Anno 117 Pax Romana's Hidden Gem Turns Out to Be a Stunning First-Person Perspective.
Wait — did you know it's possible to experience Anno 117: Pax Romana using a first-person camera? If that’s your reaction, you feel equally astonished compared to my initial response when I discovered this concealed mode. Allow me to briefly leave my empire’s management, entrust it to a capable deputy, commandere a carriage, and enjoy a ride around the classical city.
Activating the First-Person Feature
As a city-building game, Anno 117 Pax Romana is normally experienced from a bird's-eye view. However, if you input a hidden code — such as “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” using PC controls or “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on console — you can explore the empire as an ordinary Roman. Given a comparable hidden feature was part of Anno 1800, I looked forward to experience it in the latest installment, but I wasn’t sure it would work prior to being submerged in a structural glitch (possibly an unexpected bug — this option can be prone to glitches now and then).
Roaming the Streets of Rome
Once I crawled out, I walked the busy roads through my metropolis and explored markets, breweries, flower fields, and seafood collectors — it was glorious to observe my diligent efforts through a fresh lens. I noticed numerous fine points I wouldn’t have spotted when viewing from overhead: Entryway ornaments, a donkey carrying a flower bucket, chickens running loose, citizens lounging on their terraces… Simply noticing the shape of a window sill and the paint layers on a column is quite interesting to modern individuals unfamiliar with ancient life.
More Than Just Walking
Yet, the experience extends to the first-person feature in Anno 117 beyond simply walking the paths. I was especially delighted the moment I learned that besides being able to look upon crop lands, but also access them. And even though I thought interiors would be restricted, I could walk onto mud extraction sites, investigate a respected schoolhouse as teaching was underway, and even trespass into people’s gardens. Don't bother with door access (not even the studio planned for that functionality), however, you can definitely meander across a cereal plantation, watch folks shoveling and carrying sacks, and look within any modest shelter when there's no doorway obstructing.
Graphics and Ambiance
Although I was fully prepared to see my metropolis represented in PlayStation 1 graphics, excluding a few unpolished motions and the occasional civilian resting in a bench as opposed to atop a bench, the first-person view appears far superior to anticipations. The highly detailed textures (notably masonry elements) are unexpectedly excellent for a title that remains primarily overhead. You won't necessarily notice specific hair details, however, you can observe wall inscriptions, sparks flying from torches, discoloration of masonry, iris elements, and evergreen foliage. Evening, with glowing light sources and distant stellar illumination, is especially atmospheric, and also a lot less scary versus the earlier title, especially since the inhabitants no longer resemble sleep paralysis demons these days.
Experimentation and Customization
Since Anno 117’s super-secret first-person mode doesn’t come with an instruction manual, I decided to experiment a bit, and immediately located the functions for jumping, dashing, and zoom in or out — the zoom function permitting me to change from first-person to third-person mode and return. I then decided to hit certain numeric keys and found I could alter my character’s appearance. Yellow toga? Red toga? Sapphire and amethyst dress? Or — potentially preferable — armored suit? You may carry a sword and shield, or, my favorite, don a marksman outfit; if you hit the interaction button, you launch incendiary bolts heavenward. In case you’re wondering, it’s not possible to kill civilians (though I didn't test this, obviously).
Comedy and Population Encounters
Yet, I didn't want to damage my population, since they're incredibly amusing. Only seconds after I landed the immersive perspective, I listened to a dad instructing his kid that he “Can’t have a pet fox and if you feed it one more chicken, your gran will have your head.” Appropriate response, paternal figure. A friendly native Celtic person then proceeded to praise my outstanding integration methods by calling it the “Best of both worlds,” whereas an irritable elderly woman decided to threaten me: “Say that one more time, and they’ll never find your body.”
The Thrill of Transportation
Just as I assumed I had found everything available within the game's immersive perspective, I experienced the pleasure of driving in Ancient Rome. Entirely by accident, I selected a carriage and immediately found myself in the driver's position. Cattle, asses, even human-pulled carts; you may operate any of them freely. The donkey cart, in particular, moves quite quickly, though you shouldn’t imagine any GTA-like shenanigans — you can’t drive into people or other wagons (reiterating, without confirming testing).
Fighting Restrictions
The sole aspect that let me down in Anno 117’s first-person mode was learning about my exclusion from in battle encounters. Wearing my military outfit, I approached opposing forces during active combat and endeavored to damage them, yet was completely overlooked. The front-row seat remained quite impressive, and seeing opponents retreat, their limbs waving wildly, proved very satisfying, but it would’ve been cool to successfully impact objects with my burning arrows.
