Anno 117: Pax Romana's Best-Kept Secret Turns Out to Be a Impressive First-Person Perspective.
Wait — did you know you can play Anno 117: Pax Romana using a first-person camera? Should that be your response, you feel equally astonished as my own reaction the moment I learned this hidden feature. Excuse me while step away from my empire’s management, leave it in a reliable subordinate, commandere a carriage, and take a spin across the Roman world.
Unlocking the First-Person View
Being a city-building title, Anno 117: Pax Romana is normally experienced from a bird's-eye view. Yet, when you input a hidden code — such as “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on keyboard or else “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on console — it becomes possible to roam your domain as a common citizen. Given a comparable hidden feature was included in the earlier game Anno 1800, I felt excited to try it out in the latest installment, though I was uncertain it would function prior to being chin-deep in a Celtic floorboard (likely not meant to happen — this option can be somewhat unstable occasionally).
Discovering the Ancient Streets
Upon freeing myself, I strolled the busy roads through my metropolis and explored markets, breweries, flower fields, and seafood collectors — the experience was splendid to witness the fruits of my labor from a brand-new perspective. I detected a variety of intricacies I might have missed from above: Entryway ornaments, a donkey carrying a flower bucket, poultry scattering about, people relaxing on their verandas… Even just observing the form of a ledge and the coloration on a post proves fascinating to modern individuals unfamiliar with ancient life.
More Than Just Walking
But there’s more to the first-person feature in Anno 117 than strolling along the road. I became extraordinarily excited the moment I learned that not only could I observe agricultural plots, but also enter them. And although I’d assumed the building models would be off-limits, I could walk onto earthen quarries, investigate a respected schoolhouse as teaching was underway, and intrude into private gardens. Don’t try to open any doors (not even the developers have the budget for that), yet it's completely feasible wander through a grain field, observe people digging and transporting bags, and look within any modest shelter as long as the door is absent.
Graphics and Ambiance
Although I was fully prepared to witness my city rendered with outdated visual quality, besides some crude animations and sometimes citizens positioned inside seating as opposed to atop a bench, the immersive perspective seems much better than expected. The highly detailed textures (especially stone surfaces) really have no business being this good in what is still, essentially, a top-down game. You won't necessarily notice any individual strands of hair, but you will see wall inscriptions, fiery particles from lamps, brick decoloration, pupils, and evergreen foliage. Evening, with glowing light sources and celestial bodies twinkling afar, generates a uniquely immersive environment, and proves significantly less intimidating versus the earlier title, given that the populace appears unlike nightmarish entities anymore.
Experimentation and Customization
Because the game's hidden immersive perspective has no guided tutorial, I chose to test various actions, and quickly discovered the abilities to leap, run, and zoom in or out — with the latter allowing me to change from first-person to third-person mode and back. I then decided to hit certain numeric keys and learned I could modify my character’s appearance. Amber garment? Red toga? Blue and purple toga? Or — potentially preferable — armored suit? You may carry a sword and shield, or, my favorite, don a marksman outfit; if you activate the engage command, you shoot flaming projectiles upward. If you're interested, it’s not possible to kill civilians (though I didn't test this, obviously).
Humor and Citizen Interactions
But I wouldn’t wish to harm my citizens anyway, because they’re way too funny. Only seconds after I landed the first-person view, I heard a parent advising their offspring that “You cannot keep a fox as a pet and if you feed it one more chicken, your elder will punish you.” Understandable stance, father character. One lovely local Celt then began complimenting my brilliant Romano-Celtic policies by describing it as “Ideal combination,” whereas an irritable elderly woman opted to menace me: “Utter those words again, and your fate will be sealed.”
The Thrill of Transportation
Just when I thought I’d discovered all there is to discover within the game's immersive perspective, I found the joys of joyriding across historical settings. Totally unintentionally, I selected a carriage and was promptly seated on the box. Cattle, asses, even human-pulled carts; you can drive them all at your leisure. The donkey cart, in particular, is pretty fast, although you shouldn't expect open-world vehicular chaos — impacting citizens or additional vehicles cannot occur (again, not saying I’ve tried).
Fighting Restrictions
The single feature that frustrated me regarding the first-person view was discovering my inability to participate in combat situations. Wearing my military outfit, I ran up to the enemy in the midst of battle and tried to harm them, but was entirely disregarded. The front-row seat was nonetheless magnificent, and observing foes flee, their arms flailing about, proved very satisfying, but it would’ve been cool to successfully impact objects using my fiery projectiles.
