Anno 117: Pax Romana's Top Secret Reveals Itself as a Impressive First-Person Mode.
Surprisingly — did you realize it's possible to experience Anno 117: Pax Romana using a first-person camera? If you're thinking that, your surprise matches as my own reaction upon finding out this concealed mode. Excuse me while briefly leave managing my empire, entrust it to a trusted assistant, commandere a carriage, and go for a joyride around the classical city.
How to Access 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 — for example “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” using PC controls alternatively “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” with a gamepad — you gain the ability to walk the empire as an ordinary Roman. Because an analogous secret appeared in the previous Anno title, I felt excited to experience it in the new release, though I was uncertain it would function until I found myself stuck in a Celtic building (possibly an unexpected bug — this mode is somewhat unstable occasionally).
Exploring the Roman Cityscape
After extracting myself, I walked the lively avenues across my settlement and toured markets, breweries, flower fields, and seafood collectors — it felt magnificent to see all my hard work using an entirely new viewpoint. I detected a variety of intricacies I wouldn’t have spotted when viewing from overhead: Front door decorations, a beast of burden holding a blossom container, chickens running loose, people relaxing on their verandas… Simply noticing the design of a windowsill and the paint layers on a column becomes engaging to modern individuals unfamiliar with ancient life.
Beyond Simple Strolling
However, there's additional content to the first-person feature in Anno 117 beyond simply walking the paths. I became extraordinarily excited when I found out that I could not just observe farming fields, but also step into them. And despite my expectation structures would be inaccessible, I could walk onto earthen quarries, investigate a respected schoolhouse while lessons were in session, and even trespass into people’s gardens. Avoid attempting to open doors (not even the developers allocated resources for that), however, you can definitely stroll around a barley farm, see citizens working with tools and burdens, and glance into any tiny hut provided the entrance is missing.
Graphics and Ambiance
While I was completely ready to see my metropolis represented with outdated visual quality, apart from certain rough movements and sometimes citizens positioned in a bench rather than on a bench, the first-person view appears considerably improved over predictions. The intricately designed surfaces (especially stone surfaces) really have no business being this good for a title that remains primarily overhead. You may not see separate follicular elements, yet you will notice wall inscriptions, flames emitting from lights, fading on bricks, eye details, and evergreen foliage. The night, featuring dancing flames and distant stellar illumination, generates a uniquely immersive environment, and proves significantly less intimidating versus the earlier title, now that the citizens don’t look like nightmarish entities anymore.
Testing and Personalization
Since Anno 117’s super-secret first-person mode has no guided tutorial, I decided to experiment a bit, and promptly found the functions for jumping, dashing, and adjusting the view — with the latter allowing me to change from first-person to third-person mode and return. I then experimented with some number buttons and discovered that I could change my character’s appearance. Amber garment? Red toga? Blue and purple toga? Or — maybe superior — complete battle gear? You can wield a blade and protection, or, preferably, wear an archer's uniform; if you hit the interaction button, you launch incendiary bolts heavenward. Should you be curious, eliminating citizens cannot be done (though I didn't test this, obviously).
Comedy and Population Encounters
Yet, I didn't want to damage my population, as they're remarkably entertaining. Only seconds after I landed first-person mode, I heard a parent advising their offspring that he “Can’t have a pet fox and if you offer additional fowl, your elder will punish you.” Appropriate response, paternal figure. One lovely local Celt then started applauding my excellent cross-cultural strategies by calling it the “Best of both worlds,” while some cranky old lady decided to threaten me: “Say that one more time, and they’ll never find your body.”
The Fun of Vehicle Use
Just as I assumed I uncovered all possible content in Anno 117: Pax Romana’s first-person mode, I encountered the delight of riding across historical settings. Entirely by accident, I clicked on a wagon and quickly occupied the transport. Cattle, asses, even manually drawn vehicles; you can drive them all at your leisure. The donkey-powered transport, notably, moves quite quickly, but don't anticipate any GTA-like shenanigans — impacting citizens or additional vehicles cannot occur (again, not saying I’ve tried).
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 ran up to the enemy amidst fighting and attempted to attack them, yet was completely overlooked. The front-row seat was still rather spectacular, and watching the enemy run, their arms flailing about, seemed enormously rewarding, but it would’ve been cool to effectively strike targets using my fiery projectiles.
