Anno 117: Pax Romana's Best-Kept Secret Turns Out to Be a Breathtaking First-Person Mode.
Surprisingly — did you realize it's possible to experience Anno 117: Pax Romana from a first-person viewpoint? If that’s your reaction, you feel equally astonished as I was the moment I learned this secret option. Excuse me while step away from my empire’s management, delegate it to a capable deputy, borrow a cart, and enjoy a ride through Ancient Rome.
Unlocking the First-Person Mode
In its role as a city-builder, Anno 117 Pax Romana is typically played using a top-down camera. But, should you enter a secret combination — for example “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on a keyboard or “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” with a gamepad — it becomes possible to roam the realm as a regular inhabitant. Since a similar easter egg appeared in the previous Anno title, I was eager to experience it in the latest installment, yet I had doubts it would work prior to being chin-deep in a Celtic floorboard (likely not meant to happen — this feature can be a little buggy at times).
Discovering the Roman Cityscape
After extracting myself, I wandered the lively avenues across my settlement and explored markets, breweries, blossom gardens, and cockle pickers — the experience was splendid to witness the fruits of my labor from a brand-new perspective. I observed all kinds of details that would escape notice from above: Entryway ornaments, an ass transporting a floral pail, poultry scattering about, folks chilling on their balconies… Merely examining the design of a windowsill and the coloration on a post proves fascinating to modern individuals unfamiliar with ancient life.
More Than Just Walking
However, there's additional content to the first-person feature in Anno 117 than strolling along the road. I felt particularly pleased upon discovering that not only could I view farming fields, but also enter them. And even though I thought structures would be inaccessible, I was able to enter earthen quarries, tour an esteemed educational structure while lessons were in session, and even trespass into people’s gardens. Avoid attempting to open doors (not even the studio planned for that functionality), yet it's completely feasible meander across a cereal plantation, watch folks shoveling and carrying sacks, and take a peek inside any small shack when there's no doorway obstructing.
Visual Quality and Atmosphere
While I was completely ready to witness my city rendered in PlayStation 1 graphics, excluding a few unpolished motions and sometimes citizens positioned inside seating as opposed to atop a bench, the first-person view appears far superior to anticipations. The highly detailed textures (especially stone surfaces) shouldn't logically be this impressive in what is still, essentially, a top-down game. You might not observe specific hair details, but you will see wall inscriptions, sparks flying from torches, brick decoloration, eye details, and conifer needles. Evening, with glowing light sources and distant stellar illumination, is especially atmospheric, and also a lot less scary versus the earlier title, now that the citizens don’t look like terrifying apparitions these days.
Testing and Personalization
Given the covert first-person feature lacks official documentation, I decided to experiment a bit, 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 return. I then decided to hit various digit inputs and discovered that I could change my avatar's look. Golden robe? Ruby clothing? Sapphire and amethyst dress? Or — potentially preferable — armored suit? You might hold a weapon and defense, or, personally chosen, equip a shooter's costume; if you activate the engage command, you launch incendiary bolts heavenward. Should you be curious, harming inhabitants is impossible (not that I’ve tried, of course).
Amusement and Inhabitant Dialogues
But I wouldn’t wish to harm my citizens anyway, as they're remarkably entertaining. Only seconds after I landed first-person mode, I listened to a dad instructing his kid that “You cannot keep a fox as a pet and if you feed it one more chicken, your grandmother will be furious.” Appropriate response, paternal figure. One lovely local Celt then proceeded to praise my excellent cross-cultural strategies by calling it the “Best of both worlds,” whereas an irritable elderly woman opted to menace me: “Say that one more time, and they’ll never find your body.”
The Joy of Joyriding
At the moment I believed I had found everything available in the title's first-person feature, I found the joys of joyriding through classical settlements. Entirely by accident, I interacted with a cart and immediately found myself in the driver's position. Oxen, donkeys, even human-pulled carts; you can control each one as desired. The donkey-powered transport, notably, travels rather rapidly, though you shouldn’t imagine any GTA-like shenanigans — you can’t drive into people or other wagons (again, not saying I’ve tried).
Combat Limitations
The only thing that disappointed me in Anno 117’s first-person mode was learning about my exclusion from in combat situations. Sporting my soldier fit, I approached opposing forces during active combat and tried to harm them, yet was completely overlooked. The front-row seat was still rather spectacular, and observing foes flee, their appendages thrashing around, seemed enormously rewarding, but it would’ve been cool to successfully impact objects using my fiery projectiles.
