Anno 117: Pax Romana's Top Secret Is a Stunning First-Person View.
Hold on — were you aware it's possible to experience Anno 117: Pax Romana in first-person? Should that be your response, you feel equally astonished as I was when I discovered this hidden feature. I must temporarily abandon managing my empire, delegate it to a trusted assistant, take a wagon, and enjoy a ride across the Roman world.
Activating the First-Person Feature
As a city-building game, Anno 117: Pax Romana is typically played from an overhead perspective. However, if you input a hidden code — such as “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” using PC controls or else “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on console — you gain the ability to walk your domain as a common citizen. Given a comparable hidden feature was part of the earlier game Anno 1800, I felt excited to test it in the latest installment, but I wasn’t sure it would work prior to being submerged in a structural glitch (which probably wasn’t intended — this option is prone to glitches now and then).
Roaming the Ancient Streets
Once I crawled out, I strolled the busy roads of my city and explored markets, breweries, floral patches, and cockle pickers — it felt magnificent to observe all my hard work using an entirely new viewpoint. I noticed a variety of intricacies I might have missed from above: Entryway ornaments, a beast of burden holding a blossom container, poultry scattering about, folks chilling on their balconies… Even just observing the form of a ledge and the paint layers on a column proves fascinating to someone who doesn’t live in Ancient Rome.
Further Than Mere Wandering
Yet, the experience extends to the first-person feature in Anno 117 beyond simply walking the paths. I felt particularly pleased the moment I learned that not only could I look upon farming fields, but also step into them. And although I’d assumed interiors would be restricted, I could walk onto earthen quarries, explore a prestigious Grammaticus building during active classes, and intrude into private gardens. Don't bother with door access (not even the creators planned for that functionality), however, you can definitely meander across a cereal plantation, observe people digging and transporting bags, and glance into any tiny hut provided the entrance is missing.
Visual Quality and Atmosphere
Even though I expected to see my metropolis represented with outdated visual quality, excluding a few unpolished motions and sometimes citizens positioned within a bench rather than on a bench, the first-person view appears considerably improved over predictions. The highly detailed textures (particularly rock faces) shouldn't logically be this impressive in what is still, essentially, a top-down game. You won't necessarily notice specific hair details, however, you can observe writings on surfaces, sparks flying from torches, discoloration of masonry, eye details, and evergreen foliage. Nighttime, with its flickering fires and distant stellar illumination, generates a uniquely immersive environment, and also a lot less scary relative to the previous game, given that the populace appears unlike nightmarish entities now.
Experimentation and Customization
Since Anno 117’s super-secret first-person mode has no guided tutorial, I decided to experiment a bit, and quickly discovered the abilities to leap, run, and adjusting the view — the zoom function permitting me to change from first-person to third-person mode and back. I subsequently tried pressing various digit inputs and learned I could modify my character’s appearance. Amber garment? Crimson attire? Blue and purple toga? Or — maybe superior — complete battle gear? You may carry a sword and shield, or, my favorite, don a marksman outfit; when you press the action key, you’ll fire burning arrows into the sky. Should you be curious, harming inhabitants is impossible (not that I attempted, naturally).
Amusement and Inhabitant Dialogues
Yet, I didn't want to damage my population, as they're remarkably entertaining. Shortly after I activated the immersive perspective, I overheard a father telling his child that “Owning a fox is prohibited and if you offer additional fowl, your elder will punish you.” Understandable stance, father character. One lovely local Celt then began complimenting my brilliant Romano-Celtic policies by describing it as “Ideal combination,” whereas an irritable elderly woman decided to threaten me: “Utter those words again, and your fate will be sealed.”
The Fun of Vehicle Use
Just as I assumed I had found everything available in Anno 117: Pax Romana’s first-person mode, I experienced the pleasure of driving through classical settlements. Completely unexpectedly, I interacted with a cart and immediately found myself in the driver's position. Oxen, donkeys, even manually drawn vehicles; you may operate any of them freely. The donkey cart, in particular, travels rather rapidly, but don't anticipate Grand Theft Auto-style mischief — impacting citizens or additional vehicles cannot occur (once more, not admitting any attempts).
Fighting Restrictions
The single feature that frustrated me in Anno 117’s first-person mode was finding out I couldn’t partake in battle encounters. Sporting my soldier fit, I charged toward adversaries in the midst of battle and tried to harm them, but was entirely disregarded. The close-up view was nonetheless magnificent, and watching the enemy run, their arms flailing about, seemed enormously rewarding, but it would’ve been cool to successfully impact objects with my burning arrows.
