Anno 117: Pax Romana's Top Secret Turns Out to Be a Breathtaking First-Person View.
Surprisingly — did you realize you can play Anno 117: Pax Romana from a first-person viewpoint? Should that be your response, your surprise matches as I was upon finding out this concealed mode. I must briefly leave overseeing my civilization, entrust it to a capable deputy, borrow a cart, and go for a joyride across the Roman world.
Unlocking the First-Person View
Being a city-building title, Anno 117: Pax Romana is normally experienced from an overhead perspective. But, should you input a hidden code — such as “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on keyboard alternatively “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on a controller — you gain the ability to walk your domain as a common citizen. Given a comparable hidden feature appeared in Anno 1800, I felt excited to experience it in the new release, yet I had doubts it would operate prior to being submerged in a structural glitch (which probably wasn’t intended — this mode can be prone to glitches now and then).
Discovering the Ancient Streets
Upon freeing myself, I wandered the busy roads through my metropolis and toured shops, taverns, blossom gardens, and shellfish gatherers — it felt magnificent to observe the fruits of my labor through a fresh lens. I observed numerous fine points I might have missed from above: Doorway embellishments, a donkey carrying a flower bucket, fowl roaming freely, folks chilling on their balconies… Even just observing the form of a ledge and the coating on a pillar becomes engaging to someone who doesn’t live in Ancient Rome.
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 I could not just view agricultural plots, but also step into them. And although I’d assumed structures would be inaccessible, I was able to enter earthen quarries, investigate a respected schoolhouse as teaching was underway, and invade personal courtyards. 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 when there's no doorway obstructing.
Appearance and Mood
While I was completely ready to observe my settlement depicted with outdated visual quality, excluding a few unpolished motions and the occasional civilian resting within a bench rather than on a bench, the immersive perspective seems much better than expected. The intricately designed surfaces (particularly rock faces) are unexpectedly excellent in what is still, essentially, a top-down game. You might not observe any individual strands of hair, but you will see engravings on walls, flames emitting from lights, fading on bricks, pupils, and conifer needles. Nighttime, with its flickering fires and stars shining in the distance, creates a particularly moody setting, and feels much less frightening compared to Anno 1800, now that the citizens don’t look like nightmarish entities anymore.
Testing and Personalization
Given the covert first-person feature has no guided tutorial, I opted to try different commands, and promptly found the functions for jumping, dashing, and changing perspective — the last option enabling me to alternate between immersive and external perspectives and back. I then decided to hit certain numeric keys and discovered that I could change my representative's visual design. Amber garment? Crimson attire? Sapphire and amethyst dress? Or — maybe superior — complete battle gear? You may carry a sword and shield, or, personally chosen, equip a shooter's costume; if you hit the interaction button, you launch incendiary bolts heavenward. Should you be curious, harming inhabitants is impossible (though I didn't test this, obviously).
Amusement and Inhabitant Dialogues
Yet, I didn't want to damage my population, because they’re way too funny. Only seconds after I landed the immersive perspective, I listened to a dad instructing his kid that “Owning a fox is prohibited and if you feed it one more chicken, your grandmother will be furious.” Rightly so, Roman dad. A pleasant regional Celt then began complimenting my brilliant Romano-Celtic policies by calling it the “Best of both worlds,” meanwhile a grumpy senior female chose to intimidate me: “Utter those words again, and your fate will be sealed.”
The Thrill of Transportation
At the moment I believed I’d discovered all there is to discover in the title's first-person feature, I found the joys of joyriding through classical settlements. Entirely by accident, I selected a carriage and was promptly seated on the box. Bovines, equines, even human-pulled carts; you can control each one as desired. The donkey cart, in particular, travels rather rapidly, although you shouldn't expect any GTA-like shenanigans — you can’t drive into people or other wagons (again, not saying I’ve tried).
Combat Limitations
The single feature that frustrated me in Anno 117’s first-person mode was learning about my exclusion from in combat situations. Sporting my soldier fit, I charged toward adversaries in the midst of battle and attempted to attack them, but was entirely disregarded. The front-row seat remained quite impressive, and watching the enemy run, their arms flailing about, proved very satisfying, yet it would have been exciting to successfully impact objects via my incendiary bolts.
