Anno 117: Pax Romana's Top Secret Turns Out to Be a Stunning First-Person View.
Hold on — were you aware it's possible to experience Anno 117 Pax Romana in first-person? If that’s your reaction, your surprise matches compared to my initial response when I discovered this concealed mode. Allow me to briefly leave overseeing my civilization, entrust it to a trusted assistant, commandere a carriage, and enjoy a ride around the classical city.
How to Access the First-Person Feature
In its role as a city-builder, Anno 117: Pax Romana is typically played from a bird's-eye view. But, should you press a covert button sequence — including “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on keyboard or “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” with a gamepad — it becomes possible to roam the empire as an ordinary Roman. Because an analogous secret was included in the previous Anno title, I looked forward to try it out in the new release, but I wasn’t sure it would operate until I found myself submerged in a structural glitch (likely not meant to happen — this mode can be prone to glitches now and then).
Roaming the Roman Cityscape
After extracting myself, I walked the lively avenues of my city and toured stalls, alehouses, flower fields, and shellfish gatherers — the experience was splendid to witness all my hard work using an entirely new viewpoint. I observed numerous fine points I might have missed from the top-down view: Doorway embellishments, an ass transporting a floral pail, poultry scattering about, people relaxing on their verandas… Simply noticing the form of a ledge and the paint layers on a column proves fascinating to someone who doesn’t live in Ancient Rome.
Beyond Simple Strolling
Yet, the experience extends to the first-person feature in Anno 117 than strolling along the road. I became extraordinarily excited when I found out that I could not just look upon crop lands, but also step into them. And despite my expectation structures would be inaccessible, I managed to access clay pits, explore a prestigious Grammaticus building during active classes, and even trespass into people’s gardens. Don’t try to open any doors (not even the developers 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 provided the entrance is missing.
Appearance and Mood
Even though I expected to observe my settlement depicted in PlayStation 1 graphics, excluding a few unpolished motions and the occasional civilian resting in a bench instead of on a bench, first-person mode looks much better than expected. The meticulously crafted materials (notably masonry elements) really have no business being this good for a title that remains primarily overhead. You may not see specific hair details, but you will see engravings on walls, fiery particles from lamps, fading on bricks, pupils, and conifer needles. The night, featuring dancing flames and stars shining in the distance, creates a particularly moody setting, and also a lot less scary versus the earlier title, especially since the inhabitants no longer resemble nightmarish entities now.
Discovery and Modification
Because the game's hidden immersive perspective has no guided tutorial, I chose to test various actions, and promptly found the options to jump, sprint, and changing perspective — with the latter allowing me to switch between first and third-person views and revert. I subsequently tried pressing various digit inputs and learned I could modify my character’s appearance. Golden robe? Crimson attire? Azure and violet outfit? 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’ve tried, of course).
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 first-person view, I heard a parent advising their offspring that “You cannot keep a fox as a pet and should you provide another poultry, your gran will have your head.” Rightly so, Roman dad. One lovely local Celt then began complimenting my brilliant Romano-Celtic policies 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 Joy of Joyriding
Just as I assumed I had found everything available within the game's immersive perspective, I found the joys of joyriding across historical settings. Totally unintentionally, I clicked on a wagon and was promptly seated on the box. Bovines, equines, even people-powered transports; you can control each one as desired. The donkey cart, in particular, travels rather rapidly, although you shouldn't expect open-world vehicular chaos — colliding with pedestrians or other carts is impossible (again, not saying I’ve tried).
Combat Limitations
The only thing that disappointed me regarding the first-person view was finding out I couldn’t partake in any fighting. Sporting my soldier fit, I charged toward adversaries in the midst of battle and tried to harm them, yet was completely overlooked. The proximate observation remained quite impressive, and observing foes flee, their arms flailing about, seemed enormously rewarding, yet it would have been exciting to actually hit something using my fiery projectiles.
