Anno 117: Pax Romana's Best-Kept Secret Is a Breathtaking First-Person View.
Hold on — were you aware gamers have the option to enjoy Anno 117: Pax Romana in first-person? If that’s your reaction, you’re just as shocked as my own reaction the moment I learned this concealed mode. Allow me to temporarily abandon managing my empire, leave it in a reliable subordinate, commandere a carriage, and take a spin through Ancient Rome.
Unlocking the First-Person View
Being a city-building title, the game Anno 117 is typically played from a bird's-eye view. However, if you input a hidden code — such as “Ctrl,” “Shift,” and “R” using PC controls or else “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B/Circle, A/X” with a gamepad — you gain the ability to walk the empire as an ordinary Roman. Given a comparable hidden feature was part of the previous Anno title, I was eager to experience it in Ubisoft's newest game, yet I had doubts it would work prior to being submerged in a structural glitch (likely not meant to happen — this mode tends to be prone to glitches now and then).
Exploring the Streets of Rome
Upon freeing myself, I strolled the bustling streets of my city and toured markets, breweries, floral patches, and cockle pickers — it was glorious to see my diligent efforts through a fresh lens. I detected a variety of intricacies that would escape notice when viewing from overhead: Front door decorations, an ass transporting a floral pail, poultry scattering about, people relaxing on their verandas… Merely examining the form of a ledge and the paint layers on a column is quite interesting for those not residing in classical times.
Beyond Simple Strolling
Yet, the experience extends to the first-person feature in Anno 117 beyond simply walking the paths. I felt particularly pleased the moment I learned that besides being able to look upon agricultural plots, but also access them. And although I’d assumed the building models would be off-limits, 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 developers have the budget for that), however, you can definitely stroll around a barley farm, watch folks shoveling and carrying sacks, and look within any modest shelter when there's no doorway obstructing.
Visual Quality and Atmosphere
Although I was fully prepared to see my metropolis represented with outdated visual quality, besides some crude animations and periodic inhabitants sitting in a bench instead of on a bench, first-person mode looks much better than expected. The highly detailed textures (especially stone surfaces) really have no business being this good within a game that's fundamentally a city-builder. You may not see any individual strands of hair, yet you will notice engravings on walls, flames emitting from lights, brick decoloration, eye details, and evergreen foliage. The night, featuring dancing flames and stars shining in the distance, is especially atmospheric, and also a lot less scary versus the earlier title, now that the citizens don’t look like sleep paralysis demons anymore.
Testing and Personalization
Given the covert first-person feature lacks official documentation, I decided to experiment a bit, and quickly discovered the abilities to leap, run, and adjusting the view — the zoom function permitting me to alternate between immersive and external perspectives and return. I then experimented with certain numeric keys and discovered that I could change my representative's visual design. Golden robe? Crimson attire? Azure and violet outfit? Or — perhaps even better — full armor? You may carry a sword and shield, or, my favorite, don a marksman outfit; if you activate the engage command, you shoot flaming projectiles upward. If you're interested, eliminating citizens cannot be done (not that I attempted, naturally).
Humor and Citizen Interactions
But I wouldn’t wish to harm my citizens anyway, as they're remarkably entertaining. Shortly after I activated the first-person view, I listened to a dad instructing his kid that “Owning a fox is prohibited and if you feed it one more chicken, your grandmother will be furious.” Understandable stance, father character. A pleasant regional Celt then started applauding my excellent cross-cultural strategies by describing it as “Ideal combination,” whereas an irritable elderly woman decided to threaten me: “Utter those words again, and your fate will be sealed.”
The Joy of Joyriding
Just when I thought I’d discovered all there is to discover in Anno 117: Pax Romana’s first-person mode, I found the joys of joyriding through classical settlements. Completely unexpectedly, I selected a carriage and quickly occupied the transport. Cattle, asses, even manually drawn vehicles; you can control each one as desired. The donkey-powered transport, notably, travels rather rapidly, though you shouldn’t imagine Grand Theft Auto-style mischief — you can’t drive into people or other wagons (reiterating, without confirming testing).
Combat Limitations
The only thing that disappointed me regarding the first-person view was discovering my inability to participate in battle encounters. Equipped in warrior attire, I ran up to the enemy in the midst of battle and tried to harm them, yet was completely overlooked. The front-row seat was nonetheless magnificent, and observing foes flee, their arms flailing about, seemed enormously rewarding, though it might have been amazing to effectively strike targets via my incendiary bolts.
