Anno 117 Pax Romana's Top Secret Reveals Itself as a Breathtaking First-Person View.
Wait — did you know gamers have the option to enjoy Anno 117 Pax Romana in first-person? Should that be your response, you’re just as shocked compared to my initial response the moment I learned this secret option. Excuse me while briefly leave my empire’s management, delegate it to a capable deputy, borrow a cart, and take a spin across the Roman world.
Unlocking the First-Person Feature
As a city-building game, Anno 117: Pax Romana is typically played from an overhead perspective. Yet, when you input a hidden code — such as “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on a keyboard or else “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” with a gamepad — you can explore your domain as a common citizen. Because an analogous secret appeared in the previous Anno title, I was eager to experience it in the new release, but I wasn’t sure it would function prior to being submerged in a structural glitch (possibly an unexpected bug — this feature is somewhat unstable occasionally).
Exploring the Ancient Streets
Upon freeing myself, I wandered the busy roads through my metropolis and explored shops, taverns, floral patches, and cockle pickers — it was glorious to witness all my hard work using an entirely new viewpoint. I observed numerous fine points I wouldn’t have spotted when viewing from overhead: Doorway embellishments, a donkey carrying a flower bucket, poultry scattering about, citizens lounging on their terraces… Merely examining the design of a windowsill and the paint layers on a column becomes engaging to someone who doesn’t live in Ancient Rome.
Further Than Mere Wandering
But there’s more to the game's immersive perspective beyond simply walking the paths. I became extraordinarily excited upon discovering that besides being able to view agricultural plots, but also enter them. And despite my expectation the building models would be off-limits, I could walk onto earthen quarries, explore a prestigious Grammaticus building as teaching was underway, and even trespass into people’s gardens. Don’t try to open any doors (not even the developers have the budget for that), yet it's completely feasible meander across a cereal plantation, watch folks shoveling and carrying sacks, and look within any modest shelter when there's no doorway obstructing.
Graphics and Ambiance
Even though I expected to witness my city rendered with outdated visual quality, excluding a few unpolished motions and the occasional civilian resting inside seating as opposed to atop a bench, the first-person view appears much better than expected. The meticulously crafted materials (especially stone surfaces) shouldn't logically be this impressive for a title that remains primarily overhead. You might not observe separate follicular elements, but you will see wall inscriptions, flames emitting from lights, fading on bricks, pupils, and pine tree leaves. Evening, with glowing light sources and distant stellar illumination, creates a particularly moody setting, and proves significantly less intimidating versus the earlier title, given that the populace appears unlike nightmarish entities these days.
Discovery and Modification
Because the game's hidden immersive perspective lacks official documentation, I chose to test various actions, and promptly found the functions for jumping, dashing, and changing perspective — the zoom function permitting me to switch between first and third-person views and return. I then experimented with certain numeric keys and discovered that I could change my character’s appearance. Golden robe? Crimson attire? Blue and purple toga? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? You might hold a weapon and defense, or, personally chosen, equip a shooter's costume; if you activate the engage command, you’ll fire burning arrows into the sky. In case you’re wondering, harming inhabitants is impossible (though I didn't test this, obviously).
Comedy and Population Encounters
However, I had no desire to injure my people, because they’re way too funny. Only seconds after I landed the immersive perspective, I listened to a dad instructing his kid that “Owning a fox is prohibited and if you feed it one more chicken, your elder will punish you.” Appropriate response, paternal figure. A friendly native Celtic person then began complimenting my excellent cross-cultural strategies by describing it as “Ideal combination,” whereas an irritable elderly woman chose to intimidate me: “Say that one more time, and they’ll never find your body.”
The Fun of Vehicle Use
Just when I thought I had found everything available in the title's first-person feature, I encountered the delight of riding in Ancient Rome. Entirely by accident, I interacted with a cart and was promptly seated on the box. Oxen, donkeys, even human-pulled carts; you may operate any of them freely. The ass-drawn vehicle, specifically, is pretty fast, although you shouldn't expect Grand Theft Auto-style mischief — you can’t drive into people or other wagons (again, not saying I’ve tried).
Combat Limitations
The only thing that disappointed me in Anno 117’s first-person mode was finding out I couldn’t partake in combat situations. Wearing my military outfit, I approached opposing forces amidst fighting and tried to harm them, yet was completely overlooked. The proximate observation was still rather spectacular, and watching the enemy run, their appendages thrashing around, felt highly gratifying, but it would’ve been cool to effectively strike targets using my fiery projectiles.