Anno 117: Pax Romana's Top Secret Turns Out to Be a Stunning First-Person Perspective.
Wait — did you know you can play Anno 117: Pax Romana in first-person? If that’s your reaction, you’re just as shocked as my own reaction the moment I learned this secret option. Excuse me while step away from overseeing my civilization, delegate it to a reliable subordinate, commandere a carriage, and go for a joyride across the Roman world.
How to Access the First-Person View
As a city-building game, Anno 117 Pax Romana usually operates using a top-down camera. But, should you press a covert button sequence — including “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on a keyboard or else “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” with a gamepad — you can explore the realm as a regular inhabitant. Given a comparable hidden feature was included in Anno 1800, I looked forward to try it out in Ubisoft's newest game, yet I had doubts it would function before I discovered myself chin-deep in a Celtic floorboard (possibly an unexpected bug — this option can be somewhat unstable occasionally).
Exploring the Ancient Streets
Once I crawled out, I walked the busy roads through my metropolis and visited markets, breweries, blossom gardens, and seafood collectors — it felt magnificent to witness all my hard work through a fresh lens. I observed a variety of intricacies I might have missed from the top-down view: Front door decorations, a donkey carrying a flower bucket, fowl roaming freely, people relaxing on their verandas… Merely examining the form of a ledge and the coating on a pillar proves fascinating for those not residing in classical times.
Beyond Simple Strolling
Yet, the experience extends to Anno 117’s first-person mode beyond simply walking the paths. I felt particularly pleased when I found out that I could not just look upon farming fields, but also access them. And despite my expectation the building models would be off-limits, I was able to enter earthen quarries, tour an esteemed educational structure as teaching was underway, and invade personal courtyards. Avoid attempting to open doors (not even the developers planned for that functionality), yet it's completely feasible 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Even though I expected to witness my city rendered with outdated visual quality, apart from certain rough movements and periodic inhabitants sitting inside seating instead of on a bench, the immersive perspective seems far superior to anticipations. The meticulously crafted materials (especially stone surfaces) really have no business being this good for a title that remains primarily overhead. You won't necessarily notice separate follicular elements, yet you will notice writings on surfaces, flames emitting from lights, fading on bricks, eye details, and pine tree leaves. Nighttime, with its flickering fires and distant stellar illumination, generates a uniquely immersive environment, and feels much less frightening relative to the previous game, given that the populace appears unlike nightmarish entities anymore.
Discovery and Modification
Given the covert first-person feature lacks official documentation, I chose to test various actions, and immediately located the abilities to leap, run, and changing perspective — the zoom function permitting me to change from first-person to third-person mode and revert. I subsequently tried pressing some number buttons and found I could alter my representative's visual design. Golden robe? Ruby clothing? Sapphire and amethyst dress? Or — maybe superior — complete battle gear? You can wield a blade and protection, or, preferably, wear an archer's uniform; when you press the action key, you launch incendiary bolts heavenward. If you're interested, harming inhabitants is impossible (not that I attempted, naturally).
Amusement and Inhabitant Dialogues
However, I had no desire to injure my people, because they’re way too funny. Moments after I entered the immersive perspective, I heard a parent advising their offspring that “You cannot keep a fox as a pet and if you offer additional fowl, your elder will punish you.” Rightly so, Roman dad. A pleasant regional Celt then proceeded to praise my excellent cross-cultural strategies by calling it the “Best of both worlds,” while some cranky old lady chose to intimidate me: “Repeat that statement, and your disappearance will be permanent.”
The Joy of Joyriding
At the moment I believed I uncovered all possible content in Anno 117: Pax Romana’s first-person mode, I experienced the pleasure of driving through classical settlements. Completely unexpectedly, I clicked on a wagon and immediately found myself in the driver's position. Cattle, asses, even people-powered transports; you can control each one as desired. The donkey cart, in particular, travels rather rapidly, although you shouldn't expect any GTA-like shenanigans — colliding with pedestrians or other carts is impossible (reiterating, without confirming testing).
Combat Limitations
The only thing that disappointed me in Anno 117’s first-person mode was discovering my inability to participate in combat situations. Wearing my military outfit, I ran up to the enemy in the midst of battle and tried to harm them, yet was completely overlooked. The front-row seat remained quite impressive, and watching the enemy run, their appendages thrashing around, proved very satisfying, though it might have been amazing to successfully impact objects using my fiery projectiles.
