Anno 117 Pax Romana's Hidden Gem Is a Impressive First-Person Mode.
Wait — did you know you can play Anno 117: Pax Romana using a first-person camera? Should that be your response, your surprise matches compared to my initial response upon finding out this secret option. Excuse me while temporarily abandon overseeing my civilization, leave it in a capable deputy, take a wagon, and enjoy a ride across the Roman world.
Activating the First-Person Mode
In its role as a city-builder, Anno 117: Pax Romana is normally experienced using a top-down camera. But, should you press a covert button sequence — for example “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on a keyboard alternatively “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 appeared in the previous Anno title, I felt excited to test it in Ubisoft's newest game, but I wasn’t sure it would function until I found myself submerged in a structural glitch (possibly an unexpected bug — this feature can be a little buggy at times).
Discovering the Ancient Streets
After extracting myself, I walked the bustling streets through my metropolis and explored markets, breweries, blossom gardens, and shellfish gatherers — it felt magnificent to witness the fruits of my labor using an entirely new viewpoint. I noticed a variety of intricacies that would escape notice from the top-down view: Front door decorations, a beast of burden holding a blossom container, poultry scattering about, people relaxing on their verandas… Even just observing the form of a ledge and the paint layers on a column becomes engaging for those not residing in classical times.
Further Than Mere Wandering
However, there's additional content to Anno 117’s first-person mode aside from meandering through streets. I became extraordinarily excited the moment I learned that besides being able to observe agricultural plots, but also access them. And despite my expectation structures would be inaccessible, I managed to access clay pits, explore a prestigious Grammaticus building while lessons were in session, and invade personal courtyards. Don’t try to open any doors (not even the creators allocated resources for that), but it’s entirely possible meander across a cereal plantation, observe people digging and transporting bags, and take a peek inside any small shack as long as the door is absent.
Visual Quality and Atmosphere
Even though I expected to see my metropolis represented with outdated visual quality, excluding a few unpolished motions and sometimes citizens positioned within a bench rather than on a bench, first-person mode looks far superior to anticipations. The highly detailed textures (particularly rock faces) are unexpectedly excellent in what is still, essentially, a top-down game. You might not observe any individual strands of hair, but you will see wall inscriptions, fiery particles from lamps, discoloration of masonry, eye details, and evergreen foliage. The night, featuring dancing flames and stars shining in the distance, generates a uniquely immersive environment, and feels much less frightening compared to Anno 1800, now that the citizens don’t look like nightmarish entities these days.
Experimentation and Customization
Given the covert first-person feature doesn’t come with an instruction manual, I chose to test various actions, and quickly discovered the options to jump, sprint, and adjusting the view — the last option enabling me to change from first-person to third-person mode and revert. I subsequently tried pressing some number buttons and learned I could modify my avatar's look. Amber garment? Red toga? Blue and purple toga? Or — maybe superior — complete battle gear? You can wield a blade and protection, or, my favorite, don a marksman outfit; when you press the action key, you launch incendiary bolts heavenward. Should you be curious, it’s not possible to kill civilians (not that I’ve tried, of course).
Amusement and Inhabitant Dialogues
However, I had no desire to injure my people, since they're incredibly amusing. 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 offer additional fowl, your gran will have your head.” Appropriate response, paternal figure. A pleasant regional 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: “Repeat that statement, and your disappearance will be permanent.”
The Joy of Joyriding
At the moment I believed I had found everything available within the game's immersive perspective, I found the joys of joyriding through classical settlements. Entirely by accident, I selected a carriage and immediately found myself in the driver's position. Bovines, equines, even people-powered transports; you may operate any of them freely. The donkey-powered transport, notably, is pretty fast, though you shouldn’t imagine any GTA-like shenanigans — impacting citizens or additional vehicles cannot occur (once more, not admitting any attempts).
Fighting Restrictions
The only thing that disappointed me within the immersive perspective was discovering my inability to participate in combat situations. Equipped in warrior attire, I ran up to the enemy during active combat and attempted to attack them, yet was completely overlooked. The close-up view remained quite impressive, and seeing opponents retreat, their arms flailing about, seemed enormously rewarding, yet it would have been exciting to successfully impact objects using my fiery projectiles.
