Anno 117 Pax Romana's Top Secret Turns Out to Be a Stunning First-Person Perspective.
Wait — did you know gamers have the option to enjoy Anno 117: Pax Romana using a first-person camera? If that’s your reaction, you feel equally astonished as my own reaction upon finding out this secret option. Allow me to 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.
How to Access the First-Person Mode
In its role as a city-builder, the game Anno 117 is typically played from a bird's-eye view. However, if you press a covert button sequence — such as “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. Given a comparable hidden feature was included in Anno 1800, I was eager to try it out in Ubisoft's newest game, yet I had doubts it would function prior to being chin-deep in a Celtic floorboard (which probably wasn’t intended — this mode can be a little buggy at times).
Roaming the Roman Cityscape
Once I crawled out, I strolled the busy roads across my settlement and explored shops, taverns, floral patches, and seafood collectors — it felt magnificent to witness all my hard work through a fresh lens. I noticed numerous fine points I wouldn’t have spotted when viewing from overhead: Doorway embellishments, a donkey carrying a flower bucket, chickens running loose, people relaxing on their verandas… Simply noticing the design of a windowsill and the coloration on a post proves fascinating to modern individuals unfamiliar with ancient life.
Beyond Simple Strolling
Yet, the experience extends to the first-person feature in Anno 117 than strolling along the road. I became extraordinarily excited upon discovering that besides being able to look upon agricultural plots, but also step into them. And even though I thought structures would be inaccessible, I was able to enter mud extraction sites, explore a prestigious Grammaticus building as teaching was underway, and invade personal courtyards. Avoid attempting to open doors (not even the creators allocated resources for that), but it’s entirely possible meander across a cereal plantation, watch folks shoveling and carrying sacks, and look within any modest shelter when there's no doorway obstructing.
Appearance and Mood
Although I was fully prepared to witness my city rendered using primitive rendering, besides some crude animations and sometimes citizens positioned in a bench rather than on a bench, the immersive perspective seems considerably improved over predictions. The intricately designed surfaces (especially stone surfaces) really have no business being this good in what is still, essentially, a top-down game. You might not observe any individual strands of hair, but you will see engravings on walls, flames emitting from lights, fading on bricks, eye details, and pine tree leaves. The night, featuring dancing flames and distant stellar illumination, generates a uniquely immersive environment, and feels much less frightening compared to Anno 1800, especially since the inhabitants no longer resemble sleep paralysis demons now.
Discovery and Modification
Since Anno 117’s super-secret first-person mode lacks official documentation, I decided to experiment a bit, and promptly found the functions for jumping, dashing, and adjusting the view — the zoom function permitting me to change from first-person to third-person mode and return. I then experimented with various digit inputs and learned I could modify my representative's visual design. Amber garment? Crimson attire? Azure and violet outfit? Or — potentially preferable — armored suit? You may carry a sword and shield, or, preferably, wear an archer's uniform; if you hit the interaction button, you shoot flaming projectiles upward. If you're interested, it’s not possible to kill civilians (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. Moments after I entered the first-person view, I overheard a father telling his child that “You cannot keep a fox as a pet and should you provide another poultry, your grandmother will be furious.” Understandable stance, father character. A friendly native Celtic person then proceeded to praise my excellent cross-cultural strategies by calling it the “Best of both worlds,” meanwhile a grumpy senior female opted to menace me: “Repeat that statement, and your disappearance will be permanent.”
The Joy of Joyriding
At the moment I believed I uncovered all possible content within the game's immersive perspective, I encountered the delight of riding through classical settlements. Completely unexpectedly, I selected a carriage and was promptly seated on the box. Bovines, equines, even human-pulled carts; you may operate any of them freely. The ass-drawn vehicle, specifically, is pretty fast, although you shouldn't expect open-world vehicular chaos — colliding with pedestrians or other carts is impossible (once more, not admitting any attempts).
Combat Limitations
The sole aspect that let me down regarding the first-person view was finding out I couldn’t partake in any fighting. Sporting my soldier fit, I ran up to the enemy in the midst of battle and attempted to attack them, yet was completely overlooked. The proximate observation was still rather spectacular, and seeing opponents retreat, their arms flailing about, felt highly gratifying, yet it would have been exciting to successfully impact objects with my burning arrows.
