Anno 117: Pax Romana's Best-Kept Secret Reveals Itself as a Breathtaking First-Person Perspective.
Wait — did you know you can play Anno 117: Pax Romana from a first-person viewpoint? Should that be your response, you feel equally astonished compared to my initial response when I discovered this hidden feature. I must step away from managing my empire, entrust it to a capable deputy, borrow a cart, and go for a joyride through Ancient Rome.
Unlocking the First-Person Feature
As a city-building game, Anno 117: Pax Romana usually operates from a bird's-eye view. Yet, when you input a hidden code — for example “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on a keyboard or “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on a controller — you gain the ability to walk the empire as an ordinary Roman. Given a comparable hidden feature was part of the earlier game Anno 1800, I was eager to try it out in Ubisoft's newest game, but I wasn’t sure it would function prior to being stuck in a Celtic building (which probably wasn’t intended — this option tends to be a little buggy at times).
Exploring the Roman Cityscape
After extracting myself, I strolled the lively avenues through my metropolis and visited stalls, alehouses, floral patches, and seafood collectors — it felt magnificent to witness all my hard work through a fresh lens. I detected a variety of intricacies I wouldn’t have spotted from above: Doorway embellishments, a beast of burden holding a blossom container, fowl roaming freely, folks chilling on their balconies… Simply noticing the design of a windowsill and the coating on a pillar proves fascinating for those not residing in classical times.
Beyond Simple Strolling
But there’s more to the first-person feature in Anno 117 aside from meandering through streets. I was especially delighted when I found out that I could not just look upon crop lands, but also access them. And even though I thought interiors would be restricted, I could walk onto mud extraction sites, investigate a respected schoolhouse while lessons were in session, and even trespass into people’s gardens. Avoid attempting to open doors (not even the developers allocated resources for that), yet it's completely feasible stroll around a barley farm, observe people digging and transporting bags, and take a peek inside any small shack when there's no doorway obstructing.
Appearance and Mood
While I was completely ready to witness my city rendered using primitive rendering, apart from certain rough movements and periodic inhabitants sitting inside seating as opposed to atop a bench, first-person mode looks much better than expected. The intricately designed surfaces (especially stone surfaces) are unexpectedly excellent in what is still, essentially, a top-down game. You won't necessarily notice specific hair details, however, you can observe wall inscriptions, fiery particles from lamps, discoloration of masonry, pupils, and conifer needles. The night, featuring dancing flames and distant stellar illumination, is especially atmospheric, and also a lot less scary versus the earlier title, given that the populace appears unlike nightmarish entities anymore.
Discovery and Modification
Since Anno 117’s super-secret first-person mode lacks official documentation, I chose to test various actions, and immediately located the functions for jumping, dashing, and adjusting the view — the last option enabling me to alternate between immersive and external perspectives and back. I subsequently tried pressing various digit inputs and discovered that I could change my character’s appearance. Amber garment? Red toga? Blue and purple toga? Or — potentially preferable — armored suit? You may carry a sword and shield, or, my favorite, don a marksman outfit; 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).
Humor and Citizen Interactions
However, I had no desire to injure my people, since they're incredibly amusing. Shortly after I activated first-person mode, I heard a parent advising their offspring that he “Can’t have a pet fox and if you feed it one more chicken, your grandmother will be furious.” Rightly so, Roman dad. One lovely local Celt then proceeded to praise my outstanding integration methods 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 Thrill of Transportation
Just when I thought I had found everything available within the game's immersive perspective, I found the joys of joyriding through classical settlements. Completely unexpectedly, I interacted with a cart and immediately found myself in the driver's position. Cattle, asses, even manually drawn vehicles; you may operate any of them freely. The donkey cart, in particular, moves quite quickly, although you shouldn't expect open-world vehicular chaos — colliding with pedestrians or other carts is impossible (again, not saying I’ve tried).
Fighting Restrictions
The single feature that frustrated me regarding the first-person view was discovering my inability to participate in battle encounters. Sporting my soldier fit, I approached opposing forces amidst fighting and tried to harm them, yet was completely overlooked. The proximate observation was nonetheless magnificent, and watching the enemy run, their arms flailing about, felt highly gratifying, yet it would have been exciting to actually hit something using my fiery projectiles.
