Anno 117's Pax Romana's Top Secret Is a Impressive First-Person Mode.
Hold on — were you aware gamers have the option to enjoy the game Anno 117 using a first-person camera? Should that be your response, you’re just as shocked as I was the moment I learned this secret option. I must step away from managing my empire, entrust it to a reliable subordinate, commandere a carriage, and take a spin across the Roman world.
Unlocking the First-Person Feature
In its role as a city-builder, the game Anno 117 is normally experienced from an overhead perspective. However, if you enter a secret combination — such as “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on a keyboard or “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on console — you gain the ability to walk your domain as a common citizen. Given a comparable hidden feature appeared in the earlier game Anno 1800, I felt excited to test it in Ubisoft's newest game, but I wasn’t sure it would operate before I discovered myself submerged in a structural glitch (possibly an unexpected bug — this option tends to be a little buggy at times).
Exploring the Roman Cityscape
After extracting myself, I strolled the lively avenues through my metropolis and explored stalls, alehouses, blossom gardens, and cockle pickers — the experience was splendid to witness the fruits of my labor using an entirely new viewpoint. I detected all kinds of details I wouldn’t have spotted from the top-down view: Doorway embellishments, a donkey carrying a flower bucket, poultry scattering about, folks chilling on their balconies… Even just observing the design of a windowsill and the coating on a pillar is quite interesting to modern individuals unfamiliar with ancient life.
More Than Just Walking
However, there's additional content to the game's immersive perspective beyond simply walking the paths. I felt particularly pleased upon discovering that besides being able to view farming fields, but also access them. And even though I thought the building models would be off-limits, I was able to enter earthen quarries, 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 look within any modest shelter when there's no doorway obstructing.
Appearance and Mood
While I was completely ready to observe my settlement depicted in PlayStation 1 graphics, excluding a few unpolished motions and sometimes citizens positioned inside seating as opposed to atop a bench, first-person mode looks much better than expected. The highly detailed textures (especially stone surfaces) are unexpectedly excellent for a title that remains primarily overhead. You won't necessarily notice separate follicular elements, but you will see engravings on walls, flames emitting from lights, fading on bricks, pupils, and pine tree leaves. The night, featuring dancing flames and distant stellar illumination, generates a uniquely immersive environment, and also a lot less scary versus the earlier title, given that the populace appears unlike sleep paralysis demons these days.
Discovery and Modification
Since Anno 117’s super-secret first-person mode has no guided tutorial, I opted to try different commands, and promptly found the options to jump, sprint, and adjusting the view — the last option enabling me to change from first-person to third-person mode and return. I then decided to hit some number buttons and discovered that I could change my character’s appearance. Golden robe? Crimson attire? Azure and violet outfit? Or — potentially preferable — armored suit? You can wield a blade and protection, or, personally chosen, equip a shooter's costume; if you hit the interaction button, you’ll fire burning arrows into the sky. If you're interested, it’s not possible to kill civilians (though I didn't test this, obviously).
Humor and Citizen Interactions
However, I had no desire to injure my people, because they’re way too funny. Shortly after I activated the immersive perspective, I overheard a father telling his child that “You cannot keep a fox as a pet and if you offer additional fowl, your grandmother will be furious.” Appropriate response, paternal figure. One lovely local Celt then proceeded to praise my brilliant Romano-Celtic policies by calling it the “Best of both worlds,” meanwhile a grumpy senior female decided to threaten me: “Utter those words again, and your fate will be sealed.”
The Joy of Joyriding
Just as I assumed I had found everything available in Anno 117: Pax Romana’s first-person mode, I encountered the delight of riding across historical settings. Completely unexpectedly, I selected a carriage and was promptly seated on the box. Bovines, equines, even human-pulled carts; you can control each one as desired. The donkey-powered transport, notably, moves quite quickly, though you shouldn’t imagine Grand Theft Auto-style mischief — you can’t drive into people or other wagons (again, not saying I’ve tried).
Fighting Restrictions
The only thing that disappointed me regarding the first-person view was discovering my inability to participate in battle encounters. Wearing my military outfit, I ran up to the enemy during active combat and attempted to attack them, but was entirely disregarded. The proximate observation was still rather spectacular, and watching the enemy run, their limbs waving wildly, felt highly gratifying, yet it would have been exciting to successfully impact objects with my burning arrows.
