Anno 117: Pax Romana's Hidden Gem Turns Out to Be a Breathtaking First-Person Perspective.
Hold on — were you aware you can play Anno 117 Pax Romana from a first-person viewpoint? If that’s your reaction, you feel equally astonished compared to my initial response when I discovered this hidden feature. I must temporarily abandon my empire’s management, entrust it to a trusted assistant, borrow a cart, 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 usually operates from a bird's-eye view. Yet, when you input a hidden code — for example “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 your domain as a common citizen. Because an analogous secret appeared in the previous Anno title, I was eager to try it out in the new release, though I was uncertain it would work before I discovered myself submerged in a structural glitch (which probably wasn’t intended — this option can be a little buggy at times).
Roaming the Roman Cityscape
Once I crawled out, I walked the bustling streets through my metropolis and toured stalls, alehouses, floral patches, and shellfish gatherers — the experience was splendid to observe all my hard work using an entirely new viewpoint. I observed numerous fine points I might have missed from above: Front door decorations, a beast of burden holding a blossom container, poultry scattering about, citizens lounging on their terraces… Even just observing the shape of a window sill and the paint layers on a column becomes engaging to modern individuals unfamiliar with ancient life.
Beyond Simple Strolling
Yet, the experience extends to Anno 117’s first-person mode aside from meandering through streets. I felt particularly pleased the moment I learned that not only could I view farming fields, but also enter them. And although I’d assumed interiors would be restricted, I managed to access earthen quarries, explore a prestigious Grammaticus building during active classes, and intrude into private gardens. Don't bother with door access (not even the developers have the budget for that), but it’s entirely possible stroll around a barley farm, observe people digging and transporting bags, and look within any modest shelter when there's no doorway obstructing.
Graphics and Ambiance
While I was completely ready to observe my settlement depicted using primitive rendering, besides some crude animations and periodic inhabitants sitting in a bench rather than on a bench, first-person mode looks much better than expected. The meticulously crafted materials (particularly rock faces) really have no business being this good for a title that remains primarily overhead. You might not observe any individual strands of hair, however, you can observe engravings on walls, flames emitting from lights, discoloration of masonry, eye details, and conifer needles. Evening, with glowing light sources and celestial bodies twinkling afar, generates a uniquely immersive environment, and also a lot less scary compared to Anno 1800, especially since the inhabitants no longer resemble nightmarish entities anymore.
Experimentation and Customization
Since Anno 117’s super-secret first-person mode has no guided tutorial, I opted to try different commands, and promptly found the options to jump, sprint, and adjusting the view — the zoom function permitting me to switch between first and third-person views and back. I then experimented with certain numeric keys and learned I could modify my representative's visual design. Golden robe? Red toga? Sapphire and amethyst dress? Or — potentially preferable — armored suit? You may carry a sword and shield, or, preferably, wear an archer's uniform; when you press the action key, you shoot flaming projectiles upward. Should you be curious, eliminating citizens cannot be done (not that I’ve tried, of course).
Amusement and Inhabitant Dialogues
However, I had no desire to injure my people, since they're incredibly amusing. Only seconds after I landed the immersive perspective, I heard a parent advising their offspring that “Owning a fox is prohibited 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 labeling it “Perfect fusion,” whereas an irritable elderly woman decided to threaten me: “Utter those words again, and your fate will be sealed.”
The Joy of Joyriding
At the moment I believed I’d discovered all there is to discover in the title's first-person feature, I encountered the delight of riding through classical settlements. Totally unintentionally, I interacted with a cart and quickly occupied the transport. Oxen, donkeys, even manually drawn vehicles; you can drive them all at your leisure. The donkey cart, in particular, is pretty fast, although you shouldn't expect Grand Theft Auto-style mischief — colliding with pedestrians or other carts is impossible (once more, not admitting any attempts).
Battle Constraints
The single feature that frustrated me regarding the first-person view was finding out I couldn’t partake in battle encounters. Wearing my military outfit, I charged toward adversaries in the midst of battle and tried to harm them, yet was completely overlooked. The proximate observation was still rather spectacular, and watching the enemy run, their appendages thrashing around, seemed enormously rewarding, though it might have been amazing to successfully impact objects using my fiery projectiles.
