Anno 117's Pax Romana's Best-Kept Secret Reveals Itself as a Impressive First-Person View.
Surprisingly — did you realize you can play the game Anno 117 from a first-person viewpoint? Should that be your response, your surprise matches compared to my initial response when I discovered this concealed mode. Allow me to temporarily abandon managing my empire, entrust it to a capable deputy, borrow a cart, and take a spin around the classical city.
How to Access the First-Person Mode
In its role as a city-builder, Anno 117 Pax Romana is normally experienced using a top-down camera. But, should you enter a secret combination — for example “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” using PC controls or “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” with a gamepad — you can explore your domain as a common citizen. Given a comparable hidden feature appeared in Anno 1800, I looked forward to try it out in Ubisoft's newest game, but I wasn’t sure it would work until I found myself submerged in a structural glitch (possibly an unexpected bug — this feature tends to be prone to glitches now and then).
Exploring the Streets of Rome
After extracting myself, I wandered the lively avenues across my settlement and explored markets, breweries, flower fields, and cockle pickers — the experience was splendid to witness all my hard work through a fresh lens. I detected all kinds of details I might have missed when viewing from overhead: Doorway embellishments, a beast of burden holding a blossom container, chickens running loose, folks chilling on their balconies… Simply noticing the shape of a window sill and the coloration on a post becomes engaging to someone who doesn’t live in Ancient Rome.
Further Than Mere Wandering
But there’s more to Anno 117’s first-person mode beyond simply walking the paths. I was especially delighted the moment I learned that not only could I look upon crop lands, but also access them. And although I’d assumed interiors would be restricted, I managed to access clay pits, explore a prestigious Grammaticus building during active classes, and invade personal courtyards. Avoid attempting to open doors (not even the studio planned for that functionality), however, you can definitely wander through a grain field, observe people digging and transporting bags, and take a peek inside any small shack when there's no doorway obstructing.
Appearance and Mood
Even though I expected to witness my city rendered using primitive rendering, excluding a few unpolished motions and the occasional civilian resting inside seating rather than on a bench, the immersive perspective seems much better than expected. The meticulously crafted materials (notably masonry elements) shouldn't logically be this impressive in what is still, essentially, a top-down game. You might not observe separate follicular elements, yet you will notice wall inscriptions, fiery particles from lamps, fading on bricks, iris elements, and pine tree leaves. Evening, with glowing light sources and stars shining in the distance, generates a uniquely immersive environment, and feels much less frightening relative to the previous game, given that the populace appears unlike nightmarish entities these days.
Discovery and Modification
Because the game's hidden immersive perspective lacks official documentation, I chose to test various actions, and promptly found the abilities to leap, run, and changing perspective — the last option enabling me to change from first-person to third-person mode and back. I then experimented with certain numeric keys and discovered that I could change my character’s appearance. Amber garment? Ruby clothing? Azure and violet outfit? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? You might hold a weapon and defense, or, my favorite, don a marksman outfit; 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
However, I had no desire to injure my people, because they’re way too funny. Only seconds after I landed first-person mode, I heard a parent advising their offspring that he “Can’t have a pet fox and should you provide another poultry, your gran will have your head.” Understandable stance, father character. A pleasant regional Celt then proceeded to praise my excellent cross-cultural strategies by calling it the “Best of both worlds,” meanwhile a grumpy senior female opted to menace me: “Say that one more time, and they’ll never find your body.”
The Fun of Vehicle Use
Just as I assumed I had found everything available in the title's first-person feature, I found the joys of joyriding in Ancient Rome. Completely unexpectedly, I interacted with a cart and was promptly seated on the box. Bovines, equines, even people-powered transports; you can control each one as desired. The donkey-powered transport, notably, moves quite quickly, though you shouldn’t imagine any GTA-like shenanigans — impacting citizens or additional vehicles cannot occur (once more, not admitting any attempts).
Battle Constraints
The sole aspect that let me down within the immersive perspective was learning about my exclusion from in battle encounters. Sporting my soldier fit, I approached opposing forces in the midst of battle and attempted to attack them, yet was completely overlooked. The close-up view remained quite impressive, and observing foes flee, their arms flailing about, proved very satisfying, but it would’ve been cool to successfully impact objects with my burning arrows.
