Anno 117's Pax Romana's Best-Kept Secret Reveals Itself as a Impressive First-Person View.
Wait — did you know gamers have the option to enjoy Anno 117: Pax Romana using a first-person camera? Should that be your response, your surprise matches as my own reaction upon finding out this hidden feature. Allow me to step away from my empire’s management, delegate it to a capable deputy, take a wagon, and take a spin through Ancient Rome.
Unlocking the First-Person Mode
Being a city-building title, the game Anno 117 is typically played from a bird's-eye view. But, should you enter a secret combination — for example “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on a keyboard alternatively “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” with a gamepad — you can explore the realm as a regular inhabitant. Given a comparable hidden feature was included in Anno 1800, I felt excited to experience it in the latest installment, yet I had doubts it would work until I found myself chin-deep in a Celtic floorboard (likely not meant to happen — this feature can be a little buggy at times).
Roaming the Roman Cityscape
After extracting myself, I walked the busy roads of my city and toured stalls, alehouses, blossom gardens, and seafood collectors — it was glorious to observe the fruits of my labor using an entirely new viewpoint. I noticed a variety of intricacies I wouldn’t have spotted from the top-down view: Doorway embellishments, a beast of burden holding a blossom container, fowl roaming freely, citizens lounging on their terraces… Even just observing the design of a windowsill and the coloration on a post becomes engaging for those not residing in classical times.
More Than Just Walking
However, there's additional content to the first-person feature in Anno 117 than strolling along the road. I became extraordinarily excited when I found out that besides being able to view agricultural plots, but also access them. And although I’d assumed interiors would be restricted, I was able to enter clay pits, explore a prestigious Grammaticus building while lessons were in session, and invade personal courtyards. Avoid attempting to open doors (not even the studio have the budget for that), however, you can definitely meander across a cereal plantation, observe people digging and transporting bags, and glance into any tiny hut as long as the door is absent.
Appearance and Mood
Even though I expected to observe my settlement depicted in PlayStation 1 graphics, besides some crude animations and the occasional civilian resting inside seating instead of on a bench, first-person mode looks considerably improved over predictions. The intricately designed surfaces (especially stone surfaces) are unexpectedly excellent for a title that remains primarily overhead. You won't necessarily notice separate follicular elements, yet you will notice writings on surfaces, flames emitting from lights, fading on bricks, pupils, and pine tree leaves. The night, featuring dancing flames and celestial bodies twinkling afar, creates a particularly moody setting, and proves significantly less intimidating relative to the previous game, given that the populace appears unlike terrifying apparitions these days.
Discovery and Modification
Since Anno 117’s super-secret first-person mode doesn’t come with an instruction manual, I opted to try different commands, and promptly found the functions for jumping, dashing, and changing perspective — with the latter allowing me to switch between first and third-person views and revert. I then decided to hit various digit inputs and discovered that I could change my character’s appearance. Amber garment? Red toga? Azure and violet outfit? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? You may carry a sword and shield, or, personally chosen, equip a shooter's costume; when you press the action key, you shoot flaming projectiles upward. Should you be curious, it’s not possible to kill civilians (not that I’ve tried, of course).
Comedy and Population Encounters
Yet, I didn't want to damage my population, because they’re way too funny. Only seconds after I landed the immersive perspective, I heard a parent advising their offspring that “You cannot keep a fox as a pet and if you feed it one more chicken, your elder will punish you.” Appropriate response, paternal figure. A pleasant regional Celt then proceeded to praise my outstanding integration methods by describing it as “Ideal combination,” while some cranky old lady chose to intimidate me: “Utter those words again, and your fate will be sealed.”
The Joy of Joyriding
Just as I assumed I uncovered all possible content in the title's first-person feature, I found the joys of joyriding through classical settlements. Completely unexpectedly, I clicked on a wagon and quickly occupied the transport. Oxen, donkeys, even human-pulled carts; you can control each one as desired. The ass-drawn vehicle, specifically, moves quite quickly, though you shouldn’t imagine Grand Theft Auto-style mischief — impacting citizens or additional vehicles cannot occur (again, not saying I’ve tried).
Fighting Restrictions
The only thing that disappointed me within the immersive perspective was learning about my exclusion from in combat situations. Wearing my military outfit, I ran up to the enemy in the midst of battle and attempted to attack them, yet was completely overlooked. The close-up view was still rather spectacular, and seeing opponents retreat, their limbs waving wildly, felt highly gratifying, yet it would have been exciting to actually hit something via my incendiary bolts.
