Anno 117 Pax Romana's Top Secret Is a Impressive First-Person Mode.
Surprisingly — did you realize gamers have the option to enjoy Anno 117: Pax Romana using a first-person camera? Should that be your response, you feel equally astonished as my own reaction upon finding out this secret option. I must step away from overseeing my civilization, entrust it to a reliable subordinate, take a wagon, and take a spin through Ancient Rome.
Activating the First-Person Feature
Being a city-building title, Anno 117 Pax Romana is typically played from an overhead perspective. However, if you input a hidden code — such as “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” using PC controls or “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” with a gamepad — it becomes possible to roam the empire as an ordinary Roman. Because an analogous secret appeared in the earlier game Anno 1800, I looked forward to try it out in the latest installment, but I wasn’t sure it would function before I discovered myself stuck in a Celtic building (which probably wasn’t intended — this option tends to be a little buggy at times).
Discovering the Ancient Streets
Upon freeing myself, I strolled the bustling streets across my settlement and toured stalls, alehouses, blossom gardens, and shellfish gatherers — it felt magnificent to observe the fruits of my labor from a brand-new perspective. I noticed all kinds of details that would escape notice from the top-down view: Doorway embellishments, a beast of burden holding a blossom container, chickens running loose, citizens lounging on their terraces… Even just observing the shape of a window sill and the paint layers on a column is quite interesting to someone who doesn’t live in Ancient Rome.
More Than Just Walking
Yet, the experience extends to the first-person feature in Anno 117 aside from meandering through streets. I was especially delighted when I found out that not only could I look upon agricultural plots, but also enter 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 invade personal courtyards. Don't bother with door access (not even the creators allocated resources for that), yet it's completely feasible stroll around a barley farm, 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, besides some crude animations and the occasional civilian resting in a bench instead of on a bench, the first-person view appears far superior to anticipations. The intricately designed surfaces (especially stone surfaces) really have no business being this good within a game that's fundamentally a city-builder. You won't necessarily notice specific hair details, however, you can observe wall inscriptions, fiery particles from lamps, discoloration of masonry, eye details, and pine tree leaves. Evening, with glowing light sources and stars shining in the distance, is especially atmospheric, and feels much less frightening relative to the previous game, especially since the inhabitants no longer resemble nightmarish entities now.
Discovery and Modification
Since Anno 117’s super-secret first-person mode has no guided tutorial, I decided to experiment a bit, and immediately located the options to jump, sprint, and zoom in or out — the last option enabling me to switch between first and third-person views and back. I subsequently tried pressing some number buttons and learned I could modify my avatar's look. Yellow toga? Red toga? Blue and purple toga? Or — potentially preferable — armored suit? You might hold a weapon and defense, or, preferably, wear an archer's uniform; if you activate the engage command, you launch incendiary bolts heavenward. In case you’re wondering, harming inhabitants is impossible (not that I attempted, naturally).
Humor and Citizen Interactions
However, I had no desire to injure my people, as they're remarkably entertaining. 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 should you provide another poultry, your gran will have your head.” Appropriate response, paternal figure. One lovely local Celt then proceeded to praise my brilliant Romano-Celtic policies by labeling it “Perfect fusion,” meanwhile a grumpy senior female chose to intimidate me: “Repeat that statement, and your disappearance will be permanent.”
The Fun of Vehicle Use
Just as I assumed I’d discovered all there is to discover in Anno 117: Pax Romana’s first-person mode, I found the joys of joyriding across historical settings. Totally unintentionally, I interacted with a cart and was promptly seated on the box. Cattle, asses, even manually drawn vehicles; you can control each one as desired. The donkey cart, in particular, moves quite quickly, but don't anticipate Grand Theft Auto-style mischief — colliding with pedestrians or other carts is impossible (once more, not admitting any attempts).
Fighting Restrictions
The only thing that disappointed me in Anno 117’s first-person mode was learning about my exclusion from in any fighting. Wearing my military outfit, I approached opposing forces amidst fighting and endeavored to damage them, but was entirely disregarded. The close-up view was nonetheless magnificent, and watching the enemy run, their arms flailing about, felt highly gratifying, though it might have been amazing to effectively strike targets using my fiery projectiles.