily overhead. You might not observe any individual strands of hair, but you will see writings on surfaces, flames emitting from lights, brick decoloration, iris elements, and pine tree leaves. The night, featuring dancing flames and celestial bodies twinkling afar, creates a particularly moody setting, and proves significantly less intimidating versus the earlier title, given that the populace appears unlike nightmarish entities anymore.

Discovery and Modification

Because the game's hidden immersive perspective has no guided tutorial, I opted to try different commands, and quickly discovered the abilities to leap, run, and adjusting the view — with the latter allowing me to alternate between immersive and external perspectives and return. I subsequently tried pressing certain numeric keys and discovered that I could change my representative's visual design. Amber garment? Red toga? Azure and violet outfit? Or — potentially preferable — armored suit? You can wield a blade and protection, or, preferably, wear an archer's uniform; if you activate the engage command, you launch incendiary bolts heavenward. In case you’re wondering, eliminating citizens cannot be done (not that I attempted, naturally).

Comedy and Population Encounters

But I wouldn’t wish to harm my citizens anyway, because they’re way too funny. Only seconds after I landed first-person mode, I heard a parent advising their offspring that “You cannot keep a fox as a pet and should you provide another poultry, your grandmother will be furious.” Understandable stance, father character. A friendly native Celtic person then proceeded to praise my excellent cross-cultural strategies by describing it as “Ideal combination,” meanwhile a grumpy senior female opted to menace me: “Utter those words again, and your fate will be sealed.”

The Thrill of Transportation

At the moment I believed I had found everything available within the game's immersive perspective, I encountered the delight of riding in Ancient Rome. Completely unexpectedly, I clicked on a wagon and quickly occupied the transport. Cattle, asses, even human-pulled carts; you may operate any of them freely. The ass-drawn vehicle, specifically, is pretty fast, although you shouldn't expect Grand Theft Auto-style mischief — impacting citizens or additional vehicles cannot occur (again, not saying I’ve tried).

Battle Constraints

The sole aspect that let me down in Anno 117’s first-person mode was learning about my exclusion from in battle encounters. Equipped in warrior attire, I charged toward adversaries during active combat and attempted to attack them, but was entirely disregarded. The proximate observation was still rather spectacular, and watching the enemy run, their arms flailing about, seemed enormously rewarding, yet it would have been exciting to actually hit something with my burning arrows.

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