Anno 117: Pax Romana's Top Secret Is a Stunning First-Person Perspective.
Hold on — were you aware it's possible to experience Anno 117 Pax Romana using a first-person camera? If you're thinking that, your surprise matches as I was the moment I learned this hidden feature. Allow me to step away from managing my empire, delegate it to a reliable subordinate, take a wagon, and go for a joyride across the Roman world.
How to Access the First-Person Mode
In its role as a city-builder, Anno 117 Pax Romana is typically played from an overhead perspective. However, if you enter a secret combination — such as “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on keyboard or “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on a controller — you can explore the empire as an ordinary Roman. Given a comparable hidden feature appeared in Anno 1800, I was eager to try it out in the latest installment, though I was uncertain it would operate prior to being chin-deep in a Celtic floorboard (possibly an unexpected bug — this mode can be somewhat unstable occasionally).
Roaming the Roman Cityscape
After extracting myself, I wandered the lively avenues through my metropolis and explored shops, taverns, flower fields, and shellfish gatherers — the experience was splendid to see all my hard work through a fresh lens. I observed a variety of intricacies I might have missed when viewing from overhead: Front door decorations, a beast of burden holding a blossom container, chickens running loose, folks chilling on their balconies… Merely examining the form of a ledge and the coloration on a post is quite interesting to modern individuals unfamiliar with ancient life.
Further Than Mere Wandering
But there’s more to the game's immersive perspective beyond simply walking the paths. I was especially delighted when I found out that besides being able to view agricultural plots, but also step into them. And despite my expectation interiors would be restricted, I managed to access earthen quarries, tour an esteemed educational structure while lessons were in session, and invade personal courtyards. Don't bother with door access (not even the studio have the budget for that), however, you can definitely stroll around a barley farm, see citizens working with tools and burdens, and glance into any tiny hut when there's no doorway obstructing.
Appearance and Mood
While I was completely ready to observe my settlement depicted using primitive rendering, apart from certain rough movements and sometimes citizens positioned within a bench as opposed to atop 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 specific hair details, however, you can observe engravings on walls, sparks flying from torches, fading on bricks, pupils, and evergreen foliage. The night, featuring dancing flames and celestial bodies twinkling afar, is especially atmospheric, and also a lot less scary 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 chose to test various actions, and quickly discovered the options to jump, sprint, and changing perspective — with the latter allowing me to switch between first and third-person views and back. I subsequently tried pressing various digit inputs and found I could alter my avatar's look. Golden robe? Ruby clothing? Azure and violet outfit? Or — maybe superior — complete battle gear? You might hold a weapon and defense, or, personally chosen, equip a shooter's costume; if you activate the engage command, you shoot flaming projectiles upward. In case you’re wondering, eliminating citizens cannot be done (not that I’ve tried, of course).
Amusement and Inhabitant Dialogues
But I wouldn’t wish to harm my citizens anyway, because they’re way too funny. Only seconds after I landed the immersive perspective, I heard a parent advising their offspring that “You cannot keep a fox as a pet and should you provide another poultry, your grandmother will be furious.” Rightly so, Roman dad. A friendly native Celtic person then started applauding my outstanding integration methods by calling it the “Best of both worlds,” whereas an irritable elderly woman opted to menace me: “Repeat that statement, and your disappearance will be permanent.”
The Thrill of Transportation
At the moment I believed I’d discovered all there is to discover in the title's first-person feature, I experienced the pleasure of driving in Ancient Rome. Entirely by accident, I selected a carriage and was promptly seated on the box. Cattle, asses, even manually drawn vehicles; you can control each one as desired. The donkey-powered transport, notably, is pretty fast, though you shouldn’t imagine any GTA-like shenanigans — impacting citizens or additional vehicles cannot occur (reiterating, without confirming testing).
Battle Constraints
The single feature that frustrated me within the immersive perspective was finding out I couldn’t partake in combat situations. Wearing my military outfit, I charged toward adversaries amidst fighting and tried to harm them, but was entirely disregarded. The proximate observation was nonetheless magnificent, and seeing opponents retreat, their limbs waving wildly, felt highly gratifying, yet it would have been exciting to effectively strike targets using my fiery projectiles.
