Anno 117's Pax Romana's Top Secret Reveals Itself as a Breathtaking First-Person Mode.
Hold on — were you aware it's possible to experience Anno 117: Pax Romana using a first-person camera? If you're thinking that, your surprise matches as I was the moment I learned this secret option. I must temporarily abandon overseeing my civilization, entrust it to a reliable subordinate, take a wagon, and take a spin around the classical city.
Unlocking the First-Person Mode
Being a city-building title, Anno 117 Pax Romana is typically played using a top-down camera. However, if you press a covert button sequence — for example “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on keyboard or else “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on a controller — you can explore the empire as an ordinary Roman. Given a comparable hidden feature was part of the previous Anno title, I felt excited to try it out in Ubisoft's newest game, though I was uncertain it would operate until I found myself chin-deep in a Celtic floorboard (possibly an unexpected bug — this option is prone to glitches now and then).
Discovering the Roman Cityscape
Once I crawled out, I walked the bustling streets of my city and visited stalls, alehouses, blossom gardens, and seafood collectors — it felt magnificent to witness the fruits of my labor through a fresh lens. I detected numerous fine points I wouldn’t have spotted from above: Front door decorations, a beast of burden holding a blossom container, chickens running loose, folks chilling on their balconies… Even just observing the shape of a window sill and the coloration on a post is quite interesting for those not residing in classical times.
More Than Just Walking
However, there's additional content to the game's immersive perspective aside from meandering through streets. I felt particularly pleased when I found out that I could not just view farming fields, but also step into them. And although I’d assumed the building models would be off-limits, I was able to enter mud extraction sites, explore a prestigious Grammaticus building while lessons were in session, and invade personal courtyards. Don’t try to open any doors (not even the studio have the budget for that), yet it's completely feasible wander through a grain field, see citizens working with tools and burdens, and take a peek inside any small shack provided the entrance is missing.
Appearance and Mood
Although I was fully prepared to see my metropolis represented in PlayStation 1 graphics, excluding a few unpolished motions and the occasional civilian resting in a bench instead of on a bench, the immersive perspective seems considerably improved over predictions. The intricately designed surfaces (notably masonry elements) shouldn't logically be this impressive within a game that's fundamentally a city-builder. You might not observe separate follicular elements, but you will see engravings on walls, sparks flying from torches, fading on bricks, iris elements, and evergreen foliage. The night, featuring dancing flames and distant stellar illumination, is especially atmospheric, and also a lot less scary relative to the previous game, given that the populace appears unlike sleep paralysis demons these days.
Experimentation and Customization
Since Anno 117’s super-secret first-person mode has no guided tutorial, I chose to test various actions, and quickly discovered the functions for jumping, dashing, and changing perspective — the last option enabling me to change from first-person to third-person mode and return. I subsequently tried pressing certain numeric keys and found I could alter my character’s appearance. Golden robe? Red toga? Blue and purple toga? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? You may carry a sword and shield, or, preferably, wear an archer's uniform; if you activate the engage command, you launch incendiary bolts heavenward. In case you’re wondering, eliminating citizens cannot be done (not that I’ve tried, of course).
Comedy and Population Encounters
However, I had no desire to injure my people, because they’re way too funny. Shortly after I activated first-person mode, I heard a parent advising their offspring that he “Can’t have a pet fox and if you feed it one more chicken, your elder will punish you.” Rightly so, Roman dad. A friendly native Celtic person then began complimenting my brilliant Romano-Celtic policies by describing it as “Ideal combination,” meanwhile a grumpy senior female chose to intimidate me: “Repeat that statement, and your disappearance will be permanent.”
The Joy of Joyriding
Just when I thought I uncovered all possible content in Anno 117: Pax Romana’s first-person mode, I found the joys of joyriding across historical settings. Totally unintentionally, I selected a carriage and quickly occupied the transport. Oxen, donkeys, even manually drawn vehicles; you can drive them all at your leisure. The donkey cart, in particular, is pretty fast, although you shouldn't expect any GTA-like shenanigans — colliding with pedestrians or other carts is impossible (reiterating, without confirming testing).
Fighting Restrictions
The sole aspect that let me down in Anno 117’s first-person mode was learning about my exclusion from in combat situations. Equipped in warrior attire, I ran up to the enemy in the midst of battle and endeavored to damage them, only to be ignored completely. The proximate observation was nonetheless magnificent, and watching the enemy run, their limbs waving wildly, seemed enormously rewarding, yet it would have been exciting to successfully impact objects using my fiery projectiles.
