Anno 117 Pax Romana's Best-Kept Secret Is a Breathtaking First-Person View.
Hold on — were you aware it's possible to experience Anno 117 Pax Romana using a first-person camera? If that’s your reaction, you feel equally astonished compared to my initial response the moment I learned this secret option. Allow me to step away from overseeing my civilization, entrust it to a reliable subordinate, take a wagon, and take a spin through Ancient Rome.
Activating the First-Person View
In its role as a city-builder, Anno 117 Pax Romana is typically played from an overhead perspective. Yet, when you enter a secret combination — for example “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on a keyboard or else “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” with a gamepad — it becomes possible to roam your domain as a common citizen. Given a comparable hidden feature was part of the previous Anno title, I was eager to test it in Ubisoft's newest game, yet I had doubts it would function until I found myself submerged in a structural glitch (possibly an unexpected bug — this mode is somewhat unstable occasionally).
Discovering the Ancient Streets
After extracting myself, I walked the lively avenues across my settlement and visited markets, breweries, floral patches, and shellfish gatherers — it was glorious to see the fruits of my labor from a brand-new perspective. I noticed numerous fine points I might have missed from above: Entryway ornaments, an ass transporting a floral pail, fowl roaming freely, folks chilling on their balconies… Even just observing the shape of a window sill and the coating on a pillar is quite interesting to modern individuals unfamiliar with ancient life.
More Than Just Walking
However, there's additional content to Anno 117’s first-person mode than strolling along the road. I was especially delighted when I found out that besides being able to look upon crop lands, but also enter them. And despite my expectation interiors would be restricted, I could walk onto clay pits, investigate a respected schoolhouse while lessons were in session, and invade personal courtyards. Don't bother with door access (not even the developers have the budget for that), but it’s entirely possible 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
While I was completely ready to witness my city rendered in PlayStation 1 graphics, apart from certain rough movements and the occasional civilian resting inside seating rather than on a bench, the first-person view appears far superior to anticipations. The highly detailed textures (particularly rock faces) really have no business being this good for a title that remains primarily overhead. You might not observe specific hair details, however, you can observe writings on surfaces, sparks flying from torches, discoloration of masonry, iris elements, and conifer needles. Evening, with glowing light sources and stars shining in the distance, is especially atmospheric, and also a lot less scary relative to the previous game, given that the populace appears unlike sleep paralysis demons now.
Experimentation and Customization
Since Anno 117’s super-secret first-person mode has no guided tutorial, I opted to try different commands, and quickly discovered the abilities to leap, run, and adjusting the view — with the latter allowing me to alternate between immersive and external perspectives and back. I then experimented with some number buttons and discovered that I could change my avatar's look. Golden robe? Crimson attire? Sapphire and amethyst dress? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? You may carry a sword and shield, or, personally chosen, equip a shooter's costume; when you press the action key, you shoot flaming projectiles upward. Should you be curious, it’s not possible to kill civilians (not that I attempted, naturally).
Amusement and Inhabitant Dialogues
But I wouldn’t wish to harm my citizens anyway, as they're remarkably entertaining. Shortly after I activated first-person mode, I overheard a father telling his child that “You cannot keep a fox as a pet and if you feed it one more chicken, your elder will punish you.” Rightly so, Roman dad. A friendly native Celtic person then started applauding my excellent cross-cultural strategies by calling it the “Best of both worlds,” while some cranky old lady decided to threaten me: “Say that one more time, and they’ll never find your body.”
The Fun of Vehicle Use
At the moment I believed I had found everything available in Anno 117: Pax Romana’s first-person mode, I experienced the pleasure of driving across historical settings. Completely unexpectedly, I interacted with a cart and immediately found myself in the driver's position. Oxen, donkeys, even manually drawn vehicles; you can control each one as desired. The ass-drawn vehicle, specifically, travels rather rapidly, but don't anticipate any GTA-like shenanigans — impacting citizens or additional vehicles cannot occur (once more, not admitting any attempts).
Fighting Restrictions
The single feature that frustrated me in Anno 117’s first-person mode was learning about my exclusion from in any fighting. Equipped in warrior attire, I approached opposing forces during active combat and attempted to attack them, but was entirely disregarded. The close-up view was nonetheless magnificent, and watching the enemy run, their appendages thrashing around, felt highly gratifying, though it might have been amazing to actually hit something using my fiery projectiles.
