Anno 117 Pax Romana's Best-Kept Secret Reveals Itself as a Breathtaking First-Person Mode.
Hold on — were you aware you can play Anno 117: Pax Romana from a first-person viewpoint? If you're thinking that, your surprise matches compared to my initial response upon finding out this secret option. Excuse me while temporarily abandon overseeing my civilization, leave it in a reliable subordinate, take a wagon, and go for a joyride around the classical city.
Activating the First-Person Mode
As a city-building game, the game Anno 117 is typically played using a top-down camera. Yet, when you input a hidden code — such as “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on keyboard or else “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on console — it becomes possible to roam the empire as an ordinary Roman. Because an analogous secret was included in the previous Anno title, I felt excited to experience it in the latest installment, though I was uncertain it would operate before I discovered myself chin-deep in a Celtic floorboard (likely not meant to happen — this feature tends to be prone to glitches now and then).
Roaming the Streets of Rome
Once I crawled out, I strolled the lively avenues through my metropolis and visited stalls, alehouses, floral patches, and seafood collectors — it felt magnificent to observe all my hard work through a fresh lens. I noticed numerous fine points I might have missed from the top-down view: Doorway embellishments, a donkey carrying a flower bucket, fowl roaming freely, folks chilling on their balconies… Simply noticing the form of a ledge and the paint layers on a column is quite interesting for those not residing in classical times.
Further Than Mere Wandering
Yet, the experience extends to the game's immersive perspective beyond simply walking the paths. I felt particularly pleased the moment I learned that I could not just view crop lands, but also step into them. And even though I thought interiors would be restricted, I could walk onto clay pits, explore a prestigious Grammaticus building as teaching was underway, and intrude into private gardens. Don’t try to open any doors (not even the developers have the budget for that), however, you can definitely meander across a cereal plantation, watch folks shoveling and carrying sacks, and take a peek inside any small shack provided the entrance is missing.
Visual Quality and Atmosphere
Even though I expected to see my metropolis represented with outdated visual quality, apart from certain rough movements and the occasional civilian resting inside seating rather than on a bench, first-person mode looks considerably improved over predictions. The meticulously crafted materials (particularly rock faces) really have no business being this good in what is still, essentially, a top-down game. You might not observe specific hair details, but you will see writings on surfaces, fiery particles from lamps, brick decoloration, eye details, 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 terrifying apparitions now.
Discovery and Modification
Because the game's hidden immersive perspective has no guided tutorial, I opted to try different commands, 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 return. I subsequently tried pressing various digit inputs and discovered that I could change my character’s appearance. Golden robe? Ruby clothing? Sapphire and amethyst dress? Or — maybe superior — complete battle gear? You may carry a sword and shield, or, preferably, wear an archer's uniform; if you activate the engage command, you shoot flaming projectiles upward. If you're interested, it’s not possible to kill civilians (not that I’ve tried, of course).
Amusement and Inhabitant Dialogues
But I wouldn’t wish to harm my citizens anyway, as they're remarkably entertaining. Only seconds after I landed the immersive perspective, I listened to a dad instructing his kid that “Owning a fox is prohibited and should you provide another poultry, your elder will punish you.” Understandable stance, father character. One lovely local Celt then proceeded to praise my outstanding integration methods by calling it the “Best of both worlds,” whereas an irritable elderly woman decided to threaten me: “Repeat that statement, and your disappearance will be permanent.”
The Joy of Joyriding
At the moment I believed I had found everything available in Anno 117: Pax Romana’s first-person mode, I encountered the delight of riding in Ancient Rome. Completely unexpectedly, I interacted with a cart and was promptly seated on the box. Cattle, asses, even people-powered transports; you can control each one as desired. The ass-drawn vehicle, specifically, is pretty fast, though you shouldn’t imagine any GTA-like shenanigans — you can’t drive into people or other wagons (once more, not admitting any attempts).
Battle Constraints
The only thing that disappointed me regarding the first-person view was finding out I couldn’t partake in any fighting. Wearing my military outfit, I approached opposing forces in the midst of battle and endeavored to damage them, but was entirely disregarded. The close-up view was nonetheless magnificent, and observing foes flee, their appendages thrashing around, seemed enormously rewarding, though it might have been amazing to successfully impact objects with my burning arrows.
