Anno 117: Pax Romana's Hidden Gem Is a Stunning First-Person Perspective.
Surprisingly — did you realize you can play Anno 117 Pax Romana in first-person? Should that be your response, you feel equally astonished compared to my initial response upon finding out this concealed mode. Excuse me while step away from my empire’s management, delegate it to a capable deputy, commandere a carriage, and go for a joyride through Ancient Rome.
Unlocking the First-Person View
Being a city-building title, Anno 117 Pax Romana is typically played using a top-down camera. However, if you press a covert button sequence — such as “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on a keyboard or else “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on a controller — you can explore the empire as an ordinary Roman. Since a similar easter egg was included in the earlier game Anno 1800, I looked forward to experience it in Ubisoft's newest game, though I was uncertain it would operate prior to being submerged in a structural glitch (possibly an unexpected bug — this mode is prone to glitches now and then).
Discovering the Ancient Streets
Once I crawled out, I strolled the lively avenues across my settlement and toured markets, breweries, flower fields, and cockle pickers — the experience was splendid to witness all my hard work using an entirely new viewpoint. I detected numerous fine points I wouldn’t have spotted from above: Front door decorations, an ass transporting a floral pail, chickens running loose, citizens lounging on their terraces… Merely examining the shape of a window sill and the paint layers on a column becomes engaging to modern individuals unfamiliar with ancient life.
Further Than Mere Wandering
However, there's additional content to Anno 117’s first-person mode aside from meandering through streets. I felt particularly pleased the moment I learned that I could not just view crop lands, but also enter them. And despite my expectation the building models would be off-limits, I was able to enter clay pits, investigate a respected schoolhouse during active classes, and intrude into private gardens. Don't bother with door access (not even the studio have the budget for that), but it’s entirely possible stroll around a barley farm, watch folks shoveling and carrying sacks, and glance into any tiny hut provided the entrance is missing.
Appearance and Mood
While I was completely ready to observe my settlement depicted 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 intricately designed surfaces (particularly rock faces) shouldn't logically be this impressive within a game that's fundamentally a city-builder. You may not see any individual strands of hair, but you will see writings on surfaces, flames emitting from lights, discoloration of masonry, iris elements, and conifer needles. Nighttime, with its flickering fires and stars shining in the distance, is especially atmospheric, and proves significantly less intimidating compared to Anno 1800, now that the citizens don’t look like terrifying apparitions anymore.
Discovery and Modification
Because the game's hidden immersive perspective has no guided tutorial, I opted to try different commands, and promptly found the functions for jumping, dashing, and changing perspective — with the latter allowing me to change from first-person to third-person mode and revert. I then experimented with some number buttons and found I could alter my avatar's look. Golden robe? Crimson attire? Sapphire and amethyst dress? Or — maybe superior — complete battle gear? You may carry a sword and shield, or, preferably, wear an archer's uniform; if you hit the interaction button, you’ll fire burning arrows into the sky. Should you be curious, eliminating citizens cannot be done (not that I attempted, naturally).
Amusement and Inhabitant Dialogues
Yet, I didn't want to damage my population, since they're incredibly amusing. Shortly after I activated the first-person view, I listened to a dad instructing his kid that “Owning a fox is prohibited and if you offer additional fowl, your gran will have your head.” Rightly so, Roman dad. One lovely local Celt then started applauding my outstanding integration methods by describing it as “Ideal combination,” 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 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. Oxen, donkeys, even manually drawn vehicles; you may operate any of them freely. The ass-drawn vehicle, specifically, travels rather rapidly, but don't anticipate any GTA-like shenanigans — you can’t drive into people or other wagons (again, not saying I’ve tried).
Battle Constraints
The single feature that frustrated me within the immersive perspective was learning about my exclusion from in combat situations. Equipped in warrior attire, I approached opposing forces amidst fighting and tried to harm them, but was entirely disregarded. The front-row seat was nonetheless magnificent, and watching the enemy run, their limbs waving wildly, proved very satisfying, yet it would have been exciting to effectively strike targets with my burning arrows.
