Anno 117 Pax Romana's Hidden Gem Is a Breathtaking First-Person View.
Hold on — were you aware it's possible to experience the game Anno 117 using a first-person camera? If that’s your reaction, you’re just as shocked compared to my initial response when I discovered this hidden feature. I must step away from my empire’s management, entrust it to a reliable subordinate, take a wagon, and go for a joyride across the Roman world.
Unlocking the First-Person View
Being a city-building title, Anno 117: Pax Romana is typically played from a bird's-eye view. However, if you input a hidden code — for example “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” using PC controls alternatively “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on console — you can explore your domain as a common citizen. Because an analogous secret appeared in 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 chin-deep in a Celtic floorboard (likely not meant to happen — this feature tends to be prone to glitches now and then).
Roaming the Ancient Streets
After extracting myself, I wandered the busy roads through my metropolis and visited markets, breweries, blossom gardens, and seafood collectors — the experience was splendid to see the fruits of my labor through a fresh lens. I detected numerous fine points that would escape notice when viewing from overhead: Entryway ornaments, an ass transporting a floral pail, fowl roaming freely, folks chilling on their balconies… Simply noticing the shape of a window sill and the coating on a pillar becomes engaging to modern individuals unfamiliar with ancient life.
Further Than Mere Wandering
However, there's additional content to the first-person feature in Anno 117 than strolling along the road. I felt particularly pleased when I found out that I could not just view crop lands, but also step into them. And even though I thought interiors would be restricted, I was able to enter clay pits, tour an esteemed educational structure while lessons were in session, and invade personal courtyards. Don't bother with door access (not even the developers have the budget for that), yet it's completely feasible stroll around a barley farm, see citizens working with tools and burdens, and look within any modest shelter when there's no doorway obstructing.
Visual Quality and Atmosphere
Even though I expected to observe my settlement depicted in PlayStation 1 graphics, apart from certain rough movements and periodic inhabitants sitting in a bench rather than on a bench, the immersive perspective seems far superior to anticipations. The intricately designed surfaces (notably masonry elements) really have no business being this good within a game that's fundamentally a city-builder. You might not observe any individual strands of hair, but you will see wall inscriptions, flames emitting from lights, fading on bricks, iris elements, and pine tree leaves. The night, featuring dancing flames and stars shining in the distance, creates a particularly moody setting, and also a lot less scary versus the earlier title, now that the citizens don’t look like sleep paralysis demons anymore.
Discovery and Modification
Because the game's hidden immersive perspective doesn’t come with an instruction manual, I opted to try different commands, and promptly found the functions for jumping, dashing, and adjusting the view — the zoom function permitting me to switch between first and third-person views and back. I then experimented with some number buttons and learned I could modify my representative's visual design. Golden robe? Ruby clothing? Azure and violet outfit? Or — maybe superior — complete battle gear? You might hold a weapon and defense, or, preferably, wear an archer's uniform; if you hit the interaction button, you shoot flaming projectiles upward. In case you’re wondering, it’s not possible to kill civilians (not that I attempted, naturally).
Amusement and Inhabitant Dialogues
Yet, I didn't want to damage my population, as they're remarkably entertaining. Moments after I entered the first-person view, I listened to a dad instructing his kid that he “Can’t have a pet fox and should you provide another poultry, your gran will have your head.” Rightly so, Roman dad. A pleasant regional Celt then proceeded to praise my excellent cross-cultural strategies by describing it as “Ideal combination,” whereas an irritable elderly woman decided to threaten me: “Utter those words again, and your fate will be sealed.”
The Fun of Vehicle Use
Just when I thought I had found everything available in Anno 117: Pax Romana’s first-person mode, I encountered the delight of riding through classical settlements. Completely unexpectedly, I clicked on a wagon and immediately found myself in the driver's position. Bovines, equines, even manually drawn vehicles; you may operate any of them freely. The donkey-powered transport, notably, moves quite quickly, though you shouldn’t imagine open-world vehicular chaos — you can’t drive into people or other wagons (reiterating, without confirming testing).
Battle Constraints
The only thing that disappointed me in Anno 117’s first-person mode was finding out I couldn’t partake in combat situations. Sporting my soldier fit, I ran up to the enemy during active combat and attempted to attack them, yet was completely overlooked. The close-up view remained quite impressive, and watching the enemy run, their limbs waving wildly, felt highly gratifying, but it would’ve been cool to actually hit something via my incendiary bolts.
