Anno 117 Pax Romana's Top Secret Is a Breathtaking First-Person Perspective.
Hold on — were you aware gamers have the option to enjoy the game Anno 117 in first-person? If you're thinking that, you feel equally astonished as I was the moment I learned this hidden feature. Excuse me while temporarily abandon my empire’s management, delegate it to a trusted assistant, take a wagon, and take a spin around the classical city.
Unlocking the First-Person Mode
In its role as a city-builder, Anno 117: Pax Romana is typically played using a top-down camera. But, should you press a covert button sequence — such as “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on keyboard or else “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” with a gamepad — you can explore the empire as an ordinary Roman. Since a similar easter egg was included in the previous Anno title, I looked forward to test it in the new release, yet I had doubts it would function until I found myself chin-deep in a Celtic floorboard (possibly an unexpected bug — this mode is a little buggy at times).
Discovering the Ancient Streets
After extracting myself, I wandered the lively avenues across my settlement and explored stalls, alehouses, blossom gardens, and shellfish gatherers — the experience was splendid to observe the fruits of my labor using an entirely new viewpoint. I noticed all kinds of details I might have missed when viewing from overhead: Front door decorations, a donkey carrying a flower bucket, poultry scattering about, folks chilling on their balconies… Merely examining the design of a windowsill and the coloration on a post becomes engaging to modern individuals unfamiliar with ancient life.
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 besides being able to observe agricultural plots, but also enter them. And despite my expectation the building models would be off-limits, I managed to access clay pits, investigate a respected schoolhouse as teaching was underway, and even trespass into people’s gardens. Avoid attempting to open doors (not even the studio allocated resources for that), however, you can definitely meander across a cereal plantation, observe people digging and transporting bags, and look within any modest shelter when there's no doorway obstructing.
Visual Quality and Atmosphere
Although I was fully prepared to observe my settlement depicted using primitive rendering, besides some crude animations and periodic inhabitants sitting inside seating as opposed to atop a bench, the immersive perspective seems considerably improved over predictions. The meticulously crafted materials (notably masonry elements) shouldn't logically be this impressive within a game that's fundamentally a city-builder. You might not observe separate follicular elements, however, you can observe engravings on walls, sparks flying from torches, brick decoloration, pupils, and conifer needles. Nighttime, with its flickering fires and distant stellar illumination, generates a uniquely immersive environment, and proves significantly less intimidating compared to Anno 1800, especially since the inhabitants no longer resemble sleep paralysis demons anymore.
Discovery and Modification
Since Anno 117’s super-secret first-person mode doesn’t come with an instruction manual, I chose to test various actions, and immediately located the options to jump, sprint, and changing perspective — with the latter allowing me to switch between first and third-person views and revert. I then experimented with certain numeric keys and discovered that I could change my character’s appearance. Amber garment? Red toga? Blue and purple toga? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? You can wield a blade and protection, or, preferably, wear an archer's uniform; if you hit the interaction button, you launch incendiary bolts heavenward. If you're interested, eliminating citizens cannot be done (though I didn't test this, obviously).
Amusement and Inhabitant Dialogues
Yet, I didn't want to damage my population, since they're incredibly amusing. Moments after I entered first-person mode, I heard a parent advising their offspring that “You cannot keep a fox as a pet and if you feed it one more chicken, your elder will punish you.” Understandable stance, father character. One lovely local Celt then started applauding my outstanding integration methods by describing it as “Ideal combination,” meanwhile a grumpy senior female decided to threaten me: “Say that one more time, and they’ll never find your body.”
The Joy of Joyriding
Just when I thought I’d discovered all there is to discover within the game's immersive perspective, I experienced the pleasure of driving across historical settings. Totally unintentionally, I interacted with a cart and was promptly seated on the box. Cattle, asses, even people-powered transports; you may operate any of them freely. The donkey cart, in particular, travels rather rapidly, but don't anticipate open-world vehicular chaos — 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 discovering my inability to participate in any fighting. Equipped in warrior attire, I charged toward adversaries amidst fighting and endeavored to damage them, yet was completely overlooked. The proximate observation was nonetheless magnificent, and observing foes flee, their arms flailing about, proved very satisfying, though it might have been amazing to successfully impact objects using my fiery projectiles.
