Anno 117 Pax Romana's Best-Kept Secret Reveals Itself as a Stunning First-Person Perspective.
Surprisingly — did you realize you can play Anno 117: Pax Romana using a first-person camera? Should that be your response, your surprise matches as I was upon finding out this secret option. Excuse me while step away from managing my empire, delegate it to a trusted assistant, commandere a carriage, and enjoy a ride around the classical city.
Activating the First-Person Mode
As a city-building game, the game Anno 117 is typically played from a bird's-eye view. But, should you enter a secret combination — such as “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on keyboard alternatively “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on a controller — it becomes possible to roam the empire as an ordinary Roman. Since a similar easter egg appeared in the earlier game Anno 1800, I felt excited to try it out in the latest installment, yet I had doubts it would operate prior to being stuck in a Celtic building (likely not meant to happen — this option is somewhat unstable occasionally).
Discovering the Streets of Rome
Once I crawled out, I strolled the bustling streets across my settlement and toured markets, breweries, flower fields, and shellfish gatherers — it was glorious to see the fruits of my labor through a fresh lens. I observed a variety of intricacies I wouldn’t have spotted from above: Front door decorations, a beast of burden holding a blossom container, chickens running loose, citizens lounging on their terraces… Even just observing the form of a ledge and the coloration on a post becomes engaging to modern individuals unfamiliar with ancient life.
More Than Just Walking
Yet, the experience extends to Anno 117’s first-person mode than strolling along the road. I felt particularly pleased upon discovering that besides being able to observe crop lands, but also access them. And although I’d assumed interiors would be restricted, I was able to enter mud extraction sites, explore a prestigious Grammaticus building as teaching was underway, and even trespass into people’s gardens. Avoid attempting to open doors (not even the studio have the budget for that), but it’s entirely possible meander across a cereal plantation, watch folks shoveling and carrying sacks, and take a peek inside any small shack as long as the door is absent.
Appearance and Mood
While I was completely ready to witness my city rendered with outdated visual quality, excluding a few unpolished motions and periodic inhabitants sitting in a bench rather than on a bench, the first-person view appears much better than expected. The intricately designed surfaces (particularly rock faces) shouldn't logically be this impressive within a game that's fundamentally a city-builder. You won't necessarily notice specific hair details, however, you can observe writings on surfaces, sparks flying from torches, fading on bricks, pupils, and evergreen foliage. The night, featuring dancing flames and celestial bodies twinkling afar, is especially atmospheric, and also a lot less scary relative to the previous game, especially since the inhabitants no longer resemble nightmarish entities these days.
Testing and Personalization
Since Anno 117’s super-secret first-person mode has no guided tutorial, I opted to try different commands, and immediately located the options to jump, sprint, and adjusting the view — the last option enabling me to switch between first and third-person views and back. I then experimented with some number buttons and found I could alter my avatar's look. Yellow toga? Ruby clothing? Azure and violet outfit? Or — maybe superior — complete battle gear? You might hold a weapon and defense, or, my favorite, don a marksman outfit; if you hit the interaction button, you launch incendiary bolts heavenward. If you're interested, it’s not possible to kill civilians (though I didn't test this, obviously).
Amusement and Inhabitant Dialogues
But I wouldn’t wish to harm my citizens anyway, as they're remarkably entertaining. Shortly after I activated first-person mode, I listened to a dad instructing his kid that “Owning a fox is prohibited and should you provide another poultry, your elder will punish you.” Appropriate response, paternal figure. A pleasant regional Celt then proceeded to praise my excellent cross-cultural strategies by labeling it “Perfect fusion,” while some cranky old lady chose to intimidate me: “Say that one more time, and they’ll never find your body.”
The Thrill of Transportation
Just when I thought I had found everything available within the game's immersive perspective, I found the joys of joyriding in Ancient Rome. Totally unintentionally, I clicked on a wagon and was promptly seated on the box. Oxen, donkeys, even human-pulled carts; you may operate any of them freely. The donkey-powered transport, notably, is pretty fast, but don't anticipate Grand Theft Auto-style mischief — colliding with pedestrians or other carts is impossible (once more, not admitting any attempts).
Fighting Restrictions
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 charged toward adversaries amidst fighting and endeavored to damage them, but was entirely disregarded. The proximate observation was still rather spectacular, and seeing opponents retreat, their arms flailing about, seemed enormously rewarding, yet it would have been exciting to successfully impact objects with my burning arrows.
