Anno 117's Pax Romana's Hidden Gem Reveals Itself as a Impressive First-Person Mode.
Hold on — were you aware it's possible to experience Anno 117 Pax Romana in first-person? If you're thinking that, your surprise matches as my own reaction the moment I learned this hidden feature. Allow me to step away from managing my empire, delegate it to a trusted assistant, borrow a cart, and take a spin around the classical city.
How to Access the First-Person View
Being a city-building title, Anno 117 Pax Romana is normally experienced using a top-down camera. However, if you press a covert button sequence — such as “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on keyboard or “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on a controller — you can explore the empire as an ordinary Roman. Because an analogous secret was part of the earlier game Anno 1800, I was eager to try it out in the new release, but I wasn’t sure it would work before I discovered myself submerged in a structural glitch (which probably wasn’t intended — this feature tends to be somewhat unstable occasionally).
Discovering the Roman Cityscape
Upon freeing myself, I walked the busy roads through my metropolis and visited shops, taverns, blossom gardens, and cockle pickers — it felt magnificent to see all my hard work from a brand-new perspective. I detected numerous fine points I wouldn’t have spotted from above: Front door decorations, an ass transporting a floral pail, chickens running loose, folks chilling on their balconies… Merely examining the shape of a window sill and the coating on a pillar proves fascinating to modern individuals unfamiliar with ancient life.
Beyond Simple Strolling
Yet, the experience extends to Anno 117’s first-person mode than strolling along the road. I became extraordinarily excited upon discovering that I could not just look upon farming fields, but also step into them. And although I’d assumed structures would be inaccessible, I managed to access clay pits, investigate a respected schoolhouse as teaching was underway, and invade personal courtyards. Don't bother with door access (not even the studio have the budget for that), however, you can definitely wander through a grain field, watch folks shoveling and carrying sacks, and take a peek inside any small shack as long as the door is absent.
Graphics and Ambiance
Although I was fully prepared to see my metropolis represented with outdated visual quality, besides some crude animations and periodic inhabitants sitting in a bench instead of on a bench, the first-person view appears much better than expected. The intricately designed surfaces (especially stone surfaces) shouldn't logically be this impressive in what is still, essentially, a top-down game. You may not see any individual strands of hair, yet you will notice engravings on walls, flames emitting from lights, discoloration of masonry, iris elements, and pine tree leaves. Nighttime, with its flickering fires and stars shining in the distance, is especially atmospheric, and proves significantly less intimidating compared to Anno 1800, now that the citizens don’t look like nightmarish entities now.
Testing and Personalization
Given the covert first-person feature doesn’t come with an instruction manual, I opted to try different commands, and quickly discovered the functions for jumping, dashing, and adjusting the view — with the latter allowing me to change from first-person to third-person mode and back. I then decided to hit certain numeric keys and learned I could modify my representative's visual design. Amber garment? Ruby clothing? Sapphire and amethyst dress? Or — maybe superior — complete battle gear? You can wield a blade and protection, or, my favorite, don a marksman outfit; if you activate the engage command, you launch incendiary bolts heavenward. Should you be curious, harming inhabitants is impossible (not that I attempted, naturally).
Humor and Citizen Interactions
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.” Rightly so, Roman dad. A pleasant regional Celt then started applauding my outstanding integration methods by labeling it “Perfect fusion,” while some cranky old lady opted to menace 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 within the game's immersive perspective, I found the joys of joyriding in Ancient Rome. Entirely by accident, I clicked on a wagon and was promptly seated on the box. Oxen, donkeys, even manually drawn vehicles; you may operate any of them freely. The donkey cart, in particular, moves quite quickly, but don't anticipate Grand Theft Auto-style mischief — colliding with pedestrians or other carts is impossible (reiterating, without confirming testing).
Battle Constraints
The sole aspect that let me down in Anno 117’s first-person mode was learning about my exclusion from in battle encounters. Sporting my soldier fit, I ran up to the enemy amidst fighting and attempted to attack them, only to be ignored completely. The proximate observation was nonetheless magnificent, and observing foes flee, their limbs waving wildly, proved very satisfying, but it would’ve been cool to effectively strike targets via my incendiary bolts.
