Anno 117 Pax Romana's Hidden Gem Turns Out to Be a Stunning First-Person Perspective.
Surprisingly — did you realize gamers have the option to enjoy the game Anno 117 using a first-person camera? If that’s your reaction, your surprise matches as I was when I discovered this hidden feature. Allow me to step away from managing my empire, delegate it to a trusted assistant, commandere a carriage, and enjoy a ride through Ancient Rome.
Activating the First-Person Mode
Being a city-building title, Anno 117 Pax Romana is normally experienced from an overhead perspective. Yet, when you input a hidden code — for example “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 appeared in the previous Anno title, I felt excited to test it in the latest installment, but I wasn’t sure it would operate until I found myself chin-deep in a Celtic floorboard (possibly an unexpected bug — this feature can be a little buggy at times).
Roaming the Roman Cityscape
Once I crawled out, I walked the lively avenues through my metropolis and toured markets, breweries, flower fields, and seafood collectors — the experience was splendid to witness the fruits of my labor through a fresh lens. I detected a variety of intricacies I wouldn’t have spotted when viewing from overhead: Front door decorations, an ass transporting a floral pail, chickens running loose, folks chilling on their balconies… Simply noticing the design of a windowsill and the paint layers on a column proves fascinating to someone who doesn’t live in Ancient Rome.
Beyond Simple Strolling
Yet, the experience extends to Anno 117’s first-person mode aside from meandering through streets. I became extraordinarily excited upon discovering that besides being able to look upon agricultural plots, but also access them. And despite my expectation interiors would be restricted, I could walk onto clay pits, tour an esteemed educational structure as teaching was underway, and even trespass into people’s gardens. Don’t try to open any doors (not even the creators allocated resources for that), however, you can definitely wander through a grain field, watch folks shoveling and carrying sacks, and look within any modest shelter as long as the door is absent.
Appearance and Mood
While I was completely ready to observe my settlement depicted with outdated visual quality, apart from certain rough movements and sometimes citizens positioned inside seating rather than on a bench, the first-person view appears much better than expected. The highly detailed textures (notably masonry elements) are unexpectedly excellent for a title that remains primarily overhead. You might not observe separate follicular elements, but you will see wall inscriptions, sparks flying from torches, fading on bricks, pupils, and conifer needles. Evening, with glowing light sources and distant stellar illumination, creates a particularly moody setting, and proves significantly less intimidating versus the earlier title, now that the citizens don’t look like sleep paralysis demons these days.
Discovery and Modification
Given the covert first-person feature doesn’t come with an instruction manual, I opted to try different commands, and quickly discovered the abilities to leap, run, and zoom in or out — the last option enabling me to switch between first and third-person views and return. I then decided to hit various digit inputs and discovered that I could change my character’s appearance. Yellow toga? Crimson attire? Azure and violet outfit? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? You might hold a weapon and defense, or, preferably, wear an archer's uniform; when you press the action key, you’ll fire burning arrows into the sky. Should you be curious, it’s not possible to kill civilians (though I didn't test this, obviously).
Comedy and Population Encounters
But I wouldn’t wish to harm my citizens anyway, since they're incredibly amusing. Shortly after I activated the first-person view, I overheard a father telling his child that he “Can’t have a pet fox and if you feed it one more chicken, your elder will punish you.” Understandable stance, father character. One lovely local Celt then started applauding my brilliant Romano-Celtic policies by calling it the “Best of both worlds,” whereas an irritable elderly woman decided to threaten me: “Repeat that statement, and your disappearance will be permanent.”
The Fun of Vehicle Use
At the moment I believed I had found everything available within the game's immersive perspective, I experienced the pleasure of driving across historical settings. Totally unintentionally, I clicked on a wagon and was promptly seated on the box. Bovines, equines, even manually drawn vehicles; you can control each one as desired. The donkey-powered transport, notably, moves quite quickly, though you shouldn’t imagine open-world vehicular chaos — you can’t drive into people or other wagons (again, not saying I’ve tried).
Combat Limitations
The sole aspect that let me down within the immersive perspective was learning about my exclusion from in any fighting. Wearing my military outfit, I charged toward adversaries amidst fighting and attempted to attack them, only to be ignored completely. The proximate observation was nonetheless magnificent, and seeing opponents retreat, their arms flailing about, felt highly gratifying, though it might have been amazing to actually hit something using my fiery projectiles.
