Anno 117's Pax Romana's Hidden Gem Reveals Itself as a Breathtaking First-Person View.
Hold on — were you aware you can play Anno 117: Pax Romana in first-person? Should that be your response, your surprise matches as I was upon finding out this concealed mode. Allow me to temporarily abandon overseeing my civilization, leave it in a capable deputy, take a wagon, and go for a joyride through Ancient Rome.
Activating the First-Person Mode
Being a city-building title, Anno 117 Pax Romana is normally experienced from an overhead perspective. However, if you enter a secret combination — including “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on keyboard or else “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on a controller — you gain the ability to walk the empire as an ordinary Roman. Because an analogous secret was included in Anno 1800, I felt excited to try it out in the new release, yet I had doubts it would work prior to being chin-deep in a Celtic floorboard (which probably wasn’t intended — this feature tends to be prone to glitches now and then).
Roaming the Roman Cityscape
After extracting myself, I walked the bustling streets through my metropolis and toured shops, taverns, blossom gardens, and cockle pickers — it was glorious to witness the fruits of my labor using an entirely new viewpoint. I observed a variety of intricacies that would escape notice from the top-down view: Doorway embellishments, an ass transporting a floral pail, chickens running loose, folks chilling on their balconies… Even just observing the form of a ledge and the paint layers on a column becomes engaging to someone who doesn’t live in Ancient Rome.
Further Than Mere Wandering
However, there's additional content to the first-person feature in Anno 117 than strolling along the road. I felt particularly pleased the moment I learned that not only could I look upon agricultural plots, but also access them. And although I’d assumed interiors would be restricted, I was able to enter mud extraction sites, explore a prestigious Grammaticus building during active classes, and even trespass into people’s gardens. Avoid attempting to open doors (not even the developers have the budget for that), but it’s entirely possible meander across a cereal plantation, watch folks shoveling and carrying sacks, and look within any modest shelter provided the entrance is missing.
Appearance and Mood
Even though I expected to see my metropolis represented in PlayStation 1 graphics, besides some crude animations and sometimes citizens positioned within a bench as opposed to atop a bench, the immersive perspective seems considerably improved over predictions. The intricately designed surfaces (notably masonry elements) really have no business being this good for a title that remains primarily overhead. You won't necessarily notice any individual strands of hair, but you will see writings on surfaces, flames emitting from lights, brick decoloration, iris elements, and conifer needles. Evening, with glowing light sources and distant stellar illumination, is especially atmospheric, and proves significantly less intimidating compared to Anno 1800, now that the citizens don’t look like terrifying apparitions anymore.
Discovery and Modification
Given the covert first-person feature lacks official documentation, I chose to test various actions, and immediately located the functions for jumping, dashing, and changing perspective — the last option enabling me to switch between first and third-person views and revert. I subsequently tried pressing certain numeric keys and learned I could modify my avatar's look. Amber garment? Red toga? Azure and violet outfit? Or — maybe superior — complete battle gear? You might hold a weapon and defense, or, personally chosen, equip a shooter's costume; when you press the action key, you launch incendiary bolts heavenward. If you're interested, it’s not possible to kill civilians (though I didn't test this, obviously).
Amusement and Inhabitant Dialogues
But I wouldn’t wish to harm my citizens anyway, as they're remarkably entertaining. Moments after I entered the immersive perspective, I heard a parent advising their offspring that “Owning a fox is prohibited and if you feed it one more chicken, your grandmother will be furious.” Appropriate response, paternal figure. A pleasant regional Celt then started applauding my outstanding integration methods by calling it the “Best of both worlds,” whereas an irritable elderly woman opted to menace me: “Say that one more time, and they’ll never find your body.”
The Thrill of Transportation
Just as I assumed I uncovered all possible content in Anno 117: Pax Romana’s first-person mode, I encountered the delight of riding in Ancient Rome. Entirely by accident, I selected a carriage and quickly occupied the transport. Cattle, asses, even manually drawn vehicles; you may operate any of them freely. The donkey-powered transport, notably, is pretty fast, although you shouldn't expect open-world vehicular chaos — you can’t drive into people or other wagons (reiterating, without confirming testing).
Battle Constraints
The single feature that frustrated me in Anno 117’s first-person mode was discovering my inability to participate in battle encounters. Equipped in warrior attire, I approached opposing forces in the midst of battle and tried to harm them, yet was completely overlooked. The proximate observation was still rather spectacular, and observing foes flee, their appendages thrashing around, seemed enormously rewarding, yet it would have been exciting to effectively strike targets with my burning arrows.
