Anno 117 Pax Romana's Best-Kept Secret Is a Impressive First-Person Perspective.
Surprisingly — did you realize it's possible to experience Anno 117: Pax Romana from a first-person viewpoint? Should that be your response, you’re just as shocked as I was when I discovered this hidden feature. Excuse me while briefly leave my empire’s management, delegate it to a capable deputy, commandere a carriage, and enjoy a ride around the classical city.
Activating the First-Person View
As a city-building game, Anno 117 Pax Romana usually operates from a bird's-eye view. Yet, when you press a covert button sequence — 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 can explore the realm as a regular inhabitant. Since a similar easter egg appeared in the earlier game Anno 1800, I was eager to try it out in Ubisoft's newest game, but I wasn’t sure it would operate until I found myself stuck in a Celtic building (likely not meant to happen — this feature tends to be a little buggy at times).
Exploring the Streets of Rome
Once I crawled out, I walked the lively avenues of my city and explored stalls, alehouses, flower fields, and cockle pickers — the experience was splendid to witness the fruits of my labor using an entirely new viewpoint. I detected a variety of intricacies I wouldn’t have spotted from the top-down view: Doorway embellishments, an ass transporting a floral pail, fowl roaming freely, folks chilling on their balconies… Simply noticing the shape of a window sill and the coloration on a post is quite interesting for those not residing in classical times.
More Than Just Walking
However, there's additional content to the first-person feature in Anno 117 than strolling along the road. I felt particularly pleased when I found out that besides being able to view farming fields, but also enter them. And despite my expectation the building models would be off-limits, I could walk onto mud extraction sites, explore a prestigious Grammaticus building while lessons were in session, and even trespass into people’s gardens. Don’t try to open any doors (not even the studio planned for that functionality), but it’s entirely possible stroll around a barley farm, see citizens working with tools and burdens, and take a peek inside any small shack when there's no doorway obstructing.
Visual Quality and Atmosphere
Even though I expected to see my metropolis represented with outdated visual quality, excluding a few unpolished motions and periodic inhabitants sitting within a bench as opposed to atop a bench, the immersive perspective seems far superior to anticipations. The meticulously crafted materials (particularly rock faces) 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, fiery particles from lamps, discoloration of masonry, eye details, and conifer needles. The night, featuring dancing flames and distant stellar illumination, creates a particularly moody setting, and proves significantly less intimidating compared to Anno 1800, now that the citizens don’t look like terrifying apparitions now.
Discovery and Modification
Since Anno 117’s super-secret first-person mode lacks official documentation, I chose to test various actions, and immediately located the options to jump, sprint, and zoom in or out — the last option enabling me to change from first-person to third-person mode and back. I subsequently tried pressing various digit inputs and found I could alter my character’s appearance. Golden robe? Crimson attire? Sapphire and amethyst dress? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? You might hold a weapon and defense, or, preferably, wear an archer's uniform; if you hit the interaction button, you shoot flaming projectiles upward. Should you be curious, it’s not possible to kill civilians (though I didn't test this, obviously).
Humor and Citizen Interactions
Yet, I didn't want to damage my population, since they're incredibly amusing. Shortly after I activated first-person mode, I heard a parent advising their offspring that “Owning a fox is prohibited and if you feed it one more chicken, your gran will have your head.” Appropriate response, paternal figure. One lovely local Celt then proceeded to praise my excellent cross-cultural strategies by labeling it “Perfect fusion,” whereas an irritable elderly woman chose to intimidate me: “Repeat that statement, and your disappearance will be permanent.”
The Thrill of Transportation
Just when I thought I’d discovered all there is to discover in the title's first-person feature, I experienced the pleasure of driving through classical settlements. Entirely by accident, I interacted with a cart and quickly occupied the transport. Oxen, donkeys, even human-pulled carts; you can control each one as desired. The donkey cart, in particular, moves quite quickly, but don't anticipate any GTA-like shenanigans — impacting citizens or additional vehicles cannot occur (again, not saying I’ve tried).
Combat Limitations
The sole aspect that let me down in Anno 117’s first-person mode was finding out I couldn’t partake in battle encounters. Equipped in warrior attire, I approached opposing forces amidst fighting and attempted to attack them, yet was completely overlooked. The proximate observation was nonetheless magnificent, and seeing opponents retreat, their limbs waving wildly, felt highly gratifying, though it might have been amazing to effectively strike targets via my incendiary bolts.
