Anno 117: Pax Romana's Top Secret Is a Stunning First-Person View.
Hold on — were you aware gamers have the option to enjoy Anno 117 Pax Romana from a first-person viewpoint? If that’s your reaction, you’re just as shocked compared to my initial response the moment I learned this concealed mode. Excuse me while temporarily abandon managing my empire, leave it in a capable deputy, commandere a carriage, and enjoy a ride around the classical city.
How to Access the First-Person View
In its role as a city-builder, Anno 117: Pax Romana usually operates from a bird's-eye view. However, if 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” on a controller — you gain the ability to walk the realm as a regular inhabitant. Since a similar easter egg appeared in the previous Anno title, I looked forward to test it in Ubisoft's newest game, yet I had doubts it would function until I found myself submerged in a structural glitch (possibly an unexpected bug — this feature can be prone to glitches now and then).
Exploring the Streets of Rome
After extracting myself, I wandered the lively avenues through my metropolis and toured shops, taverns, blossom gardens, and shellfish gatherers — it was glorious to witness the fruits of my labor using an entirely new viewpoint. I observed all kinds of details I wouldn’t have spotted when viewing from overhead: Front door decorations, an ass transporting a floral pail, fowl roaming freely, citizens lounging on their terraces… Even just observing the shape of a window sill and the coloration on a post is quite interesting to someone who doesn’t live in Ancient Rome.
Further Than Mere Wandering
But there’s more 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 look upon agricultural plots, but also access them. And even though I thought interiors would be restricted, I could walk onto clay pits, investigate a respected schoolhouse while lessons were in session, and even trespass into people’s gardens. Don’t try to open any doors (not even the developers allocated resources for that), yet it's completely feasible stroll around a barley farm, see citizens working with tools and burdens, and look within any modest shelter as long as the door is absent.
Appearance and Mood
Although I was fully prepared to observe my settlement depicted with outdated visual quality, excluding a few unpolished motions and periodic inhabitants sitting inside seating rather than on a bench, first-person mode looks considerably improved over predictions. The highly detailed textures (especially stone surfaces) shouldn't logically be this impressive within a game that's fundamentally a city-builder. You might not observe any individual strands of hair, but you will see engravings on walls, sparks flying from torches, fading on bricks, iris elements, and pine tree leaves. Nighttime, with its flickering fires and stars shining in the distance, creates a particularly moody setting, and proves significantly less intimidating versus the earlier title, especially since the inhabitants no longer resemble terrifying apparitions anymore.
Experimentation and Customization
Because the game's hidden immersive perspective has no guided tutorial, I opted to try different commands, and quickly discovered the abilities to leap, run, and adjusting the view — with the latter allowing me to change from first-person to third-person mode and return. I then decided to hit various digit inputs and learned I could modify my avatar's look. Yellow toga? Crimson attire? Azure and violet outfit? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? You might hold a weapon and defense, or, preferably, wear an archer's uniform; when you press the action key, you shoot flaming projectiles upward. Should you be curious, harming inhabitants is impossible (not that I attempted, naturally).
Amusement and Inhabitant Dialogues
Yet, I didn't want to damage my population, since they're incredibly amusing. Shortly after I activated first-person mode, I heard a parent advising their offspring that “Owning a fox is prohibited 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 outstanding integration methods by calling it the “Best of both worlds,” while some cranky old lady decided to threaten me: “Utter those words again, and your fate will be sealed.”
The Thrill of Transportation
Just when I thought I uncovered all possible content in Anno 117: Pax Romana’s first-person mode, I encountered the delight of riding in Ancient Rome. Completely unexpectedly, I interacted with a cart and was promptly seated on the box. Bovines, equines, even human-pulled carts; you may operate any of them freely. The ass-drawn vehicle, specifically, travels rather rapidly, although you shouldn't expect open-world vehicular chaos — impacting citizens or additional vehicles cannot occur (once more, not admitting any attempts).
Combat Limitations
The sole aspect that let me down within the immersive perspective was discovering my inability to participate in any fighting. Equipped in warrior attire, I approached opposing forces amidst fighting and attempted to attack them, only to be ignored completely. The front-row seat was still rather spectacular, and watching the enemy run, their appendages thrashing around, seemed enormously rewarding, yet it would have been exciting to effectively strike targets with my burning arrows.
