Anno 117 Pax Romana's Best-Kept Secret Reveals Itself as a Impressive First-Person Perspective.
Surprisingly — did you realize gamers have the option to enjoy Anno 117 Pax Romana from a first-person viewpoint? Should that be your response, you feel equally astonished compared to my initial response upon finding out this hidden feature. Allow me to briefly leave my empire’s management, entrust it to a trusted assistant, commandere a carriage, and enjoy a ride across the Roman world.
How to Access the First-Person Feature
In its role as a city-builder, the game Anno 117 is normally experienced from a bird's-eye view. However, if you enter a secret combination — such as “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on keyboard or “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on console — you can explore the realm as a regular inhabitant. Since a similar easter egg was part of the previous Anno title, I was eager to try it out in Ubisoft's newest game, yet I had doubts it would work until I found myself stuck in a Celtic building (possibly an unexpected bug — this feature can be somewhat unstable occasionally).
Roaming the Streets of Rome
After extracting myself, I strolled the busy roads through my metropolis and explored markets, breweries, floral patches, and cockle pickers — it felt magnificent to see the fruits of my labor using an entirely new viewpoint. I detected a variety of intricacies I might have missed from the top-down view: Doorway embellishments, an ass transporting a floral pail, fowl roaming freely, folks chilling on their balconies… Even just observing the form of a ledge and the coating on a pillar proves fascinating to modern individuals unfamiliar with ancient life.
More Than Just Walking
However, there's additional content to Anno 117’s first-person mode beyond simply walking the paths. I felt particularly pleased the moment I learned that besides being able to look upon crop lands, but also step into them. And even though I thought the building models would be off-limits, I was able to enter earthen quarries, explore a prestigious Grammaticus building during active classes, and intrude into private gardens. Avoid attempting to open doors (not even the developers planned for that functionality), but it’s entirely possible stroll around a barley farm, watch folks shoveling and carrying sacks, and glance into any tiny hut provided the entrance is missing.
Visual Quality and Atmosphere
Even though I expected to witness my city rendered using primitive rendering, besides some crude animations and sometimes citizens positioned inside seating instead of on a bench, the first-person view appears far superior to anticipations. The highly detailed textures (especially stone surfaces) really have no business being this good in what is still, essentially, a top-down game. You won't necessarily notice any individual strands of hair, however, you can observe engravings on walls, fiery particles from lamps, discoloration of masonry, pupils, and pine tree leaves. The night, featuring dancing flames and celestial bodies twinkling afar, is especially atmospheric, and proves significantly less intimidating compared to Anno 1800, especially since the inhabitants no longer resemble nightmarish entities these days.
Experimentation and Customization
Given the covert first-person feature lacks official documentation, I opted to try different commands, and immediately located the abilities to leap, run, and zoom in or out — the last option enabling me to alternate between immersive and external perspectives and back. I then decided to hit some number buttons and found I could alter my representative's visual design. Amber garment? Ruby clothing? Azure and violet outfit? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? You can wield a blade and protection, or, preferably, wear an archer's uniform; if you activate the engage command, you shoot flaming projectiles upward. In case you’re wondering, 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. Only seconds after I landed the first-person view, I overheard a father telling his child that he “Can’t have a pet fox and if you feed it one more chicken, your elder will punish you.” Rightly so, Roman dad. A pleasant regional Celt then began complimenting my brilliant Romano-Celtic policies by describing it as “Ideal combination,” whereas an irritable elderly woman decided to threaten me: “Say that one more time, and they’ll never find your body.”
The Fun of Vehicle Use
Just when I thought I’d discovered all there is to discover in Anno 117: Pax Romana’s first-person mode, I found the joys of joyriding across historical settings. Totally unintentionally, I clicked on a wagon and quickly occupied the transport. Cattle, asses, even people-powered transports; you may operate any of them freely. The ass-drawn vehicle, specifically, moves quite quickly, 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 sole aspect that let me down regarding the first-person view was discovering my inability to participate in combat situations. Equipped in warrior attire, I approached opposing forces in the midst of battle and endeavored to damage them, yet was completely overlooked. The close-up view was still rather spectacular, and seeing opponents retreat, their appendages thrashing around, felt highly gratifying, yet it would have been exciting to successfully impact objects using my fiery projectiles.
