Anno 117: Pax Romana's Best-Kept Secret Reveals Itself as a Breathtaking First-Person Mode.
Hold on — were you aware gamers have the option to enjoy Anno 117: Pax Romana from a first-person viewpoint? Should that be your response, your surprise matches as I was upon finding out this hidden feature. Allow me to step away from my empire’s management, leave it in a capable deputy, borrow a cart, and enjoy a ride around the classical city.
Unlocking the First-Person Feature
As a city-building game, 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 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 appeared in Anno 1800, I looked forward to try it out in Ubisoft's newest game, though I was uncertain it would operate prior to being chin-deep in a Celtic floorboard (which probably wasn’t intended — this feature is a little buggy at times).
Discovering the Ancient Streets
After extracting myself, I strolled the lively avenues of my city and explored shops, taverns, blossom gardens, and shellfish gatherers — the experience was splendid to witness the fruits of my labor through a fresh lens. I observed all kinds of details I might have missed from above: Front door decorations, a beast of burden holding a blossom container, poultry scattering about, citizens lounging on their terraces… Merely examining the form of a ledge and the paint layers on a column proves fascinating to modern individuals unfamiliar with ancient life.
Beyond Simple Strolling
However, there's additional content to the first-person feature in Anno 117 beyond simply walking the paths. I was especially delighted upon discovering that I could not just view crop lands, but also access them. And despite my expectation interiors would be restricted, I managed to access earthen quarries, investigate a respected schoolhouse during active classes, and invade personal courtyards. Don't bother with door access (not even the studio have the budget for that), yet it's completely feasible meander across a cereal plantation, see citizens working with tools and burdens, and take a peek inside any small shack provided the entrance is missing.
Visual Quality and Atmosphere
While I was completely ready to witness my city rendered using primitive rendering, besides some crude animations and periodic inhabitants sitting within a bench as opposed to atop a bench, first-person mode looks far superior to anticipations. The highly detailed textures (especially stone surfaces) shouldn't logically be this impressive for a title that remains primarily overhead. You won't necessarily notice separate follicular elements, but you will see engravings on walls, flames emitting from lights, brick decoloration, eye details, and evergreen foliage. Evening, with glowing light sources and celestial bodies twinkling afar, is especially atmospheric, and also a lot less scary versus the earlier title, especially since the inhabitants no longer resemble sleep paralysis demons anymore.
Experimentation and Customization
Given the covert first-person feature doesn’t come with an instruction manual, I decided to experiment a bit, and promptly found the abilities to leap, run, and changing perspective — with the latter allowing me to switch between first and third-person views and back. I subsequently tried pressing some number buttons and found I could alter my avatar's look. Amber garment? Red toga? Sapphire and amethyst dress? Or — potentially preferable — armored suit? You can wield a blade and protection, or, my favorite, don a marksman outfit; if you activate the engage command, you launch incendiary bolts heavenward. If you're interested, harming inhabitants is impossible (not that I attempted, naturally).
Comedy and Population Encounters
However, I had no desire to injure my people, since they're incredibly amusing. Shortly after I activated the first-person view, I listened to a dad instructing his kid that “You cannot keep a fox as a pet and should you provide another poultry, your gran will have your head.” Understandable stance, father character. One lovely local Celt then proceeded to praise my outstanding integration methods by labeling it “Perfect fusion,” while some cranky old lady chose to intimidate me: “Repeat that statement, and your disappearance will be permanent.”
The Thrill of Transportation
Just as I assumed I had found everything available in Anno 117: Pax Romana’s first-person mode, I found the joys of joyriding through classical settlements. Entirely by accident, I interacted with a cart and quickly occupied the transport. Bovines, equines, even human-pulled carts; you can control each one as desired. The donkey cart, in particular, moves quite quickly, although you shouldn't expect Grand Theft Auto-style mischief — impacting citizens or additional vehicles cannot occur (reiterating, without confirming testing).
Fighting Restrictions
The only thing that disappointed me within the immersive perspective was discovering my inability to participate in any fighting. Sporting my soldier fit, I approached opposing forces in the midst of battle and attempted to attack them, yet was completely overlooked. The front-row seat remained quite impressive, and observing foes flee, their appendages thrashing around, proved very satisfying, yet it would have been exciting to effectively strike targets using my fiery projectiles.
