Anno 117's Pax Romana's Top Secret Turns Out to Be a Stunning First-Person Perspective.
Hold on — were you aware it's possible to experience Anno 117: Pax Romana in first-person? Should that be your response, you feel equally astonished as I was the moment I learned this secret option. I must briefly leave my empire’s management, delegate it to a trusted assistant, borrow a cart, and enjoy a ride around the classical city.
How to Access the First-Person Feature
Being a city-building title, Anno 117: Pax Romana is normally experienced from a bird's-eye view. However, if you press a covert button sequence — including “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” using PC controls alternatively “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” with a gamepad — you can explore the empire as an ordinary Roman. Given a comparable hidden feature was included in the earlier game Anno 1800, I looked forward to test it in the new release, though I was uncertain it would operate until I found myself submerged in a structural glitch (which probably wasn’t intended — this feature is somewhat unstable occasionally).
Exploring the Ancient Streets
Upon freeing myself, I wandered the busy roads of my city and toured stalls, alehouses, floral patches, and seafood collectors — the experience was splendid to see all my hard work using an entirely new viewpoint. I observed numerous fine points I might have missed from above: Doorway embellishments, an ass transporting a floral pail, poultry scattering about, people relaxing on their verandas… Merely examining the shape of a window sill and the coloration on a post becomes engaging for those not residing in classical times.
Further Than Mere Wandering
However, there's additional content to the game's immersive perspective aside from meandering through streets. I was especially delighted when I found out that not only could I look upon crop lands, but also access them. And even though I thought the building models would be off-limits, I could walk onto mud extraction sites, explore a prestigious Grammaticus building as teaching was underway, and intrude into private gardens. Don't bother with door access (not even the developers allocated resources for that), but it’s entirely possible wander through a grain field, watch folks shoveling and carrying sacks, and glance into any tiny hut when there's no doorway obstructing.
Visual Quality and Atmosphere
While I was completely ready to witness my city rendered with outdated visual quality, excluding a few unpolished motions and sometimes citizens positioned within a bench as opposed to atop a bench, the immersive perspective seems considerably improved over predictions. The highly detailed textures (especially stone surfaces) shouldn't logically be this impressive within a game that's fundamentally a city-builder. You might not observe specific hair details, however, you can observe wall inscriptions, fiery particles from lamps, fading on bricks, iris elements, and evergreen foliage. The night, featuring dancing flames and distant stellar illumination, creates a particularly moody setting, and also a lot less scary relative to the previous game, especially since the inhabitants no longer resemble nightmarish entities anymore.
Experimentation and Customization
Since Anno 117’s super-secret first-person mode lacks official documentation, I chose to test various actions, and promptly found the options to jump, sprint, and changing perspective — the zoom function permitting me to change from first-person to third-person mode and revert. I then experimented with some number buttons and learned I could modify my avatar's look. Amber garment? Red toga? Blue and purple toga? Or — potentially preferable — armored suit? You can wield a blade and protection, or, preferably, wear an archer's uniform; if you hit the interaction button, you launch incendiary bolts heavenward. In case you’re wondering, it’s not possible to kill civilians (not that I attempted, naturally).
Humor and Citizen Interactions
However, I had no desire to injure my people, since they're incredibly amusing. Shortly after I activated 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. A pleasant regional Celt then began complimenting my outstanding integration methods by labeling it “Perfect fusion,” whereas an irritable elderly woman decided to threaten me: “Repeat that statement, and your disappearance will be permanent.”
The Thrill of Transportation
Just as I assumed I had found everything available in the title's first-person feature, I encountered the delight of riding through classical settlements. Totally unintentionally, I clicked on a wagon and was promptly seated on the box. Bovines, equines, even human-pulled carts; you can control each one as desired. The donkey-powered transport, notably, is pretty fast, although you shouldn't expect Grand Theft Auto-style mischief — impacting citizens or additional vehicles cannot occur (again, not saying I’ve tried).
Fighting Restrictions
The sole aspect that let me down in Anno 117’s first-person mode was discovering my inability to participate in combat situations. Sporting my soldier fit, I ran up to the enemy during active combat and tried to harm them, but was entirely disregarded. The front-row seat remained quite impressive, and watching the enemy run, their appendages thrashing around, proved very satisfying, yet it would have been exciting to actually hit something via my incendiary bolts.
