Anno 117: Pax Romana's Top Secret Turns Out to Be a Breathtaking First-Person Mode.
Wait — did you know you can play Anno 117 Pax Romana in first-person? Should that be your response, you feel equally astonished compared to my initial response when I discovered this secret option. Excuse me while briefly leave managing my empire, delegate it to a trusted assistant, commandere a carriage, and take a spin through Ancient Rome.
How to Access the First-Person Mode
Being a city-building title, Anno 117 Pax Romana is normally experienced from a bird's-eye view. However, if you enter a secret combination — such as “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” on a keyboard or else “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” on console — you gain the ability to walk the empire as an ordinary Roman. Because an analogous secret was included in the earlier game Anno 1800, I was eager to test it in Ubisoft's newest game, yet I had doubts it would operate prior to being submerged in a structural glitch (which probably wasn’t intended — this option can be prone to glitches now and then).
Roaming the Ancient Streets
Once I crawled out, I walked the busy roads of my city and explored stalls, alehouses, flower fields, and seafood collectors — the experience was splendid to witness all my hard work using an entirely new viewpoint. I detected a variety of intricacies that would escape notice from above: Entryway ornaments, an ass transporting a floral pail, fowl roaming freely, citizens lounging on their terraces… Simply noticing the shape of a window sill and the coloration on a post becomes engaging for those not residing in classical times.
Further Than Mere Wandering
However, there's additional content to the first-person feature in Anno 117 aside from meandering through streets. I was especially delighted the moment I learned that not only could I view crop lands, but also step into them. And even though I thought interiors would be restricted, I was able to enter earthen quarries, tour an esteemed educational structure while lessons were in session, and intrude into private gardens. Don’t try to open any doors (not even the studio have the budget for that), but it’s entirely possible wander through a grain field, observe people digging and transporting bags, and glance into any tiny hut when there's no doorway obstructing.
Appearance and Mood
Although I was fully prepared to see my metropolis represented with outdated visual quality, excluding a few unpolished motions and sometimes citizens positioned in a bench instead of on a bench, the immersive perspective seems considerably improved over predictions. The meticulously crafted materials (especially stone surfaces) really have no business being this good for a title that remains primarily overhead. You may not see specific hair details, yet you will notice wall inscriptions, sparks flying from torches, fading on bricks, iris elements, and pine tree leaves. The night, featuring dancing flames and celestial bodies twinkling afar, creates a particularly moody setting, and feels much less frightening versus the earlier title, given that the populace appears unlike terrifying apparitions now.
Experimentation and Customization
Because the game's hidden immersive perspective lacks official documentation, I chose to test various actions, and promptly found the functions for jumping, dashing, and changing perspective — the zoom function permitting me to alternate between immersive and external perspectives and back. I then experimented with some number buttons and found I could alter my character’s appearance. Yellow toga? Red toga? Sapphire and amethyst dress? Or — potentially preferable — armored suit? You might hold a weapon and defense, or, personally chosen, equip a shooter's costume; if you activate the engage command, you launch incendiary bolts heavenward. Should you be curious, it’s not possible to kill civilians (not that I attempted, naturally).
Comedy and Population Encounters
However, I had no desire to injure my people, since they're incredibly amusing. Only seconds after I landed the immersive perspective, I overheard a father telling his child that “You cannot keep a fox as a pet and if you feed it one more chicken, your grandmother will be furious.” Appropriate response, paternal figure. One lovely local Celt then started applauding my brilliant Romano-Celtic policies by calling it the “Best of both worlds,” whereas an irritable elderly woman chose to intimidate me: “Repeat that statement, and your disappearance will be permanent.”
The Fun of Vehicle Use
Just as I assumed I had found everything available within the game's immersive perspective, I experienced the pleasure of driving across historical settings. Entirely by accident, I interacted with a cart and quickly occupied the transport. Cattle, asses, even people-powered transports; you can drive them all at your leisure. The donkey-powered transport, notably, moves quite quickly, but don't anticipate any GTA-like shenanigans — colliding with pedestrians or other carts is impossible (once more, not admitting any attempts).
Battle Constraints
The single feature that frustrated me in Anno 117’s first-person mode was finding out I couldn’t partake in battle encounters. Sporting my soldier fit, I approached opposing forces during active combat and tried to harm them, only to be ignored completely. The front-row seat remained quite impressive, and observing foes flee, their appendages thrashing around, felt highly gratifying, though it might have been amazing to effectively strike targets via my incendiary bolts.
